Work Schedule Add-On Overview

Overview of how to update the default work schedule for the system, create new work schedules, add alternative work schedules which start and stop on specific dates. Overview of how to configure resources on a project to use their personal work schedule for a project plan.

Transcript:

In this video, I'm going to go over the work schedule add-on. To access work schedules, go to your add-ons and install the work schedule add-on. In this demo site, I already have the work schedule add-on, so I'm just going to navigate to the bottom here where it says "Work Schedules" and click "Configure." From here, you can enter different work schedules. To check the default work schedule, simply click on "Workspace Default." Here, you can enter your holidays. For example, if you're going to be off on January 1, you would click that, and if you're going to be off on December 25, and perhaps for Thanksgiving, this is where you would enter those holidays.

Additionally, you can specify non-working days. When you’re done, you can click "Recalculate Schedules" if you wish. You even have the option to send an email to the project managers if their schedule was changed; they would receive a notification. However, typically, you would just hit "Recalculate." This sends off a job to recalculate everything in the system based on the new default work schedule.

To change the default work times and work days, simply click on "Default Work Days" here. You can then change which days you will be working and adjust the work times. Make sure that your work days add up, and be cautious to ensure that your default workday length is consistent across the system. It’s important to use careful consideration before changing the work schedule because Project Insight calculates everything across the system consistently. You want to use a work schedule that works for everyone.

There’s also a newer feature in the work schedules area called alternative work schedules. This is where you can enter a different work schedule that will start and end on a specific date or just start on a different date. For example, this could be a summer schedule where you'll take some days off during the summer, or you may go from a four-day week to a five-day week and then back to a four-day week. This is how you can manage future changes with an alternative schedule.

This feature also applies to individuals; each person can have their own work schedule as well. To do this, you can enter new work schedules here and assign a different schedule to a user. However, you need to enable this feature to allow a user to have their own personal work schedule. Similarly, you can assign a different work schedule to a specific task. This is considered an advanced feature; it might be used for a piece of equipment that has a base schedule.

To enable this, you must allow a task to have its own work schedule. Once you have established these alternative work schedules, they can inherit from the workspace default. Note that the different days I entered already show up in addition to some new ones. Another work schedule can have entirely different days and work times. If you want to change individuals in your system to use different work schedules, navigate to their admin section and click "Full Edit" under resource info. Here, you can select what their inherited work schedule is, whether it is a new schedule or the default, which is typically the workspace default.

Once you save that information, you can look at the specific work schedule for this individual. These work schedules are also connected to the PTO, so users can take their own days off as well. This is all interwoven together, and these work schedules are how capacity is calculated for an individual, so it's important to plan accordingly before delving into a lot of detail with this feature.

When you're on a project, you can allow a user to use their own personal default work schedule by simply selecting "Personal Default" over the project work schedule. This allows tasks to be calculated considering the individual's personal schedule. For instance, if they are off on a particular day and you assign a task to Craig, the system will automatically accommodate that by skipping over the day he is not available.

This is a particularly useful feature for individuals with high capacity needs who work under various schedules across the system. It ensures the schedule automatically works around their personal defaults. Once again, be sure to access the add-ons, as the work schedule add-on is available there.