People Assigner

The People Assigner is available for customers that prefer to manage assignment entries for multiple projects and multiple users on a single screen (possibly for multiple periods). In addition to entering hours in the convenient matrix layout, this screen also has powerful editing capabilities which can be used to modify assignment details for one or many users or projects. This screen is comprised of a Search and Assign tab and is available to users with Administrator and Resource Assigner roles.

This screen can be used to view existing assignment entries as well as add new entries.

Search Tab

Using the various sections on the Search tab, the Resource Assigner can control who will be included and how the grid will be laid out.

After supplying the desired selection criteria, click on the Assign tab to display the resulting matrix screen.

Save Criteria

Selection criteria for specific lists can be saved by clicking the (

) link after criteria has been entered. This criteria can be later recalled on this screen by selecting a previously saved criteria from the Saved List drop down. Individual saved criteria list can be managed via the Reports >> Saved screen in the My Lists section.

You will need to specify selection criteria in either the "Projects to Assign", "People to Assign" or both filters (in order to prevent someone from inadvertently creating a grid that included all people and all projects).

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information)

Which users and projects appear in the resulting matrix (on the Assign tab) depends on the selection criteria defined on this Search tab. In an attempt to prevent a user from creating a matrix that included all users and all projects, you must provide selection criteria for either or both the Project / Person filters.

Specifying the following combination of Projects and People will yield the following results:

Assign Tab

The resulting matrix will resemble the following. The cells in the grid will reflect the number of existing assignment hours for a particular time period (e.g. month). Additionally, the Resource Assigner can quickly add or change hours via these cells.

When saved, these cell values will be translated into individual assignment entries having a date range from the beginning of the period to the end of the period (e.g. a monthly June 2005 entry will be saved as 6/1/05 --> 6/30/05). These entries can be viewed and edited via the other assignment screens such as the People Assignment >> List .

Additional Assignment details for each cell can be manipulated via the grid by double clicking on a cell, a project/task name, a person's name, or the Project / Person label (to edit entries for the entire grid).

See the Edit Plan Details section below for additional information about editing additional planned work details.

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information)

The matrix allows for easy entry of hours values, but can also be used to update other assignment details. The editing of these details can be accomplished for a:

Double clicking on an individual cell will present the Resource Assigner with a popup screen where details for that specific entry can be modified.

Changing the value in the Person drop down field, will move the entry from the current user to the newly selected user. Note that you can only move an individual grid cell entry to a destination cell that is empty (you cannot merge or append data from one cell to another cell, thus the drop down listing will only include those users having an empty grid cell for the same period). Further, only those users currently displayed in the grid will be considered for inclusion in the Person drop down list.

This popup will resemble the following:

Field Descriptions

Person (only available when using an Assign View of Projects for Many People)
Assignment Dates
- Begin Date
- End Date
Budget Labor
Miscellaneous
Bill Rate
Cost Rate
Estimates to Completion

Note that a users ability to view bill or cost rates is governed by each users Cost Rate Manager and Bill Rate Manager role assignments. Further, the Allow Bill Rate Edit (unasource.allow_bill_rate_edit) and Allow Cost Rate Edit (unasource.allow_cost_rate_edit) properties can be used to control whether these fields are view only or editable.

Double clicking on a specific user's name will present the Resource Assigner with a popup screen where details for all displayed assignment entries (for that person) can be modified.

When viewing this version of the edit details screen, no existing values are displayed since there may be different values for each period. Any entries specified will replace that data value for that field for all cells in the current grid (for that person).

Note that the Budget Labor, Bill and Cost Rate, and Estimates to Completion fields require an Enable option. In this way, you can choose to either leave the values as is across all cells in the grid (for that person), enter a new value for all cells, or blank out a value for all cells (by supplying no value while having selected the Enable... checkbox for that field). Leaving these fields unchanged without checking the Enable... option will result in the existing values being preserved for each cell.

Changing the value in the Person drop down field, will move all entries on the current grid row from the current user to the newly selected user. Note that you can only move a row of grid cells to a destination row that is empty (you cannot merge or append data from one cell to another cell, thus the drop down listing will only include those users having a completely empty grid row for the displayed periods). Further, only those users currently displayed in the grid will be considered for inclusion in the Person drop down list.

This popup will resemble the following:

Field Descriptions

Person (only available when using an Assign View of Projects for Many People)
Assignment Dates
- Begin Date
- End Date
Budget Labor
Miscellaneous
Bill Rate
Cost Rate
Estimates to Completion
- Hours (ETC) (Estimate to Compete)
- Date (EDC) (Estimated Date of Completion)

NNote that a users ability to view bill or cost rates is governed by each users Cost Rate Manager and Bill Rate Manager role assignments. Further, the Allow Bill Rate Edit (unasource.allow_bill_rate_edit) and Allow Cost Rate Edit (unasource.allow_cost_rate_edit) properties can be used to control whether these fields are view only or editable.

Double clicking on a specific period column header will present the Resource Assigner with a popup screen where details for all displayed assignment entries (for that period) can be modified.

Note that the Budget Labor and Estimates to Completion fields require an Enable option. In this way, you can choose to either leave the values as is across all cells in the grid (for that person), enter a new value for all cells, or blank out a value for all cells (by supplying no value while having selected the Enable... checkbox for that field). Leaving these fields unchanged without checking the Enable... option will result in the existing values being preserved for each cell.

This popup will resemble the following:

Field Descriptions

Assignment Dates
- Begin Date
- End Date
Budget Labor
Miscellaneous
- Cost Element
- Project Org
- Person Org
- Estimates to Completion
- Hours (ETC) (Estimate to Compete)
- Date (EDC) (Estimated Date of Completion)

Note: The Bill Rate, Cost Rate, Labor Category and Location fields are not editable via this popup view. The resulting edit may impact multiple projects where certain projects may require and others may prohibit the use of labor category, therefore, the control is disabled entirely in this view.

Note that a users ability to view bill or cost rates is governed by each users Cost Rate Manager and Bill Rate Manager role assignments.

Double clicking on the Person header in the upper left will present the Resource Assigner with a popup screen where details for all displayed assignment entries in the grid can be modified (that is, all people for all period displayed).

Note that the Budget Labor, and Estimates to Completion fields require an Enable option. In this way, you can choose to either leave the values as is across all cells in the grid (for that person), enter a new value for all cells, or blank out a value for all cells (by supplying no value while having selected the Enable checkbox for that field). Leaving these fields unchanged without checking the Enable option will result in the existing values being preserved for each cell.

This popup will resemble the following.

Field Descriptions

Assignment Dates
- Begin Date
- End Date
Budget Labor
Miscellaneous
- Cost Element
- Project Org
- Person Org
- Estimates to Completion
- Hours (ETC) (Estimate to Compete)
- Date (EDC) (Estimated Date of Completion)

When adding additional hours to empty matrix cells, the plan details supplied will be copied from the next populated matrix cell to the left of the current cell (unless explicitly overridden by one of the Edit Plan Details vehicles described above during the same edit session) .

Shifting Cell Contents Right and Left

This functionality provides for the ability to move the contents of a row of cells X number of cells to the right or left. When moving a populated cell, the values in the cell, as well as any override values associated with the cell (applicable to People Plans & Assignments only), will be moved. This feature may be helpful, for example, if you need to delay a project for one or several months and would like to shift existing entries without having to re-key them in.

The controls involved in this functionality include the leading check box on each row, the Shift Left and Shift Right buttons, as well as the Number of Periods entry field. Note that you can check the check box at the very top of the grid which acts as a toggle to check / uncheck all available check boxes in the grid.

To move cell contents:

First search for the desired items to shift, making sure you have a date range that includes all of the entries you choose to move.
Check the check boxes on those rows you would like shifted.
Specify the desired number of cells you would like to shift.
Click the Shift Left or Shift Right buttons to move the cell contents.
Click the Save button to save your changes.

Restrictions/Considerations:

You must operate on an entire row of cells, that is, you cannot specifically move one cell's contents while leaving another in place (on the same visible grid on the same row), thus the check box is at the far left beginning of each row.
When attempting to shift the contents in the visible grid will result in any value moving off the grid (to the left or right), the move will be prevented. Should you need to move item further to the left or right, return to the Search tab and extend the visible grid area.
Greyed out Cells -- Note that you cannot move any values on any rows having grayed out entries (ie the check boxes will be disabled). Details for these rows will need to be manually modified via the individual entry edit screen.
The Shift Left and Shift Right buttons will only become active once any check box has been selected.
If moving hours, hours are moved. If moving FTEs, then FTE values are moved. Do note that moving an FTE from one month to the next can result in a different number of hours being saved for that entry. For example, one FTE for the month of February, shifted to March will resolve to more hours in March.
When using the Leaf Level Only option, only leaf level tasks will have check boxes enabled.
This feature is not available when viewing Period of Performance grids.
Moved cells are not saved until you have clicked the Save button.

Grayed Out Entries

Cells that have a grayed out hours value are not editable. Values appearing in the gray font indicate that the underlying date range for the entries do not align with a particular time period (e.g. in the case of monthly -- they would not fall on the 1st and last day of the month, for example, 3/1/05 --> 5/30/05). In these cases, the hours for the underlying entries are evenly distributed across the monthly cells in an attempt to provide the resource planner/assigner with an idea of the number of total hours for those periods, however, these entries cannot be modified via the grid screen (you'll need to use one of the other planning/assigning maintenance screens).

Likewise, multi-cell bulk edit mechanisms will no longer be available for any rows or columns that contain a grayed out entry including the entire grid (i.e. Name) bulk edit mechanism.
When using the grid for assignments, you may also encounter grayed out cells that have no value at all. These reflect existing assignment entries that were created with no hours budget defined. You cannot create assignments having no hours budget defined via the grid mechanism, however, if an existing entry that was created via another mechanism is pulled up in the grid it will display as a grayed out cell.
If using the Plan Set feature (enabled via the Enable Multiple Plan Sets (unanet.plan_sets.enabled) property), and the plans you are viewing on the grid belong to a locked plan set, all cells on the grid will be grayed out (as you cannot modify plans belonging to a locked plan set).
When using the Resource Utilization feature (ie colorizing the output), the muted versions of red, yellow and green will represent the grayed out cell concept.

Forecast - People Assigner

Search Tab

Save Criteria

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information)

Assign Tab

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information)

Field Descriptions

Field Descriptions

Field Descriptions

Field Descriptions

Shifting Cell Contents Right and Left

Grayed Out Entries