Project People Assignments

In order for a Time or Expense user to charge actuals to a project, they will need to have permission to do so. There are three means by which a user can be granted this permission:

Performance Tip: Disabling this property may be advisable if your installation has extremely high numbers of projects and you rely heavily on Org Assignments to grant charging access to those projects.

Note about constraining time entry:
Time charging can be constrained by the assignment date range and the number of hours can be constrained by supplying a Budget (Hours/FTEs) value.

Users can still charge beyond assignment date range?
If you have created an explicit assignment, yet you have users that can still enter time or expenses beyond the assignment date, check the Self Assign setting on the Project Profile >> Access tab. When Self Assign is enabled, users can continue to charge to a project beyond an assignment end date. You might consider using the 'Enforce Project/Task Dates' option on the Project >> Budget tab if you need to constrain time and expense entry for Self Assign projects.

Note that only users having the Resource Assigner role and whom are authorized to operate on the current project or project organization have authority to create assignments. See Organization Access for additional information.

The People Assignments menu has a number of sub-menu options used to manage user assignment information for a particular project or task. The People Assignments menu is accessible via the Project Profile left menu.

Import Assignments

The assignment import feature provides the resource assigner with the ability to load a list of assignments into Unanet (for the current project). The file must be in the current Assignment Import csv layout. Supply the name of the file to be imported and click on the import button.

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

Warning and error messages are written to the screen. See the Assignment Import help page for more information about importing assignments.

Export (create csv output file containing all Project or Task level assignments)

Export Assignments

The Assignment export feature provides the Resource Assigner with the ability to save a csv formatted file containing information about Assignments on the current project (optionally filtering by user, person active status, or limiting to those entries intersecting the provided date range). The layout of this output file will match the current Assignment Import layout.

This feature may be useful if you would like to manipulate the assignments in mass via an excel spreadsheet for example, or possibly create a similar set of assignments for another project from this project's list of assignments. In these scenarios, the resource assigner could export the assignments, make any desired changes via a spreadsheet and then import the modified file using the Assignment Import feature (described above).

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

Person
Person Status
Date Range (include those entries intersecting the date range)

Permission Note: When run by a non-administrative user from the Project Profile, a users ability to export bill or cost related fields is governed by each users Cost Rate and Bill Rate Manager role.. Bill and Cost related fields will be empty if the user does not have the corresponding role.

Assignments Search/List

The Assignments >> Search / List screen is used to list existing assignments for this project (by task). Values in light grey text indicate default values (e.g. a person's default bill rate, person organization, etc.), with other (darker font) values reflecting entries explicitly entered by the resource assigner.

Clicking on the List tab will display a complete list of existing assignments. Using the various selection criteria on the Search tab, you can narrow down the resulting list.

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.

Add Assignments (bulk add/edit screen)

The add assignment () icon will display the bulk assignment screen. This screen can be used to add one to many users to a project. This screen can also be useful for affecting a mass update by un-assigning a group of users and then re-assigning them with the updated assignment attributes.

Add Assignments w/ Search

The add assignment w/ search () icon will allow the project manager to first narrow down the list of available users before proceeding to the bulk assignment screen. This feature is only available if you also have a People Planning module (Project Portfolio) license. The project manager can search for users based on availability or those having a particular skill set, or perhaps belonging to a particular organization.

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

Person
Person Status
Location
Task
Date Range
Budget In
Show Associated Actuals (to include Actuals and Variance in list)
Show Estimates To Completion (to include ETC and EDC in the list)

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

List - Icon Controls (add, update, copy, delete and delete all assignments)
Person
Begin Date
End Date
Link Dates
Labor Category
Bill Rate
Cost Rate
Project Org
Person Org
Cost Element
Location
Budget Hours
Actual Hours
Variance
Hours (ETC)
Date (EDC)

Add Assignments (bulk add/edit screen)

Add Assignments

To add new assignment entries, use the filter to populate the Available People list. Select one or many Available People, optionally one or many Tasks and click on the right arrow button. You can then fill in the details in the lower portion of the screen to identify other assignment attributes.

Remove Assignments

Similar to adding assignment entries, in order to remove entries, simply select the desired items in the Assignments for <Project> window and click on the left arrow button.

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

Available People
Task for <Project>
Assignments for <Project>
Assignment Dates
Budget Labor
Bill Rate
Cost Rate
Miscellaneous
Estimates to Completion
- Hours (ETC) (Estimate to Compete)
- Date (EDC) (Estimated Date of Completion)
E mail Notifications

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.

Add Assignments w/ Search

The add assignment w/ search () icon will allow the project assigners to first narrow down the list of available users before proceeding to the bulk assignment screen. This feature is only available if you also have a Project Portfolio license. The project assigner can search for users based on availability or those having a particular skill set, or perhaps belonging to a particular organization.

After supplying the desired selection criteria, click on the List tab to display the matching users.

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

Financial Org Restriction When the Use Financial Organizations (unanet.financials.use_financial_orgs) property is enabled, the list of available people will be limited to those user's having a Person Organizations with the same Legal Entity as that of the Project's Owning Organization (unless the user's Person Org is not a Financial Organization).

The resulting list of matching users will resemble the following.

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

List - Icon Controls (include one, several or all)
Person
Budget Hours
Actuals
Available Hours
Labor Category
Location

Choosing to add an individual user from this list () will present the Resource Assigner with a screen that will resemble the lower portion of the add assignment screen above (Assignment Overrides section and below).

Choosing to add multiple users at once () will present the Resource Assigner with a screen similar to the add assignment screen, without the ability to further filter the left (Available People) window.

Assign with Grid (maintain assignments in a periodic (e.g. month by month) matrix layout).

Assign with Grid

The Assign with Grid feature is available for customers that prefer to manage assignments on a periodic basis. In addition to entering hours in a convenient grid layout, this screen also has powerful editing capabilities which can be used to modify assignment details for one or many users. This screen is comprised of Search and Assign tabs.

See Forecast >> People Assigner for more information about assigning users via a grid like screen across multiple projects at once.

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.

Assign For -- Defines how the grid will be laid out (e.g. Tasks by People, People by Tasks, etc.), what each cell will represent in terms of weeks, months, etc., how many periods will be included, beginning with what date and whether the grid will reflect Hours or FTEs (full time equivalents).
People to Assign -- Defines which users will be included in the resulting output.
Grid Contents -- Determines additional display and filtering options.
Resource Utilization -- Provides for the ability to display user utilization by user defined color scheme (across projects), to enable the assigner to quickly see where users may have availability. To understand what a user is specifically assigned to in a period (on this and other projects), you can view the same user in a Resource Allocation report (perhaps in another browser tab).

Save Criteria

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

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

Assign For
People to Assign
- Person
- Labor Category (Person's Default)
- Location (Person's Default)
- Skills
Grid Contents
Resource Utilization

Assign Tab

The resulting grid 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 Jan-05 entry will be saved as 1/1/05 --> 1/31/05). 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 person's name, a column header or the upper left "Person" label (to edit the entire grid).

See the Edit Assignment Details section below for additional information about editing additional assignment details.

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

Edit Assignment Details

The grid allows for easy entry of hours values, but can also be used to update other assignment attributes. The editing of these details can be accomplished by double clicking on a:

Single Cell (supply details for an individual cell in the grid)

Entire Row (supply details for all displayed cells for a particular person)

Entire Column (supply details for all displayed cells for a particular period)

All Cells (supply details for all displayed cells in the grid)

When adding additional hours to empty grid cells, the assignment details supplied will be copied from the next populated grid cell to the left of the current cell (unless explicitly overridden by one of the Edit Assignment Details methods 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.

Edit Individual Assignment

The edit individual assignment () icon will provide a screen for the resource assigner to edit assignment attributes for a single assignment. This screen will resemble the lower portion of the bulk assignment add screen.

Change Person

Note that the Change Person link allows for the update of an existing assignment to replace the existing user on this assignment. When making such a change, those values defaulted on the screen will be updated to reflect the default values for the new replacement user.

Financial Org Restriction When the Use Financial Organizations (unanet.financials.use_financial_orgs) property is enabled, the list of available people to swap will be limited to those user's having a Person Organizations with the same Legal Entity as that of the Project's Owning Organization (unless the user's Person Org is not a Financial Organization).

Display of Default Values

Keep in mind the default values may reflect date sensitive values (based on the currently displayed Begin Date of the assignment) and thus are to be consider estimations. The derived values used when recording actuals will depend on the then current settings and work date. Further, note that changing the Assignment Dates will not trigger the screen to refresh displayed default values based on that new date.

For a description of all fields, see the Add Assignment help section.

Update ETC/EDC

In order to update the fields in the Estimate to Completion section, you must first check the Update ETC/EDC check box. When you do check this box, regardless of whether or not you provide an updated value in either of the Hours (ETC) or Date (EDC) fields, the Last Updated On date will be updated upon save to indicate the ETC information has been modified as of the current date. In this way, it is possible for you to indicate an existing set of ETC or EDC information is still accurate even though no change has occurred (while indicating you have reconsidered the estimates as of a certain date). The Last Updated On field will always be stamped with the current system date/time when the record is saved, and only applies to the Estimates to Completion information (not the general assignment record). See ETC Wizard for more information about managing ETCs.

Note: When you modify or remove an assignment, any non-LOCKED and non-EXTRACTED timesheets are immediately updated with the modified assignment attributes (or person's default attributes in the case of an assignment removal) via re-rating. For example, if you modify a user's bill rate, once you hit save, any timesheets for this user that are not yet LOCKED or EXTRACTED will have the bill rate updated immediately. In particular, if you remove an assignment, all non-LOCKED/non-EXTRACTED time governed by that assignment, will be updated to reflect the user's default person rate information.

This note does not apply to Historical Time Entries as they do not participate in any re-rating activities.