Resource capacity is one of the key aspects required in order for the resource planning functionality in PPO to work. It is also required in order to calculate and show missing time if you are using the PPO time entry functionality.
But how exactly does PPO calculate resource capacity? The answer is that it is calculated per day and per resource and to do that, PPO uses the following information:
Standard hours on the system configuration
Under the Administration menu click on System Configuration. In the "Planning Settings" section there is a "Standard Hours" setting. This is the number of hours per working day per resource that will be used by default when calculating capacity unless overridden as discussed below.
Standard Hours on the Resource
If you edit a resource record, you will see a field called "Standard Hours" (see the screenshot below). Here you can enter the standard hours that the resource works on a weekday. If the resource works the same standard hours as the whole company, this can be left as the default of 0 since PPO will then use the standard hours as defined in System Configuration (as explained above).
Include in Capacity flag on the Resource
The next important field is "Include in Capacity" under the Planning Information section (see screenshot below). If this checkbox is ticked, the capacity for the resource will be calculated and included in reports. If the box is not checked, for example in the case of admin support staff, their capacity will be calculated as zero hours per day and they will not appear on resource planning reports.
Public holidays and weekends
The final aspects that impact the calculation are public holidays and weekends. For public holidays and weekends, PPO will assume that a resource's capacity is 0 for that day.
Other considerations
The settings described above are sufficient for PPO to calculate capacity in most scenarios. You may however want to further customise how capacity is calculated based on particular requirements.
Some examples of this include:
- You want to take into account a resource's employment start date and/or termination date (i.e. they should not have capacity before they started working or after they left). This could be important if you are doing historical reporting on resource planning or if you have a high staff turnover rate (e.g. you are using contractors extensively).
- You have different default standard hours per department or area.
- You have odd-day working hours, e.g. normal working hours is 8 hours but on Fridays, the standard hours are 7 hours.
If you have specific requirements like those described above, log a ticket with our support desk and they will be glad to assist.