Managing Allocations in Resourcing

Overview

There are two types of hours that are used in Resourcing areas: allocated hours and scheduled hours. Allocated hours—also referred to as allocations—are the high-level plan for the amount of time a resource is planned to work on a specific project.

Allocations serve as a guide for more detailed scheduling and are defined at the project level, rather than for individual tasks. It's important to understand that allocated hours are a precursor to scheduled hours, which are the committed hours a resource will spend on specific tasks.

Note: For information on scheduled hours or other hour types used in Kantata OX, see Hour Types in Kantata OX.

You can streamline the planning process by quickly creating allocations based on resource estimated hours or scheduled hours. For example, generating soft allocations from the resource estimated hours during a project's Estimate stage allows for a seamless transition from initial planning to detailed resource management.

Allocations are represented in number format on the list side of Resourcing areas and as a colored bar in the timeline on the right side or Resourcing areas.

Within the timeline, each colored bar is a visual representation of how your resources are allocated over a selected period of time, showing both the total number of hours for the allocation, as well the percentage of their workweek capacity dedicated to this allocation.

When you allocate hours for a resource you can make these assignments based on the percentage of their available capacity or the total number of hours you want to assign:

There are two types of allocations:

• Hard Allocation—A solid bar in the timeline that represents a hard allocation; this means that a team member has been “confirmed” or “booked” to work on the project within a specific date range.
• Soft Allocation—A striped bar in the timeline that represents a soft allocation; this means that a team member or unnamed resource is tentatively planned to work on the project within a specific date range. You can only add soft allocations for unnamed resources because they are not a confirmed team member.

The distinction between these two types helps in forecasting and planning, allowing you to see which hours are confirmed compared to the hours that are still being finalized.

An overallocation occurs when a team member's soft or hard allocations have exceeded their capacity for any period of time across all the member's projects. A team member's capacity is determined by their Custom Default Workweek and any scheduled time off or holidays. When overallocated, allocation bars in the resource row change to a pink color.

Managing Individual Allocations

With the proper permissions and access, you can create or modify allocation assignments individually on the timeline.

How to Add an Allocation to a Resource

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata:

   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the resource you want to add allocations to, then click the drop-down arrow to expand the top-level row.
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
3. Expand the secondary row to locate either the project row or the resource row where you will be adding the allocated hours.
   
4. On the timeline to the right of the resource, select the day that you want the allocation to begin. Alternatively, you can also click and drag through several days.
   Note: For information on creating multiple allocations based on scheduled hours, see Create Allocations from Scheduled Hours.
5. When the Add Allocation modal appears, you can manually set the starting and ending dates, allocation by Percentage (or Hours), and designate whether or not the allocation is Soft or Hard.
   
6. If needed, enter any relevant Notes about the allocation.
7. Click Save to apply your changes.

How to Split an Allocation

There are times you may want to split an allocation for a single resource in order to separate the available time for a project into two separate allocations. For instance, you may need a designer to devote 80 hours of their available hours during the first week of a project and 20 hours of their available hours during the second week. To do this, right-click on the allocation on the day you want the time to split, and then select Split Allocation. The allocation splits, and a new allocation is created.

When you split an allocation, both the old and new allocation will contain the same percentage, but the hours may vary depending on where you split the allocation on the timeline.

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata OX:
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2.  
3. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project or resource you want to edit an allocation for, then expand the top-level row.
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
   
4. In the expanded project or resource row, locate the allocation you want to edit and right-click on it.
   
5. In the menu that appears, select Split Allocation. The allocation splits, and a new allocation is created.
   

How to Edit an Allocation

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata OX:
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project or resource you want to edit an allocation for, then expand the top-level row.
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
3. In the expanded project or resource row, locate the allocation you want to edit and click on it.
   
4. When the Edit Allocation modal appears, you can edit the starting and ending dates, update the allocation by percentage (or hours), designate whether or not the allocation is Soft or Hard, and modify any existing Notes.
   
5. Click Save to apply your changes.

How to Change an Allocation to Soft or Hard

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata OX:
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
   
3. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project or resource you want to update allocations for, then expand the top-level row.
4. In the expanded resource or project row, locate the allocation you want to change and click it.
   
5. When the Edit Allocation modal appears, use the Soft or Hard buttons to indicate the Allocation Type.
   
   Note: The Allocation Type can only be set for named resources.
   
   
6. Click Save to apply your changes.

How to Delete an Allocation

You can delete allocations individually as needed. For information on clearing all of a resource's allocations on a project or only allocations within specific date ranges, see Clear Allocations in Bulk for a Resource.

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata OX:
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project or resource you want to delete an allocation for, then expand the top-level row.
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
3. In the expanded project or resource row, locate the allocation you want to delete on the timeline and right-click on it.
   
4. In the menu that appears, select Delete Allocation. A message will appear, indicating that the allocation has been successfully deleted.
   

Managing Allocations in Bulk

Using the More (“   ”) menu in the actions column, you can create and modify a resource’s allocations on a project in bulk if you have the proper permission. Depending on your selections, you can clear or modify all allocated hours or just hours that fall within a specific timeframe.

How to Create Allocations from Scheduled Hours

You can use scheduled hours that have already been created for a resource to quickly create allocations.

These allocations are created based on the weekly scheduled hours for a resource. If consecutive weeks contain an equal number of hours, they will be combined into a multi-week allocation.

For example, if one week has 20 hours scheduled and the next week has 30 hours—as shown in Example A below—then they are created as individual weekly allocations. However, if one week has 40 hours scheduled for one week and 40 hours scheduled for the next week—as shown in Example B below—then a single, multi-week allocation of 80 hours is created.

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata:
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project or resource you want to create allocations for, then expand the top-level row.
   
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
   
3. In the expanded resource or project row, click the More (“   ”) icon and select Create Allocations.
   
4. In the Create Allocations modal that appears, select the timeframe of scheduled hours that you want to create your allocations for:
   
   • Anytime—Selected by default, this option takes all of a resource's scheduled hours and distributes them as allocations.
   • After—This option takes only the resource’s scheduled hours that occur on or after the date selected and distributes them as allocations.
   • Before—This option takes only the resource’s scheduled hours that occur on or before the date selected and distributes them as allocations.
   • Between—This option takes only the resource’s scheduled hours that occur between the two dates selected and distributes them as allocations. Any scheduled hours on the selected dates are also included.
5. If you selected an option that requires a date, select a date—or date range—to indicate which scheduled hours you want to create allocations for.
   
6. Indicate under Allocation Type if you want to create Soft or Hard allocations.
7. Select Create Allocations. The allocations appear on the Resource Center timeline for the resource.

How to Change the Allocation Type in Bulk

In the Resource Center and a project's Resourcing tab, you can change all of a team member’s allocations on a project to soft or hard allocations. If you want to limit these changes to specific time frames, you can choose to change only allocations before a specific date, after a specific date or between two dates.

For information on changing the allocation type of a single allocation, see How to Change an Allocation to Soft or Hard.

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata:
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project or resource you want to change  allocations types for, then expand the top-level row.
   
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
   
3. In the expanded resource or project row, click the More (“   ”) icon and select Change Allocation Type.
   
   
   • Anytime (default)—This option changes all of a resource's allocations on this project to the selected allocation type.
   • After—This option changes only the resource’s allocations on this project that have start dates that occur on or after the date selected.
   • Before—This option changes only the resource’s allocations on this project that have end dates that occur on or before the date selected.
   • Between—This option changes only the resource’s allocations on this project that have start and end dates that occur between the two dates selected, including allocations that start on the first date or end on the last date in the date range.
4. If you selected an option that requires a date, select a date—or date range—to indicate which allocations you want to include.
   
5. Choose if you want these to be Soft or Hard allocations.
6. Select Change Allocations. All allocations within the selected timeframe are updated to the allocation type that you selected.

How to Shift Dates for All Project Allocations

If you have an upcoming project that needs to be pushed back a few weeks due to unforeseen circumstances, Kantata makes it simple to individually shift all allocations for a single resource or shift all allocations for the entire project.

Shifting does not extend or shorten an allocation. When shifting multiple allocations, the number of working days for each allocation—and the number of days between each allocation—remains intact.

For example, in the screenshot above, if you shift a resource allocation that has five working days one week and three working days the next with two unallocated days in between, the number of working days (5 and 3) and days in between (2) will be retained—regardless if the shift causes an allocation to stretch over a weekend, holiday, or time off (i.e., non-working days).

This behavior is similar to how Resourcing areas of Kantata account for weekends and holidays when dragging a single allocation to a new position on the timeline.

Note: Kantata OX does not currently support dependencies between different resource allocations.

1. Navigate to one of the following Resourcing areas:
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
     
2. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project you want to shift allocations for, then click on the project summary bar in the timeline.
   
   The Shift All Project Allocations modal appears, displaying the earliest allocation start date for the resource. For example, although the current month might be January, the original allocation for this resource may have been established last November.
3. Use the Shift To calendar picker (“   ”) to specify a new allocation start date. Doing so will show you how many weeks and/or days that you will shift every resource on the project.
   
4. When you are finished, click Save to shift all your resource allocations. Otherwise, click Cancel.

How to Shift Dates for All of a Single Resource's Allocations

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata OX:
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project or resource you want to shift allocations for, then expand the top-level row.
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
   
3. In the expanded resource or project row, click the More (“   ”) icon and select Shift All Allocations.
   
   The Shift All Project Allocations modal appears, displaying the earliest allocation start date for the resource. For example, although the current month might be January, the original allocation for this resource may have been established last November.
4. Next, use the Shift To calendar picker (“   ”) to specify a new allocation start date. Doing so will show you how many weeks and/or days that you will shift the allocation. You may also shift an allocation backwards, which can be handy if you need to start earlier than expected.
   
5. When you are finished, click Save to shift all your resource allocations. Otherwise, click Cancel.

How to Reassign Allocations to Another Resource

Reassigning allocations allows you to quickly adapt as resource assignments and project needs shift. You can reassign allocations from both tabs of the Resource Center or from a project’s Resourcing tab.
To reassign allocations from a specific Resourcing area, you will need the following Project Permissions and/or Access Group permissions:

For information on reassigning scheduled hours, see Managing Scheduled Hours.

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata:
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project or resource you want to reassign allocations for, then expand the top-level row.
   
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
   
3. In the expanded resource or project row, click the More (“   ”) icon and select Reassign Allocations.
   
   Note: In order to reassign allocations, you must have Access Groups permissions to edit allocations for named and/or unnamed resources. If you are reassigning hours from a project’s Resourcing tab, you must also have Schedule Hours for Team Project Permissions.
4. In the Reassign Allocations modal, choose if the hours you want to reassign occur After, Before, or Between specific dates, and then enter the date or date range.
   
5. If you only want to reassign some of the allocated hours during the selected time frame, adjust the Amount to Reassign percentage.
   
6. Choose whether the hours will be reassigned to a Named or Unnamed resource, and then select the specific role or user from the drop-down menu.
   
   
   Note: Specific named and unnamed resources only appear in the drop-down menu based on your Project Permissions and Access Group permissions. For example—depending on which Resourcing area you are reassigning hours from—without Project Permissions to invite people to projects or Access Groups permissions to edit named resources, you will only see people that are already participating in the project. The order that named resources appear may also be affected by Resource Recommendations.
7. To copy custom field values, skills, and Organizations information from the previous assignee and transfer these attributes to the new assignee, select the Copy Resource Attributes checkbox.
   
   Note: This checkbox will not appear until you select a new assignee. Depending on your account settings, it may only appear for people who are being added to the project when being reassigned. Any resources with conflicting allocations will have a duplicate resource created with the same attributes as the previous assignee.
8. When finished, click Reassign. The hours within the specified timeframe are moved from the previous assignee to the new assignee.

How to Clear Allocations in Bulk for a Single Resource on a Project

Instead of just deleting one allocation at a time for a resource, you can delete all of their allocations on a project at once. You can even choose whether to remove all of their allocations before or after a specific date or between two specific dates. For example, someone assigned to work on a project for two months may have planned time off for a week and you can remove their allocated hours for just the 5 days they will be gone.

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata:
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project or resource you want to clear allocations for, then expand the top-level row.
   
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
   
3. In the expanded resource or project row, click the More (“   ”) icon and select Clear Allocations.
   

4. In the Clear Allocations modal that appears, select the timeframe of allocated hours that you want to remove from the resource:

   • Anytime—Selected by default, this option removes all of the resource’s allocated hours on the project.
   • After—This option removes only the resource’s allocated hours on the project that occur on or after the date selected.
   • Before—This option removes only the resource’s allocated hours on the project that occur on or before the date selected.
   • Between—This option removes only the resource’s allocated hours on the project that occur between the two dates selected, including any allocated hours on the selected dates.
5. If you selected an option that requires a date, select a date—or date range—to indicate which allocated hours you want to remove.
   
   The resource’s allocations within the specific timeframe are removed.