Calendars Used in Project and Resource Scheduling

When you schedule projects and resource assignments, there are a variety of system calendars used. The following information outlines how these calendars are used.

Scheduling Calendar

A single scheduling calendar, which includes a combination of scheduling periods and scheduling dates, is defined for the system. This calendar is used to build the time phased grids that are available in Resource Plan, on the Project - Resources tab, and for the Gantt view of the Project - Tasks tab.

As assignments are made by week or by month, they are distributed to the associated dates based on the Scheduling Calendar and the Project Work Calendar.

Project Work Calendar

For each project, you can assign a work calendar. The work calendar defines the regular working and non-working days for the project. For each calendar, you can also define work calendar exceptions, which are days like local holidays, to the standard calendar. The work calendar limits the Start Date and Finish Date of tasks to working days. For more information, see Work Calendar and Work Calendar Exceptions. If a calendar is not assigned, all days are considered working days.

As resource assignments are scheduled by week or by month (as defined for the scheduling calendar), the assignments are broken down and distributed among the working days for the week (scheduling date) or month (scheduling period).

Employee Work Calendar

For each Employee, you can assign a work calendar. The work calendar defines the regular working and non-working days and the typical number of hours that the employee works. For each calendar, you can also define work calendar exceptions, which are days like local holidays, to the standard calendar. For more information, see Work Calendar and Work Calendar Exceptions.

The employee's work calendar information determines the employee's general availability and is used to highlight when the employee is over allocated or underutilized.

The following are common terms used to describe an employee's schedule and are based on the employee's current work calendar and will not look at any previous work calendar or a previous state of the existing work calendar:

• Scheduled Hours: This is a total of all of the employee's assignments for the time period. This includes the working values on the current plan or project and assignments for all other remaining projects that are in a Final state.
• Employee Availability: This is the number of hours that the employee can be scheduled for work during a selected time period. This value is calculated based on the employee's assigned work calendar and allows for any work calendar exceptions.
• Over Allocation: An employee is over allocated when their Scheduled Hours exceed their Employee Availability for a selected time period. Despite what is displayed on screen, allocation is calculated based on data for all assignments in the system for the employee in the date range. It is calculated when the screen is loaded and when assignments are added, edited, or deleted. Allocation is based on the employee's current work calendar.
• Underutilization: An employee is underutilized when their scheduled chargeable hours are less than their goal for chargeable work. The employee's base goal is defined as the Utilization Goal Percent in their Employee record. However, the utilization calculation uses an adjusted utilization capacity, which reduces the employee's capacity based on assignments to certain non-chargeable tasks. The excluded tasks are defined in the Fee Type and Fee Type Map for the task.