Overview

You can use Resource Planning starting with ZEP Compact. You do not strictly require the Absences & Overtime module; however, it would be a useful addition, as only with that module can the times an employee is unavailable due to vacation, illness, etc., be taken into account.

Definitions

Standard Scheduling

When assigning an employee to a project, you specify a "Standard Scheduling" as a percentage of the employee's regular working hours.

Specific Scheduling

A day-specific specification of scheduling, either as a percentage of regular working hours or in hours. Please note: this specific scheduling does not correspond with the standard scheduling; if the specific scheduling for a project during a certain period differs from the standard scheduling, the standard scheduling remains unchanged.

Work Packages

Used to assign a scope of work (planned effort) to an employee within a specific period. The employee is expected to work on the planned object (customer, project, task, ticket if applicable, subtask) within this period to the extent specified. The work package uses colors and pop-ups to show whether the employee can perform the planned effort within their availability and how much of their time they must dedicate to the work package to complete it.

In the final step, you review the utilization of the employees and make corrections if necessary.

Colours of work packages

Work packages are color-coded based on their status. The colors mean:

Grey: The work package is finished; remaining effort = 0.
Green: The work package is in progress; everything is on track.
Green: The work package is already finished (Planned = Actual), but has not yet been set to "finished."
Yellow: The employee will not finish within the remaining available working time.
Yellow: The entered remaining effort + currently booked times exceed the planned effort. (Action: Correct the plan...)
Red: The current actual effort exceeds the planned effort.
Red: The work package has expired but has not yet been set to "finished."

In the following step, you review the utilization of the employees and make corrections if necessary.

Administration

Path: Administration > resource planning > settings

Displaying total workload under "My ZEP"

If you select "Yes" here, each employee will see a graphical representation of their total workload under Work Packages, located below the list of their assigned work packages.

Employee can carry out own scheduling

If you select "Yes" here, every employee will have an Edit Scheduling button under Reports > My Reports > Scheduling. At this point, they can independently schedule themselves for their own projects. This scheduling is displayed in their calendar and can be converted directly into a time booking.

Employee is allowed to see their own standard scheduling in the project assignments

If you select "Yes" here, an employee can see the percentage to which they are assigned to a respective project by default under Reports > Projects > Assignments.

Scheduling including on non-working hours

Set whether the scheduling of employees for a project should also occur on non-working days. If you activate this option, you can perform specific scheduling for employees even on days that are not defined as working days according to the employee's regular working hours.

controller can do scheduling

You can specify whether a controller is also permitted to carry out the scheduling of employees. If you wish to enable this, activate the checkbox Controller may schedule.

Introduction

If you want to integrate resource planning into your ZEP for the first time, you should consider a few points:

The goal of resource planning in ZEP is to achieve the most optimal scheduling and utilization of employees.

Step 1

In the first step, project employees must be assigned to the project with a specific availability, known as the Standard Scheduling. By default, all project employees are assigned to a project at 100% each. If an employee works on only one project, this 100% assignment is correct. However, employees are usually assigned to multiple projects; with a standard scheduling of 100% for each, this naturally results in "nonsensical" employee availabilities. Therefore, the actual workload of the employees per project should be determined, and the standard scheduling should be defined accordingly.

Using the Employee-Time-Matrix report (Reports > Employee > Times & Costs > Employee-Time-Matrix), you can find out how the employees' time was distributed percentagewise across projects (e.g., in the last month). In this report, select "Show project time in percent."

When indicating project time as a percentage, the percentage share of each employee's actual working time for the respective project is displayed.

You now know the actual distribution of working hours across various projects and can use this as a basis for setting the Standard Scheduling for employees in the projects.

Step 2

In a second step, you can now perform a Specific Scheduling for a selected employee under Assignments > Projects for their assigned projects: click the Edit Scheduling button. For the period set (in the previous filter), you will see the daily availability for each assigned project as a percentage of the regular working hours for that day. The sum is displayed in hours. At the end of the table, the total hours scheduled are indicated, followed by how many hours the employee is available. If an employee is scheduled for more hours on a day than they are available, the cell is displayed with a red background and a red exclamation mark.

If you have defined Work Packages for the employee, the workload resulting from these work packages is displayed in the last row.

A graphical representation of this planning can be found either in the respective employee's file under Resource Planning > Scheduling or across multiple employees in the menu item Reports > Employee > Resource Planning > Scheduling.

In a further step, you define work packages for a client, a project, or a task (= plan object). If the Ticket System module is used, work packages can also be defined at the ticket or subtask level. Assign these to an employee and specify a time period as well as the number of planned hours. As soon as you save a work package, the project and total utilization of the employee will change and be updated in the graphical representation.

Scheduling

With scheduling in ZEP, you can specify the extent to which employees should work on projects on a day-to-day basis in hours or percentages. Using corresponding graphics or Excel sheets, you can evaluate whether overloads are occurring for an employee, project, department, or the company as a whole, and identify if and when free capacity will become available again.

In the project employee assignment, you can use the "Standard Scheduling" percentage to assign the scope of an employee's allocation as a percentage of their regular working hours. You can further refine this standard scheduling via an Excel-like form, which can be accessed from the project employee view or the employee's project list by clicking the Edit Scheduling button.

In this form, entries are made in either hours or percentages. Cells that have not been explicitly assigned a value show the availability from the project employee assignment (standard scheduling). You can select multiple cells to enter a value that applies to all selected cells, use copy & paste for ranges, and more.

The Scheduling report under Reports > Employee, within an employee's file, within a project, or under Reports > Projects, is used to evaluate employee scheduling (including CSV export). Scheduling also affects work packages (project utilization curve) if you use them.

Currently, the scheduling feature serves the project lead or administrator, but employees can also see their scheduling in their calendar (similar to absences). Displaying the scheduling in the calendar has the advantage that the employee can convert a scheduled slot directly into a time booking.

In the menu of a selected employee under Assignments > Projects, you specify for each project employee the level of availability for that project—i.e., what percentage of their regular working hours they are available for this project.

Employee: Edit Scheduling

In the menu of a selected employee under Assignments > Projects, you specify for each project the level of availability in that project—meaning the percentage of their regular working hours the selected employee is available for the respective projects. This is the Standard Scheduling.

You can further refine this assignment and define a precise schedule for each day. To do this, click the Edit Scheduling button and enter the corresponding values into the following form.
Either click on the respective project name to activate the entire row (highlighted in gray) or click into a cell to enter a value: in this form, entries are made either in hours or as a percentage of the regular working hours (please enter "%" after the number, otherwise the value will be interpreted as a number of hours). Cells that have not been explicitly assigned a value display the Standard Scheduling from the project employee assignment. You can select multiple cells and enter a value that applies to all selected cells, and you can also use copy & paste for specific ranges.

Click on the respective project name to activate the entire row or click into a cell, then right-click and select "Edit Scheduling." In this form, the entry is made either in hours, as a percentage of the regular working hours, or by entering specific times. You can also enter an internal remark here, which will be displayed as a tooltip in the scheduling matrix and in the employee's calendar. Use "Add time" to enter additional time slots. This scheduling will be displayed in the employee's calendar (including times, if applicable) and can be recorded as project time directly from the calendar.
In the rows below the projects, the Sum (from the specific scheduling in hours), Total Scheduled, Available, and, if applicable, Workload (from work packages) are displayed in hours.
Cells with modified values are marked with a pink background. To save the entered values, click Apply.
If an employee is over-scheduled, ZEP indicates this with a red exclamation mark.
The Specific Scheduling is displayed in the employee's calendar. The Standard Scheduling is not displayed in the calendar.

Deleting Scheduling Outside Assignment Periods

Changes to the project duration, modifications to project employee assignments, or changes to the employment period can result in employee scheduling existing outside the valid project assignments. ZEP reports such "discrepancies" in a blue information box and offers the option to delete these schedules that fall outside the assignment periods.

Project Employees: Edit Scheduling

In the menu item Project > [Project Name] > General > Project Employees, you specify the level of availability for each project employee—meaning the percentage of their regular working hours that the selected employee is available for the respective project. This is the Standard Scheduling.

Below the scheduling matrix, the following information is displayed: the total Planned figure for the project, the number of Actual Hours, the hours Already Scheduled (via standard or specific scheduling), and the remaining Open Hoursstill to be scheduled:

Planned Figures of the Project

Planned (total): The total amount planned for the project.
Actual (until yesterday): The amount booked to date (billable hours are displayed as a tooltip).
Open: Planned (total) - Actual (until yesterday), i.e., the amount of work remaining.

Distribution of Scheduling

Total Scheduled
Scheduled until yesterday
Scheduled from today

What is not Scheduled

Not scheduled (total): Planned (total) - Scheduled (total), i.e., how many hours in total have not been planned.
Not scheduled (until yesterday)
Not scheduled (from today): Planned (total) - Actual (until yesterday) - Scheduled from today, i.e., the amount still left to be scheduled.

Specific Scheduling

You can further refine the Standard Scheduling and define a precise schedule for each day. To do this, click the Edit Scheduling link and enter the corresponding values into the following form.
Either click on the respective employee's name or the subsequent row. Once a row is activated (yellow background, employee name in bold), the following rows will display the corresponding values for the selected employee: Total Scheduled, Available, and, if applicable, Workload (from work packages). In this form, entries are made either in hours or as a percentage (please enter "%" after the number, otherwise it will be interpreted as a number of hours). Cells that have not been explicitly assigned a value display the standard scheduling from the project employee assignment. You can select multiple cells and enter a value that applies to all selected cells, and you can also use copy and paste for specific ranges.

Click in a cell to enter a value, then right-click and select "Edit Scheduling." In this form, the entry is made either in hours, as a percentage of the regular working hours, or by specifying specific time(s). By clicking "Add time," you can enter additional time slots. This scheduling will be displayed in the employee's calendar (including times, where applicable) and can be recorded as project time directly from the calendar.
Cells with modified values are marked with a pink background. To save the entered values, click Apply.
If an employee is over-scheduled, ZEP indicates this with the red exclamation mark symbol.
The Specific Scheduling is displayed in the employee's calendar. The Standard Scheduling is not displayed in the calendar.

Deleting Scheduling Outside Assignment Periods

Due to changes in project durations, project employee assignments, or employment periods, scheduling for employees may end up outside the valid project assignments. ZEP reports such "discrepancies" in a blue info box and offers the option to delete these schedules that fall outside the assignment periods.

Work Packages

Definition and Functionality

In ZEP, projects are represented with hierarchical tasks and, if applicable, tickets/subtasks. However, these projects/plan objects are usually not optimized for the shortest possible project duration, as is the goal of a project planning tool, for example. Instead, ZEP intentionally does not represent sequences and dependencies of tasks; tasks are planned with generous durations (often "same as project"). The tasks/tickets/subtasks serve to record the working hours performed, which in reality often deviate from the original, potentially narrow scheduling.

In order to still be able to perform a short-term temporal distribution of work to employees, the Resource Planning module now offers the possibility to define work packages. Work packages are used to assign a scope of work (planned effort) to an employee within a specific period. The employee is expected to work on the plan object (task, ticket, subtask, project, or customer) within this period to the extent specified. The work package uses colors and pop-ups to show whether the employee can perform the planned effort within their availability and how much of their time they must dedicate to the work package to complete it.

A work package is used in ZEP to specify when an employee should work on what and to what extent.

A work package has the following properties:

Employee to whom the work package is assigned.
The Plan Object, i.e., task, ticket, or subtask, the employee is to work on.
A Start and End Date. This period determines when the employee should fulfill the requirements.
A Planned Effort (in hours). Through this, the project manager determines the scope of work the employee should perform on the plan object during the period.

Up to this point, the work package largely corresponds to a Post-it note or a calendar entry through which an employee is instructed on what to work on.

The Work Package in ZEP is more

In the following, the work package will be referred to as "WP".

The WP totals the actual hours that the employee logs to the plan object during the WP's timeframe. Therefore, the WP knows exactly how many hours are still required to fulfill the assignment.
Based on the employee's regular working hours—and, if the Absences & Overtime module is used, their absences and vacations—the WP knows exactly how much working time (hours) is still available to the employee until the end date is reached. In other words, it knows how many hours the employee has left to finish the remaining work on the WP.
From this, the WP calculates the so-called utilization factor. This indicates (as a percentage) what portion of their working time the employee must dedicate to the WP in order to finish by the deadline.
The sum of the utilization factors of all WPs assigned to an employee shows the employee's workload on a day-to-day basis.
Note: If an employee is assigned WPs for plan objects that have a hierarchical relationship to one another (e.g., Ticket – Subtask), the workloads of these WPs are not summed; instead, the highest utilization factor among them is used. Reasoning: If an employee is assigned both a WP for a ticket and a WP for a subtask of that same ticket, their workload does not double. By booking time to the subtask, they are implicitly working on the ticket as well.
The WP allows the employee to enter an estimated remaining effort (in hours). Unlike a percentage of completion, which is generally difficult to estimate, employees can usually better assess how many more hours they need until completion.
Once the employee has finished processing the WP, they enter a remaining effort of 0 (zero). As a result, the WP no longer generates a workload for the employee.
The estimated remaining efforts recorded for a WP are tracked. This makes it possible to trace how the assessments may have changed over time.
Resource planning makes it possible to define the extent to which an employee is available for a project. This percentage is defined as project availability in the employee-project assignment and can vary over the project's duration (through different assignment periods).
Project availability is taken into account in reports regarding the utilization of employees within the project.

Example: An employee who is assigned to a project at 25% is available to the project for 2 hours per day (based on a regular 8-hour workday). If they are assigned tasks with a volume of 2 hours per day, they are already fully utilized within that project (100% utilization).

However, from an overall perspective (company-wide, independent of the project), they are only utilized at 25%.

Work packages do not behave like tickets/subtasks.
Time is not recorded directly on a work package, but rather on the "underlying" plan object (= task, or ticket/subtask if applicable). You can view work packages as a kind of "favorites" list for selection during project time tracking.
The actual hours "attributed" to a work package are the hours booked to the plan object (= task, or ticket/subtask if applicable) during the timeframe of the work package.

Project > Work Packages

Path: Project > [Project Name] > Resource Planning > Work Packages

Here, the project manager can see all work packages in their project and can create or modify work packages. They can evaluate the work package utilization of project employees from a project perspective. It is possible to define the extent to which an employee is available to a project within a work package at the project level. This rough planning can then be further specified in work packages at the task level (or ticket level, if applicable).

Time cannot be recorded directly to a project-level work package; employees do not have project-level work packages available for selection under Work Packages. The actual hours for these work packages represent the sum of all recorded times across all tasks of this project. For a project-level work package, no remaining effort can be entered, and it cannot be set to "finished."

When this page is opened, a time period is automatically set, and all employees as well as escalated, non-critical, and critical work packages are selected. Below the table of work packages, the project utilization and the total utilization of the employees are displayed in a graphic.

Calculation of utilization: If work packages are specified more precisely within the project (e.g., through work packages at the task level), this is taken into account for the utilization calculation, i.e., per level: Utilization = Max(Utilization, Sum(Utilization of sub-objects)).

A project manager can adjust the timeframe as desired and select specific employees and the status of the work packages. The work packages are displayed according to the set parameters, along with the project and total utilization. This evaluation can be exported as Excel or CSV.

Information about work packages can be obtained by hovering over the work package with the mouse pointer: a flyover lists all relevant data from the planning (of the plan object) and the current actual values, as well as the work package planned and actual hours, remaining effort, period, and status. Additionally, this work package is displayed as a dark brown section within the respective brown bars in the project and total utilization.

If you click on the work package, a menu opens where you can call up various actions:

Work Packages at Project Level

Edit work package
Copy work package
Delete work package
Switch to the project data menu

Work Packages at Task Level

Enter the remaining effort in hours from the current perspective, or specify a remaining effort of "0" or "finished" to signal that the work package is complete. You can view all previous entries for remaining effort in the change history: each entry is displayed in a table with the date, planned hours, current actual hours, remaining effort hours, and the employee who made the entry.
Set the work package to finished (including ticket/subtask if applicable).
Create a new work package from remaining effort and assign it to a different processor.
Edit the work package
Copy the work package
Delete the work package
Switch to the associated task (or ticket/subtask if applicable).

Information regarding the project utilization of employees can be found in the graphical representation below the work package table: the "gray area" represents the availability in hours of the (selected) employees per day. This availability is displayed when you hover the mouse pointer over the gray area. The utilization in percent resulting from work packages is displayed when you hover over a "colored" column. Criticality is indicated by color, with the threshold values defined as follows:

Utilization < 85%: Green
Utilization < 100%: Yellow
Utilization < 115%: Orange
Utilization >= 115%: Red

Information regarding the total utilization of employees (taking all other projects into account) can be found in the second graphical representation: the "gray area" represents the availability in hours of the (selected) employees per day. This availability is displayed when you hover over the gray area. The utilization in percent resulting from work packages is displayed when you hover over one of the colored columns.

New work packages are created via the Create New Work Package button:

Select a task.
Select an employee.
Enter the planned hours, or click "Apply" to use the planned hours defined for the task for this work package.
Specify a "planning period": if you select "Task Start" to "Task End," the work package will be "linked" to the task; this means that if the task's duration is changed, the work package's duration will be adjusted accordingly.
A remark is optional.

Save. The graphical representation will be updated immediately.

You can change the work package by clicking on it: you can

Adjust the date/period.
Change the planned effort.
View the estimated remaining effort and use it to "Adjust Planned Effort": New Planned Effort = Current Actual at the time of the remaining effort estimate + estimated remaining effort.
Delete the work package.

status of the work packages.

The status of work packages is color-coded:

Non-critical: The employee can fulfill the effort stored in the work package (planned hours) within the time remaining until the end of the work package, based on their availability (assignments in other projects, vacation planning, etc.).
Critical: The employee cannot fulfill the effort stored in the work package (planned hours) within the time remaining until the end of the work package due to their availability (assignments in other projects, vacation planning, etc.), or the planned hours have been exceeded based on the remaining effort estimate + the current actual effort. Please note: Work packages assigned to employees with regular working hours = 0 can never reach the "critical" state.
Escalated: The work package is "overbooked" (actual hours are greater than planned hours), or the work package has "expired," meaning it has not been set to "finished" after the planning period.
Finished: The work package is set to finished (even if it was "overbooked").

Work Packages at Project Level

You can also schedule work packages at the project level (without specifying a task, ticket, or subtask).

Create new work package: without a task, including employee, title, planned hours, and planning period.
No time can be recorded on project-level work packages (they are not displayed under My ZEP > Work Packages).
Hours booked to the project by the employee are aggregated into a project-level work package and are likewise taken into account in the utilization.
If work packages within the project are specified more precisely (e.g., through work packages at the task level), this is taken into account in the utilization calculation.

Project > Planning Overview

Path: Project > [Project Name] > Resource Planning > Planning Overview

With the Planning Overview report in a selected project, you can compare the project's planned figures with the scheduling and the planned figures of the work packages.

The report is always viewed starting from the project start date, with today as the reference date. The end of the evaluation period is the project end (if specified), otherwise the latest date among all schedules, work packages, tasks, employee assignments, etc.

You can see the planned hours for the project and tasks, the actual hours (total) (as of today), and the open hours.

The scheduled hours until yesterday, from today onwards, and the total scheduled hours are displayed. The scheduling refers to the standard scheduling of the project employees or the specific scheduling of the employees for the project in question.

The third section refers to the planned hours in work packages, taking into account adjustments (remaining effort estimates), the actual hours already performed, and the remaining hours.

If you use the ZEP-Ticket, Tasks, To-Dos module, you can optionally display the planning overview including tickets/subtasks.

The results table is configurable. You can optionally show or hide specific columns.

Reports > Work Packages

Path: Reports > Projects > Resource Planning > Work Packages

Here, an administrator (or department head, if applicable) or a project manager for their specific projects can evaluate the work package utilization of project employees from a project perspective.

When accessing this page, a three-month period (starting on the 1st of the current month) is automatically set, and all projects, all employees, and the escalated, non-critical, and critical work packages are selected. Below the work package table, the project utilization (if a single project is selected) and the total utilization of the employees are displayed in a graphic.

You can also adjust the time period as desired and select specific projects, employees, and the status of the work packages. According to the set parameters, the work packages are displayed, along with the project and total utilization.

The results table can be sorted by date, by employee, or by project. This report is also available as an Excel or CSV export.

Information about work packages can be obtained by hovering over the work package with the mouse pointer: a flyover lists all relevant data from the planning (of the plan object) and the current actual values, as well as the work package planned and actual hours, time period, and status. Additionally, this work package is displayed as a dark brown section within the respective brown bars in the project and total utilization.

If you click on the work package, a menu opens where you can perform various actions:

Set work package to finished (including ticket/subtask if applicable)
Edit work package
Delete work package
Switch to the associated task (or ticket/subtask if applicable)

Information regarding the project utilization of employees can be found in the graphical representation below the work package table: the "gray area" represents the availability in hours of the (selected) employees per day. This availability is displayed when you hover the mouse pointer over the gray area. The utilization in percent resulting from work packages is displayed when you hover over a brown bar.

Project Availability and Utilization

Example: An employee with 8 regular working hours is assigned to a project at 25%. They are then assigned tasks (work packages) within this project with a volume of 2 hours/day. This results in the following utilization levels:

Project Utilization:
From a project perspective, the employee is fully utilized (100% utilization).

Total Utilization:
From an overall perspective (company-wide, independent of the project), they are only utilized at 25%.

To determine the availability of project employees, the Employee-Time-Matrix with the setting "Show project time in percent" can be helpful.

Employee > Work Packages

Work packages and the total utilization can be displayed for each employee.

An administrator (or department head, if applicable) can view the total utilization for the set period and the work packages according to the specified parameters under Employee > [Employee Name] > Resource Planning > Work Packages(for a single employee).

Under Reports > Employee > Work Packages, the total utilization—and, if a project is selected, the project utilization—can be evaluated for one or more employees according to the set parameters.

This evaluation is also available as an Excel or CSV export.

New work packages for the selected employee are created via the "Create New Work Package" button:

Select a project.
Select a task, ticket/subtask if applicable.
Enter a title (optional).
Enter planned hours, or click "Apply" to use any defined planned hours for this work package.
Specify a "planning period".
A remark is optional.

Save. The graphical representation will be updated immediately.

Information about work packages is provided when you hover over the work package with the mouse pointer: a flyover lists all relevant data from the planning (of the plan object) and the current actual values, as well as the work package planned and actual hours, timeframe, and status. Additionally, this work package is displayed as a dark brown segment within the respective brown bars in the project and total utilization graphs.

If you click on the work package, a menu opens where you can perform various actions:

Set work package to finished (including ticket/subtask if applicable).
Edit work package.
Delete work package.
Switch to the associated task (or ticket/subtask if applicable).

Information regarding the total utilization of the employee can be found in the graphical representation below the table with the work packages: the "gray area" represents the availability in hours of the employee per day. This availability is displayed when you hover the mouse pointer over the gray area. The utilization in percent resulting from work packages is displayed when you hover over a brown bar.

Employee > Utilization (Work Packages)

An administrator (or department head, if applicable) can get an overview of the utilization resulting from work packages under Reports > Employee > Utilization (Work Packages). Select a time period and the employee(s). If you require a detailed breakdown by project, activate the corresponding checkbox.

In the results table, all employees are listed along with their availability in hours, the actual hours performed on work packages, and the remaining effort. The workload and remaining availability in hours, as well as the total utilization in percent, are also listed.

If you have activated the checkbox "Detailed breakdown by project," an additional column for "Project Availability"will be displayed.

Employee > Reports > Scheduling

Path: Employee > [Employee Name] > Resource Planning > Scheduling and Reports > Employee > Scheduling

Display the scheduling of employees for a specific time period. You can choose between two views: "Chart" and "Matrix."

Chart View:

Select - All Employees - or an individual one. If you activate the option "Show project scheduling," you can only select one employee at a time. Depending on your setting for "Stacked column chart," you will receive the scheduling of the selected employees as either a curve or columns.

The result can be exported as an Excel or CSV file.

Matrix View:

In the matrix view, you can select projects in addition to the employee selection (one, all, or several employees). Projects are selected via the filter form.

Optionally, you can filter employees by their degree of scheduling. The availability serves as the reference value for the degree of scheduling:

In the filter, you can specify a threshold (in percent). The value entered here refers to a percentage of the availability.
Additionally, there is an option to filter for values either "more than threshold" or "less than threshold." This allows you to find employees who still have free capacity (less than) or who are overloaded (more than).
The matrix then only displays employees who meet the set criteria on at least one day within the selected period.

In the results table, employees are listed as rows. Over-scheduled days are highlighted in red. You can use the "+" symbol in front of the employee's name to display the assigned projects. For each day, the scheduling for each project is shown, along with the sum, the total scheduled time (from all projects), and the availability. A red field and an exclamation mark indicate an "overload."

You can edit the employee's project scheduling directly from this view: click on the icon, enter the specific scheduling, and apply the values.

The result can be exported as an Excel or CSV file.

Reports > Work Packages

Work packages and the total utilization can be displayed for each employee.

An administrator (or department head, if applicable) can view the total utilization for the set period and the work packages according to the specified parameters under Employee > [Employee Name] > Resource Planning > Work Packages(for a single employee).

Under Reports > Employee > Work Packages, the total utilization—and, if a project is selected, the project utilization—can be evaluated for one or more employees according to the set parameters. If you activate the Compressed View(default), you will receive a table containing all (selected) employees. You can sort by date, employee, or project. If the compressed view is not activated, each employee is displayed in their own table (including utilization and absences).

This evaluation is also available as an Excel or CSV export.

If you click on the work package, a menu opens where you can perform various actions:

Set work package to finished (including ticket/subtask if applicable).
Edit work package.
Delete work package.
Switch to the associated task (or ticket/subtask if applicable).

Project Availability and Utilization

Example: An employee with 8 regular working hours is assigned to a project at 25%. They are then assigned tasks (work packages) within this project with a volume of 2 hours/day. This results in the following utilization levels:

Project Utilization: From a project perspective, the employee is fully utilized (100% utilization).

Total Utilization: From an overall perspective (company-wide, independent of the project), they are only utilized at 25%.

To determine the availability of project employees, the Employee-Time-Matrix with the setting "Show project time in percent" can be helpful.

Work Packages and Scheduling

Under Work Packages, an employee can see the work packages assigned to them. Optionally, the total utilization is displayed graphically (only if an administrator has set this option to "Yes" in the settings).

Select a time period and the status (escalated, non-critical, critical, finished) of the work packages you wish to have displayed in the table. This report can be exported as Excel or CSV.

When you hover the mouse pointer over a work package, the following information is displayed in the flyover:

Plan object (Customer/Project/Task/Ticket/Subtask if applicable)
Time period
Actual hours (these are the times recorded for the plan object (=Task/Ticket/Subtask if applicable) during the work package period)
Work package planned hours
Remaining effort (if applicable)
Status
Remark of the work package

If you click on the work package, a menu opens where you can call up various actions depending on your authorization level:

Record project time or click the clock icon. You will switch to the project time tracking, which is pre-filled with the corresponding Project/Task/Ticket/Subtask (time tracking is not possible for customer or project-level work packages!).
Enter the remaining effort in hours from the current perspective, or specify a remaining effort of "0" or "finished" to signal that the work package is complete. You can view all previous entries for remaining effort in the change history: each entry is displayed in a table with the date, planned hours, current actual hours, remaining effort hours, and the employee who made the entry.
Set the work package to finished.
Switch to the associated task (or ticket/subtask if applicable).

Time cannot be recorded for work packages at the customer or project level:

By clicking on a customer work package, you can switch to the corresponding customer.
By clicking on a project work package, you can switch to the corresponding project.

Why "Estimate Remaining Effort"?

Unlike a percentage of completion, which is usually difficult to estimate, employees can typically provide a better assessment of exactly how many more hours they need until the task is finished.

Once the employee has finished working on the work package, they enter a remaining effort of "0" (finished). Consequently, the work package no longer generates any workload or utilization for that employee.

The estimated remaining efforts recorded for a work package are archived. This allows project managers to track how assessments have changed over time and identify potential planning deviations early on.

Edit Scheduling

As an employee, you can see your scheduling for each project for the set period here. To perform a specific scheduling for each day, click the Edit Scheduling button and enter the corresponding values into the following form.

Click either on the corresponding project designation to activate the entire row (highlighted in gray) or click in a cell to enter a value: in this form, input is made either in hours or as a percentage of the regular working time (please enter "%" after the number, otherwise the number will be interpreted as a number of hours). Cells that have not been explicitly assigned a value show the standard scheduling from the project-employee assignment. You can select multiple cells and enter a value that then applies to all selected cells; you can also copy and paste ranges using Copy & Paste.

Click either on the corresponding project designation to activate the entire row (highlighted in gray) or click in a cell to enter a value, then right-click and select "Edit Scheduling." In this form, input is made either in hours, as a percentage of the regular working time, or with specific time(s). You can also enter an internal remark here; this remark will then be displayed as a tooltip in the scheduling matrix and also in the employee's calendar. By using "Add time," you can enter an additional time block. This scheduling may be displayed with times in the employee's calendar and can be recorded as project time directly from the calendar.
In the rows below the projects, the sum (from the specific scheduling in hours), total scheduled, available, and, if applicable, the workload (from work packages) in hours are displayed.
Cells with modified values are marked with a pink background; to save the entered values, click Apply.
If an employee is over-scheduled, ZEP indicates this with a red exclamation mark symbol.

Customer > Work packages

An administrator (or department head, if applicable) has the menu item Work Packages under the General section of their customers. Here, they can see all work packages for a customer and can create or modify them.

You can define the extent to which an employee is available to a customer within a work package. This is a long-term planning tool where you can use work packages to determine how many hours your employees are available to a customer (for their projects). This rough planning can then be further specified at the project level, down to tasks and, if applicable, tickets.

No time can be recorded directly to such a customer work package; employees do not have customer work packages available for selection under Work Packages. The actual hours for these work packages represent the sum of all recorded times across all projects of this customer. For a customer work package, no remaining effort can be entered, and it cannot be set to "finished."

When accessing this page, all employees and the escalated, non-critical, and critical work packages are selected for a specific period. All work packages for this customer (including all projects of the customer) are listed. Below the work package table, a graphic displays the availability (gray area) of the employees selected in the filter form, as well as their total utilization.

Information regarding the work packages can be obtained by hovering over the work package with the mouse pointer: a flyover lists all relevant data: title, employee, period, actual hours (sum of all recorded times for all projects of this customer), and work package planned hours.

If you click on the work package, a menu opens where you can call up various actions:

Work Packages at Customer Level

Edit work package
Copy work package
Delete work package
Switch to the customer data menu

You can also schedule work packages at the customer level (without specifying a task, ticket, or subtask).

There is a new "Work Packages" menu item for customers.
Create new work package: with employee, title, planned hours, and planning period.
No time can be recorded on customer-level work packages (they are not displayed under Work Packages).
Hours booked by the employee to any of the customer's projects are aggregated into a customer work package and are likewise taken into account in the utilization.

It is not possible to book time directly to customer or project work packages; they serve the purpose of long-term employee scheduling and generate a corresponding workload.