Scheduling in Resource Planning works in two consecutive levels: First, you set a standard scheduling per employee and project as a percentage of the regular working time. Then you can override this default day by day in the specific scheduling — for example for sprints, on-call shifts, or short-term redistributions.
Standard scheduling
The standard scheduling indicates as a percentage of the regular working time the extent to which an employee is available for a project across the entire assignment period — for example 40 % of the weekly working time for project A. ZEP converts this value into daily hours automatically for each working day of the assignment period. It applies as long as no specific scheduling is recorded for the respective day.
Storing the standard scheduling
You record the percentage directly in the assignment-period dialog of an employee for a project. You can open the dialog from two directions — depending on whether you want to spread a person across multiple projects or plan an entire project team.
Employee view
Open Employees > [person] > Assignments > Projects. ZEP shows a list of all projects the person is assigned to. Click the assignment period of a row to open the assignment-period dialog. Enter the percentage (0 – 100) under Standard scheduling there and save. If the person is not yet assigned to any project, first create a new assignment.
Project view
From the project side, open Projects > [project] > General > Project employees analogously. Here you see all persons assigned to the project with their assignment period and the respective standard scheduling. Click the assignment period to open the same dialog and adjust the percentage.
Adjusting the standard scheduling
If the standard scheduling is to permanently change to a different percentage, open the same assignment-period dialog again and overwrite the value. ZEP does not keep version history for the standard scheduling — the new value applies retroactively to the entire assignment period.
Tip: If the percentage should not remain the same throughout the entire project, you can store several consecutive assignment periods for the same employee, each with its own standard scheduling — for example 40 % for the first three months, then 60 % until the end of the project. If the deviation concerns only individual days (sprints, substitutions), the specific scheduling is the better way.
Specific scheduling
The specific scheduling overrides the standard distribution on individual days with day-precise values — in hours, percent, or specific times of day. It is always a matrix entry: ZEP shows a two-dimensional table with days as columns and projects or persons as rows.
Opening the matrix
You open the scheduling matrix from two directions. In both views, ZEP first shows a column chart with the aggregated scheduling across the selected period — the editable matrix only appears after one additional click:
Employees > [person] > Resource Planning > Planning — first activate the Show project scheduling checkbox. ZEP reloads the view and shows the Edit planning button below. A click on it opens the matrix with projects as rows and days as columns.
Projects > [project] > Resource Planning > Planning — click directly on the Edit planning button below the column chart. The matrix appears immediately with project employees as rows and days as columns, and is at the same time the multi-person matrix for the project.
Creating or changing a specific scheduling
Right-click on the desired day cell. In the context menu, choose Edit planning. ZEP opens a detail dialog with these fields:
Type of planning (radio selection): In hours, In percent, or With times. The choice determines which input field appears next.
For In hours: an hours field (e.g., 4.5).
For In percent: a % field (e.g., 60). The value refers to the daily target working time.
For With times: up to five From – To time slots. Use Add time to add another slot, Remove time to delete one. Schedulings with a time of day additionally appear in the employee's calendar.
Note (free text): appears later as a tooltip in the matrix and in the calendar.
Close the dialog with OK (saves the scheduling), Delete (removes it), or Cancel (discards changes).
Tip: For quick entry, you can also type hours or percentage values directly into the cell without opening the dialog. By holding down the mouse button, you additionally select multiple days in one row or multiple rows at once; the typed value is then applied to the entire selection. This way you schedule longer periods or entire groups of people in a single step.
You can edit multiple day cells in succession — ZEP first collects the entries in the matrix. With the Apply button at the bottom of the matrix, you save all changes together.
Keyboard shortcuts in the matrix
The matrix supports several keyboard actions for efficient data entry:
Ctrl + B or Ctrl + E: opens the Edit planning dialog for the currently selected cell.
Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V: copy and paste values between cells.
Arrow keys or Tab: navigation between cells.
Delete or Backspace: clears the entry of the selected cell.
Enter: triggers the Apply button and saves all pending changes.
Visual indicators
In the matrix, ZEP marks different day types and states by colour:
Pink background: changed cells that have not yet been saved via Apply.
Red exclamation mark in the day row: the day sum exceeds the employee's available hours — overload warning.
Absence marker: days on which the employee has an approved or requested absence (vacation, sick leave, other absence). With the appropriate permission, a tooltip shows the absence reason.
Holiday and weekend marker: days that are not regular working days. These cells can still be scheduled if needed (see basic setting Scheduling also on non-working days).
Specific schedulings appear automatically in the employee's calendar — standard schedulings do not.
Totals below the matrix
Below the actual input matrix, ZEP shows several aggregation rows per day:
Sum scheduled — added-up specific scheduling across all projects (employee view) or all persons (project view) for this day.
Total scheduled — standard and specific scheduling combined, set against the availability. If the sum exceeds the available hours, the red exclamation mark appears here with the tooltip „The number of scheduled hours exceeds the number of available hours".
Available — the daily capacity available for entry. ZEP automatically subtracts absences and holidays here.
Workload (work packages) — the daily workload generated by assigned work packages. Only shown if the employee or project has work packages assigned. An additional exclamation mark warns when this workload exceeds the availability.
In the project view, the plan figures of the project for the selected period appear below these rows:
Plan total — planned effort of the project.
Open — planned remainder not yet covered by actual bookings.
Actual to yesterday — project times already booked.
Scheduled to yesterday and Scheduled from today — how the total scheduling is distributed over time.
Not scheduled total, Not scheduled to yesterday, and Not scheduled from today — the remainder not yet planned, split by past and future.
Sales-volume column
In addition to the input matrix, ZEP shows two summary columns on the right per employee or project row:
Sum — the aggregated scheduled hours of the row across the selected period.
Sales volume — the associated planned revenue, calculated from the scheduled hours multiplied by the hourly rate of the respective price group of the project-employee assignment. The currency is shown in brackets in the column header.
In the project view, the sales volume appears in the project currency. In the employee view, ZEP automatically converts the amounts from all projects into the base currency of your tenant so that values can be compared across multiple projects.
If for an employee no hourly rate can be determined for one or more days — for example because no price group is maintained in the assignment or the price table does not provide a value for the day in question — a red exclamation mark appears to the left of the row with the tooltip „For at least one day, no hourly rate could be determined". The sales volume for the affected person then remains incomplete.
Note: The sales-volume column only appears when the Prices & Costs module is active and a base currency has been configured for your tenant. In the project view, the column is additionally only shown if the project is not internal and you have the Evaluate project sales volume right for this project — otherwise the column stays hidden.
Ratable distribution
When you want to distribute a total effort evenly across all working days of a period (for example „80 hours over 4 weeks"), use the Ratable distribution function in the scheduling matrix. In the dialog, choose the employee or project, the unit (hours or days), the mode (Replace overwrites existing schedulings, Add supplements them), and the period from – to. ZEP converts the total amount to the included working days and writes specific day schedulings.
Combination with absences
ZEP does not automatically delete existing specific schedulings when an absence is recorded for the same day. Instead, a blue notice block „Delete scheduling on absence days" appears, whose delete link removes the affected entries in one go. The box appears in the following places:
Projects > [project] > General > Project employees — above the project employees list.
Employees > [person] > Assignments > Projects — above the assignments list.
Employees > [person] > Resource Planning > Planning — above the scheduling matrix.
In all three cases, the prerequisite is that the logged-in user has the permission to change and that at least one specific scheduling actually falls on an absence day. Without clicking the delete link, the schedulings remain and continue to be counted in reports.
Note: The Available row below the scheduling matrix takes absences into account automatically and reduces the daily capacity by full absent days. This way, independent of the cleanup link, you immediately see where the original scheduling collides with the new reality.
Delete schedulings outside the assignment period
When the assignment period shifts afterwards (for example because the project ends earlier or the employee joins the project later), specific schedulings can remain outside the valid period. In this case, ZEP shows a second blue notice block „Delete scheduling outside of assignment periods" in the same places as the absence box. The affected projects are listed in the box; the delete link removes the invalid schedulings.
Recommended approach in practice
To make sure the scheduling reflects the project reality as accurately as possible, the following sequence has proven useful:
Set up the standard scheduling initially. When you create a project, you assign the project employees and enter the expected percentage of the regular working time per person. This way the project immediately has a sound baseline plan and reports deliver realistic figures.
Refine the specific scheduling day by day. As soon as specific work packages or dates are known, you open the scheduling matrix (via Employees > [person] > Resource Planning > Planning or Projects > [project] > Resource Planning > Planning) and override the standard distribution per day with specific values.
Clean up after absences. When vacation or sick days are added after planning, use the blue notice block to remove the schedulings on absence days.
Clean up after changes to the assignment period. If the assignment period shifts, check the second blue box and delete schedulings outside the valid period.