Resource Planning shows the workload of your employees and projects on a continuous timeline. You create assignments directly in the planning view, move them, and adjust their duration. This article summarises which menu items, permissions, and reports the module adds to ZEP.
Note: This article describes the new Resource Planning, which appears in ZEP as the main menu item Planning. If your main menu also contains Work packages, you are still working with the previous resource planning. Its features are described in Feature Overview – Scheduling and Work Packages.
Product Line Availability
Note: Resource Planning is included in ZEP Business. In ZEP Track, ZEP Control, and ZEP Operations it can be added. It is booked via the ZEP Self-Service Tool under Administration > Account.
If you do not use resource planning yet, booking the module gives you the Resource Planning described here straight away. If you already work with the previous resource planning, nothing changes for now. ZEP initiates the switch for you once you have contacted support. How the switch works and which data is transferred is described in Switching from the Previous Resource Planning.
Permissions
You control who may view and edit Resource Planning through the roles and permissions matrix (Administration -> My Company -> Roles & Permissions). Five entries are relevant.
Entry | Module and group | Effect |
Plan Data & Resource Planning | Projects | View and edit the plannings of a project |
Resource planning | Projects > Reports | Analyse project-related Resource Planning reports |
Resource planning | Employee | View and edit the plannings of individual employees |
Resource planning | Employee > Reports | Analyse employee-related Resource Planning reports |
My Planning | Own permissions & my reports | Edit your own planning yourself |
Note: To let employees edit their own planning, enable the "My Planning" row for the relevant role. Administrators have all permissions.
Additional Menu Items
Resource Planning adds a main menu item, one tab each on the project and the employee detail page, and a dedicated area in the administration.
Planning
The main menu item Planning opens your own planning. Above it sit three tabs that are visible depending on your permissions.
Tab | Content | Visible to |
My Planning | Your own planning across all projects | All users |
Project planning | Several projects side by side on one timeline | Users with project permissions |
Employee planning | Several employees side by side on one timeline | Users with employee permissions |
Project Detail Page
The detail page of a project shows the tab Planning. It lists all employees of this project with their plannings and the project key figures. From there you plan the entire project team on one timeline without leaving the project record.
Employee Detail Page
The detail page of an employee shows the tab Planning with all projects the person is planned for. You see this person’s workload across all projects, and you create new plannings or adjust existing ones directly. This shows at a glance whether the person still has capacity left across all their projects.
Administration > Planning
Administration gains the box Planning with the submenu item Settings. There you define how projects are displayed in Resource Planning and who is notified when a planning changes. The settings apply company-wide and affect everyone who is planned in Resource Planning. Details are described in Basic Settings – Resource Planning.
Additional Reports
Resource Planning adds two reports. You reach both through the Reports menu in the "Resource planning" group.
Employee Reports
Both reports are available under the employee reports.
Planning/Actual Comparison compares planned hours with recorded hours, grouped by employee.
Planned capacity utilization compares available capacity with planned hours, per employee and department.
Project Reports
The Planning/Actual Comparison is available under the project reports, grouped by project. Planned capacity utilization is not available here because it is calculated on an employee basis only. Use the project view to check how closely a project follows its plan, and the employee view to find bottlenecks and free capacity in your team.
Note: Only one of the two resource plannings is active in your account at a time. The two reports described here therefore take the place of the previous ones. Old and new reports never appear side by side.
Separation from Other Modules
Resource Planning draws on data from other areas, which makes it more precise.
Note: Where the Departments area is active, you can filter the views across several employees and projects by department, and planned capacity utilization shows the department as a separate column. With the Project Planning area, planned hours become available, so Resource Planning shows open planned hours and warns when they are exceeded. If price groups are stored, Resource Planning also shows the planned revenue.