Request to be able to turn off default of 100% allocation

Cathy Salscheider

This new functionality will not work for us and will cause us to have to update every row:

"Starting at the end of August 2024, new rows added with astart date, end date, and contact field in sheets connected to ResourceManagement by Smartsheet or with workload tracking enabled will automatically default to a 100% allocation."

Being a smaller healthcare IT organization, many resources that we use are shared. We never have a project where are resources are 100% dedicated to one project. In additional to project work,our teams also do operational support. And when we work with clinical staff, it is very rare that they can dedicate much time to a project. So, we routinely run tasks that take longer, but may only be set at 20% allocation. We will have some tasks that are at 100% allocation.

With this change, it means that it will be very easy to make a mistake when making assignments and allocations, as instead of being blank, a value is defaulted in. Esp when setting up new projects where all of the allocations haven't been determined yet, it will be hard to know which ones were set up by the PM and which ones just hadn't been decided yet.

The only way I can see to use this is to manually remove the allocation each time a task is created. This will be a problem and extra effort.

PLEASE, set this new functionality up with an option to disable it!!!

Cathy Salscheider

I am now using this daily and really hate the default! Please provide an option to turn the default off!

K.Weiss

Agreed. This is a wild update that I can't imaging anyone actually asked for. Can you please give us the ability to turn this off? It is adding a step to our process because we now have to be vigilant about deleting the default 100% which makes the chance for errors in Resource Management and various reports much larger.

robrad4d

Agreed with everyone - this is a major problem right now and significantly reduces the value we get out of RM. It makes it difficult for us to trust the RM data we review with our leaders… PLEASE fix this!!!

jennifer Steill

Automatically having % allocation as 100% when adding a task, makes RM worthless. Please eliminate 100% allocation as a default and make it manual entry

Cathy Salscheider

I tried to create an automation when adding a row to clear the value in Allocation % , but it did not work. And I only want it to run when the row is created as I don't want other values autocleared. Sigh.

This should be rolled back until it has been well vetted by RM users.

oboutros

This change is completely unacceptable from Smartsheet. All timecards in Resource Mnagement are wrong. We need an urgent fix.

Cathy Salscheider

@oboutros I put in a support ticket when it this was still in Early Adopter mode. They told me to put in an idea in Community. This does not seem like the right process.

Does any one know how we escalate?

oboutros

@Cathy Salscheider, I opened a support ticket as well and escalated to Smartsheet Sales - this change simply destroys Smartsheet/Resource Management integration

oboutros

***** Again .. Integrtaion between Smartsheet and Resource Management is USLESS at this point *****

@cathy salscheider, This is what I got from Support ..

I've submitted feedback on your recommendation to our development team through the product feedback form below, and I do appreciateyour input. 

Our Product Roadmap process includes review of ideas from allsources (customers, advisory councils, customer research, etc.) in order toconstantly enhance our existing capabilities and implement new innovations.Customer feedback is a core source of new ideas and provides critical insightneeded for prioritization decisions. We review all feedback and analyze ideasfor customer value and demand, via this form.

Cathy Salscheider

@oboutros I was told by Support to create the new product idea. I have also shared this link with our sales team. Thanks for the followup.

ymckern

We have an issue with this default since we don't always connect a sheet to RM and also have that column used to determine the correct allocation based on other factors. Please allow us to turn off that option.

Thank you!

PKafley

I agree with all the feedback above. it does not make sense to force everyone to use this feature, it would be better to let users disable this default if they choose to do so. Please allow user to turn this off. Thanks

Aseel Hawi

Agreed. This is causing an issue for my teams as no task is assigned a 100% allocation in our schedules. The RM is set up initially to be versatile to accommodate different needs and methods of tracking the allocation of resources and this new feature is messing up with ours. It's easy to make mistakes and a lot of effort is needed to manually remove those allocations. Can't keep up.

I had a call with ProDesk regarding this issue and they also recommended suggesting the idea/upvoting this request. If you haven't upvoted, please make sure you do. If the upvote button isn't visible to you, try signing in, as this should enable you to upvote.

I really hope this issue is resolved ASAP as RM is unusable for my teams with this feature.

ReubenHollifield

This change to 100% allocation is counterproductive to how we use Smartsheet, Resource Management and Jira together and is impacting us as well.

We track projects that sometimes have hundreds or thousands of lines of tasks assigned to various resources throughout the company. It's very rare that any of those thousands of tasks would require 100% of a person's time. It doesn't make sense to me why this would now need to be set to a default for all Smartsheet customers, and that we cannot control that default.

I definitely agree with other posts on this topic, that it's making Smartsheet/RM difficult to use. However, a workaround can be implemented using Automation in the sheet. You can set the sheet so that when a row is added or changed, and the % Allocation is set to 1.0, then the automation rule clears the % Allocation field. The screenshot below shows the automation, and this seems to work as expected.

Cathy Salscheider

@ReubenHollifield Good workaround. I had tried to setup an automation that when the row was created, clear the value in % Allocation, which did not work. I'll try this.
But this is just a workaround as every site will now need to be setup with this automation. I am not dying to update our templates that we use with Control Center, but will have to if this new "feature" does not get rolled back.

Thanks!