Resource View doesn't have the correct Allocation %

Karen Novellino

I am creating a Resource View that my team can use to track work allocation. It works, but there are several places where the data is not accurate - the allocation % on the Resource View does not match the allocation % on the project plan.

For instance, in one Smartsheet, we have a task for 1 hour, which comes out to be 12.5% of the workday - in the resource view, it's showing 2%. In a different smartsheet, I have 8 different tasks that add up to 84% of a workday - in the resource view, it's showing 15%.

I'm new to resourcing, and have reviewed the help articles, and confirmed the sheets are properly set to the resource management. Any tips on what I'm doing wrong?

Thank you!!!

Genevieve P.

Hi @Karen Novellino

What percent are you Allocating to this person for that 1 hour? If you want that person to be allocated to the entire hour then they should be set at 100% Allocation.

If you set that person to be 12.5% Allocated, that identifies that they are only taking 12.5% of the hour, instead of the full hour. This is then only 2% of the day, since they're not working the full hour, does that make sense?

Assigning less than 100% could work if you were assigning one task to multiple people... so for example two resources are each allocated 50% of the same task because they're both working on it for that hour, together. (See: Assign People to a Task)

This means instead of one person working for the entire hour at 12.5% (or 13%) of the day, two people work for 50% of 1 hour, which is 6% of the day for each of them.

See Resource Management and Allocation for more information. Let me know if this explains the behaviour you're experiencing! If not, it would be helpful to see screen capture of how you have your sheet set up, and your Project Settings, but please block out any sensitive data.

Cheers,

Genevieve

RoscoeMcQueen

When I set a task to 1h and allocate a resource to 100% for the task, it allocates the resource at 100% for the entire day, not just the 12.5% of the day. So, 3 1h tasks at 100% results in the resource being allocated to 300% for the day instead of 37.5%.

Genevieve P.

Hi @RoscoeMcQueen

The answer above is in relation to the Legacy Resource View in Smartsheet, but it looks like your image is associated with Resource Management and that you are syncing this with your Smartsheet sheet through the Panel. These are two different programs and have different results.

The Panel takes the following information to Sync it to Resource Management: Start Date, End Date, Assigned To, and % Allocation columns. (See: Connect a project sheet to a Resource Management Project).

This means that your assignments are coming through as 100% assigned to those full dates based on the data in your % Allocation column.

What I would suggest doing in this case is to put an additional column in your sheet where you can enter hours and use a formula to calculate the appropriate allocation. Then you can use that column as the % Allocation column to sync with Resource Management. Here's another Community thread that may help: Can Allocation column be tracked by hours?

Cheers,

Genevieve

RoscoeMcQueen

Well, your answer certainly clarifies things for me. Thank you. But why would SmartSheet remove ("break") this functionality? You write that you would recommend we "put an additional column in your sheet where you can enter hours and use a formula to calculate the appropriate allocation", but why wouldn't SmartSheet just add this functionality globally, or at least make it an option? Why would I want to do the work manually when we're paying for a "solution" that doesn't provide this very basic function?

Genevieve P.

Hi @RoscoeMcQueen

Resource Management (RM) is more robust compared to the Legacy View version that was in Smartsheet. You can track time better within the Resource Management application, then push that data into Smartsheet using the Panel.

If you go to the project Worklist in RM, you can change the allocation to be in:

• Percentage
• Hours per day (which will give a percentage in Smartsheet)
• Total for Task

Based on what you've described, you may want to choose the Total. Here's more information:

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2480961-add-people-to-projects#:~:text=To%20adjust%20the%20details,or%2050%20hours%20total

Smartsheet is configured differently and only has one way of displaying Allocation: by Percent. To display different data in Smartsheet, additional columns or quick formulas (such as what's described in the other Community post) will help create the view you're looking for!

Here's another article that may be helpful as well: Sync Resource Management assignments with Smartsheet

Cheers,

Genevieve