Using Resource Views

Chris Miall

Does anyone know if it's possible to use the resource views for people or resources which don't have a SmartSheet account?

 

We have a number of different developers who don't need to access SS themselves, so don't need an account, but we do need to track their usage across different projects and see any over-allocations.

 

The help text says it is only for users but I wondered if anyone had found a workaround?

Chris Winfield

I belive you need to add people to your account to be able to use the resource functionality, although they don't need to be licensed users - they can be collaborators.

 

i.e. Go to "Account/User Management/Add User" and untick the "licensed user" box.

Chris Miall

Thanks Chris,

 

I'll have a play around with this feature and see if I can make it work as required.

Steve Hoare

Sadly any user who is to be included as a resource has to be a licenced user.

Brian VandenHeuvel

Hi Chris,

A user only needs to be invited to the account in User Management to be used in Resource Management. They don't have to be licensed and they don't have to even accept the invitation. Once they are invited they will show up in your Resource Views.

Steve Hoare

I stand corrected, this must have changed recently.

PPS Solutions

It is definately as Brian has stated.  It can be a bit confusing at first to understand the diefference between Licenced User and User! 

Jeremy Michels

To add to this they dont even have to have a real email. If you want to watch the rescources of say the finacial team. You could just add the email as financial@smarthsheetisthegreatest.com and it will allow you to apply rescources against that email address. Just a trick I use. 

Steve Hoare

Looks like SmartSheet must have listened to feedback, as this certainly wasn't the case when they first launched resources. This is great news, especially being able to create fake accounts.

Oliver

Yes I have fake emails setup for all of my resources that aren't already users within SS. It works well! i would suggest getting a full employee list or resource list on excel and allocating the fake email against each cell. You can then save that file as a .csv and import it as a contact list straight in to smartsheet. I did about 50 at once Using this method. Make sure you take note of the required csv layout.

 

The biggest gripe i have with resourcing on smartsheet, and I believe a major downfall, is the ability to only allocate 1 resource per task.  

Steve Hoare

I think my biggest gripe is not having a time allowance. I think it would be good to assign each user a number of hours they can work each day. We then assign a number of hours to a task rather than days, it would then work out if there are over allocated. 

Robin Sherwood

Hey Steve, 

 

Thanks for your comments. We are working on some updates to duration that will allow you to enter hours instead of days. We will also be adding the abiltiy to set how long the workday is on a given sheet. So you would be able to set a sheet to a 6 hour day and assigning a user a 6 hour task would set them to 100% for that day. I sounds like you are asking for more of  a resource level calendar though? So I can define a work week and assign certain users to that calendar? Or am I missing something? 

 

Robin

Steve Hoare

Hi Robin,

I like your thinking, but I think each user should be able to set there default working hours on an user level, or even have it set at enterprise level which is then overridden by the user. He would then also be able to add exceptions to this, like holidays.

 

Steve

Oliver

Steve,

 

Keep in mind you can still allocate percantages against each line item, so if you wanted a task to go for 8 hours out of say a 10 hour day you could just have an 80% allocation for that resource, and 20% for the same resource on another task.

 

While i agree it isn't a neat work around, it should still do the trick for the most part. It may be hard work on those longer lasting tasks however. But as I said, a little messy!

Steve Hoare

Hi Oliver,

I have been using this since it was in beta, most of my users struggle with the percentage, they just want to say how many hours/minutes the task will take. They struggle to visualise the percentage.

 

Steve

Oliver

I can imagine the more basic user would find it a struggle... What about setting up your own "working hours" column and an "hours to complete" column, and then in the percentage column using a basic formula to convert it automatically for them and have it locked.

 

Ie for my previous example, the working hours would be 10 and your hours to complete would be 8, and you'd automatically get your 80% value with a simple column b / column a equation? It may not be neat but could save the confusion for some people...

 

Not ideal deal either way though really but it might be a workable solution.

 

Cheers