Assignments and Schedules Overview

Clicking the Assignments tab displays the assignments home page. .
  • In the View section, select an appropriate list view from the drop-down list to go directly to that list page, or click Create New View to define your own custom list view. List views let you display a list of records that match specific criteria.
  • In the Recent section, select an item from the drop-down list to display a brief list of the top records matching that criteria. The choices are listed in the table.
  • From the list, you can click any assignment name to go directly to its detail.
  • Click New Assignment to create a new assignment or click Assign Resource or Assign Multiple Resources on a project.
Recent Choice   Description
Recently Viewed   The last 10 or 25 records you viewed, with the most recently viewed item listed first. This list is derived from your recent items and includes records owned by you and other users.
Recently Created   The last 10 or 25 records you created, with the most recently created item listed first. This list only includes records owned by you.
Recently Modified   The last 10 or 25 records you updated, with the most recently updated item listed first. This list only includes records owned by you.

Resources are allocated to projects using assignments. An assignmentClosed Connection between a resource and a project. is the connection between resources and projects. When you assign a resourceClosed A contact that works on a project. to a projectClosed A collection of activities and related items to be managed over a defined time range, such as timecards, expenses, milestones and budgets., you can create a schedule for that resource.

Depending on your permissions you can:

  • Assign resources to projects by name.
  • Assign multiple resources to a project or a resource.
  • Create assignments for time spent in activities not directly related to a project, such as jury duty.
  • Allow resources to self-staff and bypass staffing Permission Controls for a user so they can self-staff.
  • Use the Self-Assignment page to assign yourself to a project if your administrator has given you the permissions to do so.
  • View, add and edit daily notes on assignments.
  • Set your organization's default scheduling strategy.
  • View the updated end date for a scheduling strategy based on the scheduled hours.

Recalculating Assignment Schedules

You can recalculate schedules for related assignments on projects. See Recalculating Assignment Schedules. Your administrator can batch submit or schedule the recalculation of all rescheduled assignments. See PSA Administration.

Closing Assignments and Setting the Hours to Zero on Schedules

You can close assignments for time and expense entry, and set the hours to zero on schedules. See Closing Assignments and Setting Zero-Hour Schedules.

Bill Rates on Assignments

If you have permissions to do so, you can hide the Bill Rate on an assignment from selected Salesforce user profiles using field-level security. When the bill rate is hidden for an assignment, you can still update other fields on that assignment.

Bill Rates for Timecards Copied from Milestones

Depending on the configuration options that your administrator has set and the values selected in the milestone fields, timecards with a milestone might inherit their bill rate from the parent milestone. When PSA is configured to do so and a timecard has an assignment and a milestone with different bill rates, the milestone bill rate takes precedence.

If a timecardClosed A mechanism for logging time against a project or an assignment. has no milestoneClosed A fixed target, which when achieved, can be billed to the customer for a fixed fee or by logging time against it., or the milestone has no bill rate, the timecard inherits the bill rate from its assignment.

Milestone bill rates only apply to billable timecards. Even when bill rates from milestones are applied to a non-billable timecard, this does not change the total billable amount. The total billable amount is zero, so zero rolls up to billings after inclusion in financials. If the project associated with the timecard is a global project and has no assignment, the bill rate reverts to zero. However, you can also use Milestone Default Bill Rates to set bill rates on timecards for global projects.

When you change a milestone after a timecard has been created or edited, those changes are not reflected on child timecards because each timecard only takes the bill rate from the milestone at the time you create or edit it.

Tip:

You can assign a resource to a project, with different bill rates for different kinds of work. You can also use bill rates from milestones with a single assignment.

If PSA is configured to use milestone-driven bill rates, their backlog calculations are inaccurate. This is because milestones do not have schedules associated with them, so assigned time expected to be worked at different bill rates cannot be derived.

When a timecard inherits its current bill rate from a milestone, the Bill Rate Defaulted from Milestone checkbox is automatically selected on that timecard.

Note:

Timecards can only inherit bill rates from milestones when they are created or updated. If you change the bill rate on a milestone, that change is only reflected in new child timecards or when you update an existing child timecard.

Excluding Resources and Assignments from Planners

You can exclude assignments from the plannersClosed A term referring to the project and resource planners. on the Assignment Edit page using the Exclude from Planners checkbox. You can also exclude resources from the resource plannerClosed A graphical tool that gives you an organized, comprehensive view of resources and the projects to which they are assigned. on the Contact page using the Exclude from Resource Planner checkbox.

Excluding Assignments from Timecard and Expense Rollups

You can exclude assignments from the timecard expense rollup calculations using the Exclude from Timecard Expense Rollups checkbox.

For more information, see:

Excluding Assignments from EVA Calculations

You can exclude projects from the EVA calculations by selecting the Exclude from EVA Calculation checkbox. The EVAs are not calculated for an assignment marked as excluded when:

  • A timecard is submitted for an assignment.
  • The schedule and the fields that trigger the EVA calculation are updated.
Note:

If the parent project of an assignment is marked as excluded from EVA calculations, the EVAs are not calculated for those assignments whether the Exclude from EVA Calculation checkbox is selected or not selected.