Managing Resources and Roles

You can use the Task Assignments tab in the Task Editor to:

• Assign resources, roles, or both to project tasks.
• Allocate resources or roles to project tasks equally, or by different percentages or hours of the task.
• View and open existing assignments or resource requests for resources or roles.

Note:

You cannot assign resources to the project row or to parent tasks.

Adding Resources or Roles to Project Tasks

To assign resources or roles to a project task:

1. In the task grid, select one or more tasks to assign resources, roles or allocations.
2. Click . The Task Assignments tab opens in the Task Editor.
3. In the Task Assignments tab, click .
4. Enter or select a resource, a role, or both. The Assigned to this project and Held on this project options enable you to filter the contents of the Resource Name drop-down list. If both are selected, the list contains all the resources that are either assigned to or held on the project. The Assigned to this project option is selected by default if there are assignments on the current project. Similarly, the Held on this project option is selected by default if there are held resource requests on the current project. You cannot enter external resource names if you use these options. PSA retains your selection on this project when you use the same browser on the same device.
   • In the Resource Name field, either:
     • Select a resource from the drop-down list.
     • Start to type a resource name:
       • If the resource has a valid contact record, the resource is selected.
       • If the resource does not have a valid contact record, the resource is identified as external in the Resourcing Link column.
   • In the Role field, select from the drop-down list if required. When you first select a resource, the role of the resource is displayed by default. If you change a selected resource and the original resource had a role displayed, the original role persists. You can change the role manually as required.

   If a resource has existing assignments or resource requests, these are displayed in the Resourcing Link column. If there is more than one, select from the drop-down list. To view more details about the assignment or resource request, click to expand the corresponding row. The following details are displayed, as appropriate:

   • Resource Request or Assignment Name.
   • Start Date and End Date (assignments only).
   • Schedule Start Date and Schedule End Date (held resource requests only: these are the start and end dates of the preferred schedule on the related resource request).
   • Milestone.
   • Planned Hours (assignments only).
   • Scheduled Hours (assignments only: the hours value comes from the schedule associated with the assignment).
   • Remaining Hours (assignments only: the hours value is calculated using the number of scheduled hours on the assignment subtracted from the number of planned hours on the assignment).
     
   Warning:

   The Remaining Hours value is not updated immediately when a user changes the hours recorded on the assignment or its schedule. This is because when the user clicks Save on the relevant record, the update is made by Apex job and there might be a delay while the job is queued for processing. For more information on the Apex job queue, see the Salesforce Help.

   To open the assignment or resource request identified in the Resourcing Link field, click | View Resourcing Link in the toolbar.

   The Resource Name drop-down list displays up to 500 resources. If the resource you want is not in the initial 500, continue to type until the name is available in the list.

5. Add more resources or roles, as needed.
6. The default Equal Split allocation type allocates all resources or roles equally. To have unequal allocations in hours or percentage, click either Hours or % and enter values in the relevant allocation column that is displayed. For more information, see Allocating Resources or Roles by Hours or Percentage.
   Tip:

   If required, an administrator can hide the Equal Split allocation type and the Hours allocation type becomes the default. For more information, see Task Assignments Tab.

7. Click Apply.
8. Click Save. If another user has the same project open in Gantt when you click Save, a message is displayed asking if you want to break the lock and continue to save. If you break the lock, the user will be locked out of the project, will have to refresh, and could lose any unsaved changes.

Note:

If the Suppress Auto Link Assignment setting in the Gantt Global Settings custom setting is selected, new project task assignments are not automatically linked to existing assignments or resource requests. For more information, see Gantt Global Settings.

Allocating Resources or Roles by Hours or Percentage

Warning: You must only edit allocations in Gantt. Editing allocations in Salesforce can cause data integrity issues.

If you are allocating resources or roles by hours or percentage:

• If a resource or role is to be unallocated, you must enter 0 for the allocation.
• For percentage allocations the total of the allocations must be 100%.

Allocating Resources or Roles to Multiple Tasks

Allocating the same resources or roles to multiple tasks is subject to the following conditions:

• If none of the selected tasks have existing project task assignments (PTAs), you can allocate a percentage split for resources, roles, or both to the tasks.
• If one or more of the selected tasks have existing PTAs that have been split equally by Gantt, Task Assignment Manager opens and you can add more resources or roles, but you cannot allocate hours or percentages.
• You cannot add resources or roles if one or more of the selected tasks have existing PTAs that have set allocations.