Capacity planning

Capacity shows people against the coming weeks, so you can see at a glance who has room and who is overloaded, and commit people to projects before the work lands on them. It includes everyone in your workspace, not just people with a seat: you pay for the people who use ProjectSmith, and you plan for everyone.

Planners see the whole team. A project manager needs a Planner seat for this too.
Members (a project manager on a Member seat included) see their own row: their bookings, their capacity and their load.

What the grid shows

One row per person and one column per week (eight weeks from this week to start; choose 4, 8, 12 or 26, and step backwards and forwards with the arrows). Each cell shows booked hours / capacity for that week, and its colour shows how full the week is:

Red: over capacity.
Amber: 85% full or more.
A small dot marks a week with leave (teal) or a public holiday (amber).

Hover over a cell for the breakdown: capacity and what reduced it, bookings, task load, approved time, reservations, service-desk load, and how many hours are free or over.

The Range column totals each person’s load against their capacity for the weeks shown, and the Team row adds up everyone on screen.

Screenshot placeholder: the capacity grid with an over-allocated week and a row opened to its projects and reservations.

Capacity

Capacity = the person’s weekly hours, spread over Monday to Friday, less approved leave and their region’s approved public holidays. A half day of leave takes half a day. Leave that is still awaiting approval doesn’t reduce capacity; see Leave and Regions.

Each person’s weekly capacity (for example 38) is set on Settings > Users, so part-timers plan correctly.

Load

A week’s load is the total of:

Project work. For each project, the larger of the hours booked, the remaining estimate of the person’s scheduled tasks that week, and the time they’ve had approved. Bookings and task estimates describe the same work, so they’re never added together.
Reservations. Hours set aside for work that isn’t a project, such as the service desk rota, pre-sales or training.
Service-desk load. Ticket work from Autotask. This shows as zero until your Autotask connection brings in ticket time.

Load % is load divided by capacity. A week with load but no capacity at all (everyone on leave, say) is flagged rather than shown as a percentage.

Book someone on a project

Go to Capacity and select a person’s name to open their row. It opens one line per project they’re booked on.
Type the hours into the week. Press Enter or move away to save. The cell updates straight away.
To book them on another project, choose it from Book on a project… at the bottom of their row, then type the hours.

To remove a booking, clear the hours or set them to zero.

Anyone with a Planner seat can book anyone on any project; choose a project in the filter to plan its team. Booking people is planning, so a project manager needs a Planner seat to do it. If a save is refused (someone changed it at the same moment, or you can’t book that project), the grid goes back to how it was and tells you why.

Bookings live only in ProjectSmith. Autotask has no equivalent, so nothing is written to Autotask when you book someone.

Reserve hours away from projects

Open a row and type a name into Reserve hours for… (for example Service desk), select Add, then type the hours into each week. Reserved hours count as load, so the person shows as busy for that part of the week.

Everyone can reserve their own hours. A Planner can set reservations for anyone.

Filter to one project

Choose a project in the filter at the top. Each cell then shows the hours booked on that project, while the colour still reflects the person’s whole load, so someone already full on other work still shows red.

Common questions

Why does someone show load I didn’t book? It’s the remaining estimate of their scheduled tasks, time they’ve had approved, a reservation, or service-desk load. The cell’s breakdown shows which.

Why is a week’s capacity lower than usual? Approved leave or a public holiday in their region. The dot on the cell and the breakdown show which days.

Can Members change their own bookings? Only on a project they manage. Members can always reserve their own hours.