Company Capacity Board

Before using the Company Capacity Board, the micro level project plan must be setup. The micro view allows you to setup the project plan for an individual project, without taking into account staff hours.

The steps to create the plan for the project level are:

1. Build a list of sub project tasks using the work breakdown structure, to create the project budget.
2. Schedule the sub project tasks to be completed at a set date/time using the project planning board.
3. Resource the project tasks, by checking the staff availability in the capacity board, and assigning a staff member to complete each of the planned project tasks.

Once the micro view of the project has been created, the planning and capacity levels can be checked at a macro level. The macro level allows managers to view all the tasks that are required to be complete for all planned projects, and deciding which staff will complete the project tasks.

1. Schedule the project tasks for the entire company or office location using the company planning board.
2. Resource the project tasks for the entire company, by checking the staff availability for the entire company or an office location, and assigning staff to complete the planned project tasks.

This topic will explain how to check the staff capacity levels available for the company, to determine which staff are available to be assigned to complete each of the project tasks (Step 2).

The capacity board helps you plan which staff have been over or under planned to complete the project tasks by checking the following information in the capacity graph:

1. AllocatedThe blue area in the graph is shown for tasks that already allocated / planned. The items have been planned with the rate or staff member detail across all the Synergy projects. The tasks can be scheduled using either the project or company level planning boards.
2. CapacityThe grey area in the graph displays capacity for the staff members, rates, or the maximum hours that staff in the office location are available to complete project tasks this month.

1. The hours are shown on the left side of the graph, to help you determine the number of allocated hours or the maximum hours of capacity for each date.
2. The date is shown across the bottom of the graph, displaying the date for each day of the month selected in the calendar.
3. Graph displays the capacity and allocated hours for your primary office by default. If your staff record has been setup with access to multiple office locations, then switch between the office capacity boards using the office filter.
4. Screen filters allow the graph to be adjusted to display the capacity for a selected office location,all staff that report to a selected manager, a single staff rate type, a single staff member, and use the calendar to toggle which month is displayed in the graph.

Choose which month is displayed in the Capacity board by selecting a month from the calendar. The calendar panel is shown on the left side of the capacity board. The calendar opens to display the current year by default.

Choose a different year by:

1. Using the Next or Previous year buttons.
2. Then click the month name in the calendar panel, to choose which month is shown in the capacity graph.

Change the capacity board to update the graph with the capacity details for the selected office location. This is the office location chosen on each of the projects. The names in the staff filter are also updated, to only show staff that work in the selected office location. Office locations are only shown to staff that have access enabled for that office location within Practice > Staff and Application Security List.

For example a manager is setup with access to both the Brisbane and Sydney office. Use the filter to check the capacity in each of the office locations separately. Click the images in the table below to view that the Brisbane office has had too many project tasks allocated in the second week of October. The number of allocated hours is greater than the number of hours available capacity for all the Brisbane office staff. The Sydney office shows that they have some available time to complete project tasks.

View the capacity details for a team or department by using the reports to filter. The filter is located in the top toolbar of the capacity board, and displays all the staff managers for the selected office location. The board displays the totals for all staff that report to the selected manager, where the capacity in grey shows the total number of hours available for all staff that report to the manager, and the total number of hours allocated for all the staff linked to the manager are shown in blue.

The 'reports to' is setting from the staff record, which is found at Practice > Staff and Application Security List. The staff filter in the left panel is updated to display all staff that report to the selected manager.

Steps to use the reports to filter:

1. Select the office location using the office filter in the top toolbar.
2. Select the manager from the reports to filter in the top toolbar.
3. The capacity graph is updated to display the capacity and scheduled information for all of the staff linked to that manager.

Click the image above to see the Capacity board for all staff that report to Simon Waters.

Use the rates filter to view the capacity and allocated hours for each of the staff rates setup in Synergy. The filter updates the capacity board to show the information for the rate selected, and calculates the hours displayed based on the items added to the office and project planning boards.

Steps to use the rates filter:

1. Select the office location from the office filter in the top toolbar.
2. Select a rate from the rates filter panel.
3. The capacity graph is updated to only show the capacity and allocated hours for the selected rate/office combination.

The rate filter display options are:

1. AllDisplays the capacity and allocated hours for all the rates. This is the default rate filter applied to the capacity board.
2. Not AllocatedDisplays the capacity and allocated hours for items, where no rate is allocated to the item on the planning board. Not allocated rate items display the text 'Any rate' in the planning board. Use the 'By Rate' display option in the planning board to see the unallocated rate items.
3. Selected RateSelect a rate to update the capacity board to display only the capacity details for that rate. When a rate is selected, the staff filter table updates to display only those staff members who are setup to use the selected rate.

Click the image above to view the capacity board for the 'Associate Director' rate for the Sydney office location.

The staff filter allows you to view the available capacity and allocated hours for each staff member. The staff shown in the staff panel will change based on the office location selected using the office filter in the top toolbar. The capacity graph is updated to show the items that have been assigned to the staff member on the project or company level planning boards. The appointment added to the planning board must have the staff member assigned to it, for the allocated details to be shown in the graph for that staff member. If there is no staff member assigned to the planning board item, it will be shown under the 'Not allocated' filter option.

Steps to use the staff filter:

1. Select the office location from the office filter in the top toolbar.
2. Select a staff member from the staff filter panel.
3. The capacity graph is updated to show the capacity for the selected office/staff combination.

Staff capacity filter options available:

1. AllDisplays the capacity for all staff members in the office location. This is the default staff filter applied to the capacity board.
2. Not AllocatedDisplays the capacity details for the office location where the planned items have no staff member assigned. Not allocated items display the text 'Any staff' in the planning board when using the 'By Staff' display option.
3. Selected Staff MemberSelect a staff member from the list, to view the capacity for only that staff member. Items are only shown here as allocated if the staff member has been assigned to the task on the planning board.

Click the image to see the staff filter applied to the board to check 'Robert Howards's' capacity.

Use the refresh button to make sure that all planned tasks are shown in the Capacity board. The refresh button is shown in the top right corner of the capacity board. After refreshing the page the calendar resets to the default setting of displaying this month, and the rates and staff filters reset to 'All'. The reports to, and office filters shown in the top toolbar are not reset when using refresh.

Re-select the required date, and staff and rate filters.

The office calendar defines which days of the week the office is open by default, and how many hours each staff member will work on each day of the week. The staff calendar overrides the office settings, and uses a custom working days or hours calendar. The individual staff calendar would need to be updated for part-time staff, or staff that work on weekends. The calendar settings control the capacity shown in grey in the graph.

Office calendar example

The office is closed on weekends, therefore the capacity for weekend dates is always shown as 0 hours for the entire office. Each office location has a calendar setup to define the default days of the week worked, and the default number of hours available to work.

For example the office calendar is setup to only work on weekdays, and the standard number of hours worked is 8. Hours/days outside of the time listed are not used in the capacity calculations, as only the office working hours are counted as allocated hours.

Click the image above to view a setup office calendar.

The Company Capacity board use the office settings as the default for planned project tasks where no staff member has been assigned. The default working days of Monday to Friday, and 8 available working hours are also applied as the default calendar for each staff member in the office. This controls the capacity (shown in grey) to show that each staff member is available to work 5 days per week at 8 hours a day. For the weekend days each staff member is shown to have 0 hours availability.

Click the image above to view the office setting effect on the capacity graph.

Tip: To adjust the working days, or standard hours worked per day, use the Staff Calendars. Changing the staff calendars will adjust the one staff member to have different days/hours of availability in the capacity board.

Staff Calendar example

The working hours and days of week can be defined separately for each user in the individual staff calendar. For example if a staff member works part time, update their staff calendar to reflect the days they are in the office (Monday to Thursday only), and how many hours they are expected to work (7 hours instead of the office default of 8).

Click the image above to view the staff calendar for the user 'David Choice'.

The staff calendar settings change the capacity (shown in grey) in the capacity board. The capacity will be displayed at the height of the number of hours entered on the staff calendar, and shown as on the days selected for that staff member to be available.

For example Jill works 7 hours a day, and only on Monday to Thursday. In the capacity board the filter to only show the user 'Jill Lockhart' has been applied. The board shows that Jill can work a maximum of 7 hours per day, which is taken from the staff calendar setting for working hours. Three days also display as having 0 work hours available, as Jill does not work on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Click the image above to view the capacity for the user 'Jill Lockhart' who works on a part-time basis.

Entering the staff calendar details changes the office capacity view

After a staff record has been updated to work less days per week, the capacity shown for the office view will also reflect this. For example Jill Lockhart does not work on Friday's. After updating Jill's staff calendar to reflect this, the office capacity is shown as lower on each Friday as it is taking into account the staff calendar settings.

Click the image above to see the capacity altered in the entire office view, after setting Jill to work part-time.