Detailed Planning Tab
This section includes the fields and descriptions for the Detailed Planning tab.
Plan Island
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Start Date | In this field, you can specify the date on which the detailed planning should start. If “Week” has been selected in the field “Planning Unit,” the starting date will always be the Monday in the week in question. |
| Day of the Week | This field displays on which weekday the starting date falls. If “Week” has been selected in the field “Planning Unit,” this field will have the value “Monday.” If “Day” has been selected as planning unit, this field can contain any weekday.
If you change the value in this field, Maconomy will adjust the starting date in the field “Starting Date” to the first coming weekday that corresponds to the weekday in this field, and which is equal to or after the date already specified in the field “Starting Date.” |
| Week | In this field, you can enter a week number. If you enter a week number, the starting date will be adjusted to the first weekday in the specified week in the year specified in the field “Year.” If you do not enter a specific week, this field will display the week number of the current week. |
| Year | In this field, you can enter a year. If you do not enter a specific year, this field will display the year of the starting date entered in the field “Starting Date.” |
| Planning Unit | This field can have either the value “Week” or the value “Day,” and it defines the time span to be displayed in the window. If, for example, you select the value “Week,” each planning slot unit in the table part will indicate a period covering a week. If you have selected the value “4” in the field “Units Shown,” you can plan four weeks ahead in time.
Moreover, the value in this field indicates whether the number of hours in the fields in the island Employee Availability are shown per day or per week. Maconomy remembers the value selected in this field by the user in question and displays the same value the next time that the user opens this window. |
| Number of Units Shown | This field can have a value between 1 and 10. The value in this field specifies the number of planning slots to be included in the planning section shown in the table part of the window. If the planning unit is specified as, for example, a week, and you enter the value “4” in this field, it means that it will be possible to plan for 4 weeks ahead, which also means that you can only enter hours in the first four planning slots. |
Availability Overview Island
In this island you can select up to ten employees for planning. It will only be possible to select employees set up with the Hour Time Unit.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Employee Information No. | In these fields, you can enter the numbers of ten employees. Each time that this window is opened, Maconomy remembers and shows the values in these fields previously entered by the user opening the window. See also the description of the Keep field. |
| Employee Information Name | This field displays the name of the employee specified in the field “Employee No.” |
| Planning Time, Day | This column shows the planning time for the employee specified in the field “Employee No.” for the detailed plan’s first planning unit. The unit in this field will be either “Day” or “Week,” depending on the value selected in the field “Planning Unit.” See “Central Terms in The Resource Planning Module” in the introduction to this module for further information on planning time. |
| Planning Time, Total | This column shows the total planning time for the employee specified in the field “Employee No.” for the selected time span defined in the island Plan. See “Central Terms in The Resource Planning Module” in the introduction to this module for further information on planning time. |
| Planned Time, Day | This column shows the number of hours planned for the employee in the detailed plan’s first planning unit. The unit in this field will be either “Day” or “Week,” depending on the value selected in the field “Planning Unit.” |
| Planned Time, Total | This column shows the total number of hours planned for the employee in the selected time span of the detailed plan. The selected time span is defined in the island Plan. |
| Remaining Time, Day | This column shows the remaining time available, compared to the time planned for the employee specified in the field “Employee No.” The value in this field is thus calculated as the value in the field “Planning Time, Unit,” minus the value in the field “Planned time, Unit.” A negative value in this field means that the employee is planned to work for more hours than his fixed number of working hours. The unit in this field will be either “Day” or “Week,” depending on the value selected in the field “Planning Unit.” |
| Remaining Time, Total | This column displays the total remaining time available, compared to the planned time of the time span for the employee. The value in this field is thus calculated as the value in the field “Planning Time, Total,” minus the value in the field “Planned time, Total.” A negative value in this field means that the employee is planned to work for more hours than his fixed number of working hours. |
| Load %, Day | This column shows the employee’s work load in percentages per day/week for the first unit. The load percentage corresponds to the part of the employee’s planning time for which hours have been planned. This means that if the employee’s planning time is 30 hours per week, and 15 hours have been planned for the employee in the week in question, this field will contain the value 50%. |
| Load %, Total | This column shows the employee’s total work load in percentages for the selected time span defined in the field “Units Shown.” The load percentage corresponds to the part of the employee’s planning time for which hours have been planned. This means that if the employee’s planning time is 30 hours per week, and 15 hours have been planned for the employee in the week in question, this field will contain the value 50%. |
| Keep | If you mark this field, Maconomy is not allowed to automatically change the employee shown on the current line. When you change information on a line in the table part of the window, Maconomy checks whether the employee entered on the line is shown in the island Employee Availability. If this is not the case, Maconomy will, if possible, insert this employee into the island Employee Availability. In this case, Maconomy will select an unused row if the field “Keep” is not marked for the row in question, and if there is an unused row. If all rows are in use, Maconomy will select the “oldest” row, that is, the row containing an employee for whom changes have not been made for the longest period in time.
By marking this field, you can ensure that information about the employee specified on the line in question will be maintained and thus always shown in the island Employee Availability. |
Selection Criteria Island
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Show Lines | In this field, you can mark whether or not the table part of the window should show the lines matching the criteria specified in this island. For performance reasons, it can be advantageous not to have lines shown before all selection criteria have been specified. |
| Empl. Category No. | In these fields, you can enter a range of employee category numbers. Only planning lines assigned to employee category numbers within the specified range will be shown in the table part of the window. |
| Empl. No. | In these fields, you can enter a range of employee numbers. Only planning lines assigned to employees with numbers within the specified range will be shown in the table part of the window. |
| Project Manager No. | In this field, you can enter a project manager number. Only planning lines assigned to jobs having the specified employee as project manager will be shown in the table part of the window. |
| Job No. | In these fields, you can enter a range of employee numbers. Only planning lines assigned to job numbers within the specified range will be shown in the table part of the window. |
| Company No. | In these fields, you can enter a range of company numbers. Only planning lines assigned to company numbers within the specified range will be shown in the table part of the window. |
| Activity No. | In these fields, you can enter a range of activity numbers. Only planning lines assigned to activity numbers within the specified range will be shown in the table part of the window. |
| Task | In these fields, you can enter a range of task numbers. Only planning lines assigned to task numbers within the specified range will be shown in the table part of the window. |
| Booking Type | In this field, you can select one of the three booking types “Preliminary,” “Requested,” or “Confirmed.” Only planning lines having the specified booking type will be shown in the table part of the window and will be affected when you select the actions “Delete Allocations,” “Replace Employee” or one of the three actions for converting the booking type. If the field is left blank, planning lines with allocations of any of the three types will be shown in the table part and will be affected by the above actions. For more information about booking types, see “Booking Type.” |
Transfer to Slot Island
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Started | In this field, you can enter a starting time which you want to transfer to the planning slot. If you enter a starting time in this field, it will be transferred to the planning slot when you change the number of hours for a day on a line in the table part of the window. Once the starting time has been transferred to the planning slot, the field is cleared so that you do not accidentally transfer the starting time to other planning slots. Note that you can only transfer a starting time when the planning unit is “Day.” The times can be viewed and edited in the window Employee Calendars. |
| Finished | In this field, you can enter a finishing time which you want to transfer to the planning slot. For more information, see the description of the field “Started” above. Note that you cannot enter a starting and a finishing time at the same time. |
| Remarks | In this field, you can enter a remark which you want to transfer to the planning slot. For more information, see the description of the field “Started” above. |
Allocation Island
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Range | The two pop-up fields in this field determine the date range within which Maconomy should distribute hours in the detailed planning when hours are specified in the field “Distribute Quantity” in the table part. In the first field, you can select an option determining the starting date of the date range. Note that if the date specified in the field “Never Before” below is before the starting date in this field, the distribution of hours will never be before that date, regardless of the option selected in this field. The default value of the first field is “Planned Starting Date,” but you can choose from the following options:
Note that regardless of the selected strategy, Maconomy will never distribute so many hours to a given employee on a given date that the total distribution for the employee on this date exceeds the employee’s maximum number of working hours for the date. The employee’s maximum working hours for the employee on a given date is found in the employee revision applying on the date in question. For further information about employee revisions, see “Date-Dependent Employee Revisions” in the introduction to the window Employees. In addition, Maconomy will never distribute hours on a task before the date specified in the field “Estimate Date” in the table part, if an estimate has been specified for the task. |
| Never Before | In this field, you can enter a date. This date will be used as the starting date when Maconomy distributes hours specified in the field “Distribute Quantity” in the table part, regardless of whether any starting date has been specified in the first range field above. In other words, Maconomy will never distribute hours before the date in this field. By default, the date will be today’s date, but you can change it. If the date is blank, the first date used for distribution will be determined by the date specified in the field “Start Date” in the island Plan.
Note that if you convert the allocation type of a planning line, either manually or by means of the actions in this window, allocations on dates before the date specified in this field will not be converted. |
| Method | In this field, you can select a distribution method to be used when allocating hours to a given employee. The following options are available:
The distribution method selected in this field applies to the planning unit specified in the field “Planning Unit,” that is, the planning unit determines how the distribution method should be applied to the planning lines. In this connection you should note that if the current planning unit is “Week,” the selected method will apply to weeks, but within each week the hours are applied to the days as if the distribution method “Early Allocation” had been selected. If the current planning unit is “Days,” the selected method will apply as described in the above options. |
| Fixed Number of Hours | If the distribution method “Repeating Allocation” has been selected, you must specify the number of hours to be repeatedly allocated to each relevant unit in this field. See the above description of the distribution method “Repeating Allocation” for further information on the functionality of this field. |
| Include Days Off | If you mark this field, Maconomy will include days off for the allocation of the hours specified. Specifying that days off should be Unattainable considered implies that if all hours specified could not be distributed on working days including any allowed overtime registered for the employee in question, Maconomy will attempt to distribute any remainder of hours on days off (nonworking days, for example, weekends). If only part of the hours can be allocated this way, Maconomy will issue an error message. If this field is not marked, days off are considered equal to absence days, on which no hours can be allocated to an employee. Note that this option cannot be selected for the distribution method “Repeating Allocation.” |
| Unattainable | In this field, you can choose how the system should react if a requested number of hours cannot be allocated to the employee in question. You can select one of the following two options:
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Delete Allocation Island
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Employee | In these fields, you can specify the name and number of an employee to be used when either of the actions “Delete Allocations” or “Replace Employee” is selected. Depending on which of the two actions you select, the hours allocated in the detailed planning to the employee specified in these fields will be either deleted or transferred to the employee specified in the “Employee” fields in the island Replace Allocation. If an employee has not been specified in these fields, allocations for all employees matching the selection criteria in the island “Selection Criteria” will be deleted/transferred when one of the above actions is selected. |
| Date Range | In these fields, you can enter a date range. This date range specifies the period for which allocations will be deleted or reallocated, respectively, when selecting the actions “Delete Allocations” or “Replace Employee.” This date range will always be used in connection with these two actions, regardless of the time span selected in the island Plan.
The default values of these fields cover the period from the current date to the end of the time span specified in the island Plan, but you can change the dates as required. Note, however, that if you leave the first or last of these two fields blank, all allocations included in the selection criteria and assigned to the employee specified in this island, if any, will be deleted/reallocated back or forward in time, respectively. |
Replace Allocation Island
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Employee | In these fields, you must specify the name and number of the employee to whom the hours allocated to the employee specified in the “Employee” fields in the island Delete Allocation should be transferred when the action “Replace Employee” is selected. |
Redistribute Allocation Island
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Keep Distribution | This field is used in connection with the action “Replace Employee” to specify whether or not the hours to be transferred to a new employee should be reallocated using the existing allocation of hours on weeks/days.
If this field is marked, the allocations in question will be transferred directly to the new employee with no changes to the existing allocation of hours on weeks/days, that is, for each day only the employee will be changed, not the number of hours allocated. However, if the planning unit selected in the island “Plan” is “Week,” the allocations in question are considered kept as long as each week covered by the allocation period is reallocated as many hours as originally planned. This means that the hours may be reallocated within each week with consideration to any other hours planned for the employee on the days in question. If this field is not marked, the existing allocations will be transferred to the new employee within the period in which the hours were originally allocated. The hours to be reallocated will be transferred in either of two ways: If an identical planning line already exists for the employee, the hours will be reallocated automatically within the period in question. If an identical line does not exist, the system will create a planning line, and the hours to be reallocated will be added to the value of the field “Distribute Quantity” on the line. See also the description of the action “Replace Employee.” |
Properties Island
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Use Previous Ranges | In this field, you can select which range of job budget lines to be included when the action “Create Plan from Job Budgets” is used. This field is also used for determining which planning lines should be shown in the table part of the window. If you mark this field, Maconomy will include all job budget lines on which the date in the field “First Possible Starting Date” in the window Job Budgets is earlier than the last date of the selected planning section. If you do not mark this field, the date specified in the field “Planned Starting Date” will be used instead of the date in the field “First Possible Starting Date.” |
| Ignore Blank Dates | This field is used in connection with the field “Use Previous Ranges” above. If you mark this field, Maconomy will not include planning lines having a blank value in the field “First Possible Starting Date.” Alternatively, if the field “Use Previous Ranges” is not marked, Maconomy will not include planning lines having a blank value in the field “Planned Starting Date.” |
| Resolve Exceeding Task Alloc. | In this field, you can specify the strategy to be used when more hours have been planned on a given task in this window than specified on the job budget line that forms the basis of the planning. If you select a strategy in this field, Maconomy will try to solve the situation by removing the exceeding hours from one or more of those employees to whom hours on the task have been distributed in one of the following ways:
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