Understanding Resource Schedule Maintenance

Resource schedule maintenance is an essential part of effectively managing resources in PeopleSoft Resource Management. Resource Management uses the resource schedule to interactively manage a resource's scheduled tasks and availability. Resource Matching uses schedule data to calculate the availability of a qualified resource and compare it to the dates specified on a resource request.

Resource schedules appear in a simple calendar format for use by resources, managers, staffing coordinators, and other members of the organization who need to view or update schedules. You can view the current month and year or navigate to previous or future months and years. You can also drill down to a weekly or daily view of the schedule.

During implementation on the Installation Options - Resource Management page, you can specify which non-assignment task categories trigger a notification message to the resource and the resource manager if a manager with authority to modify resource schedules changes a task in the specified category in the resource schedule. You can also specify which non-assignment task categories trigger a notification message to the resource manager if a resource changes a task in the specified category.

This section lists prerequisites and discusses:

  • Task categories.

  • Assignments and appointments.

  • Holidays.

  • Notification messages.

Before you work with resource schedules, you must:

  • Define resource schedule options.

    See Defining Resource Management Installation Options.

  • Define task categories.

    See Defining Task Categories and Mapping to TRCs.

  • Define holidays.

    See Defining Holidays on Resource Schedules.

  • Establish eligible resources.

    See Understanding Resources.

  • If you use PeopleSoft Resource Management without Program Management, determine if you want to prevent the system from scheduling assignments on days that have a scheduled holiday.

    Before you can prevent the system from scheduling assignments on scheduled holidays, you must:

    • Select the Do not schedule assignments on Holidays option on the Installation Options - Resource Management page.

    • Specify a holiday schedule for each resource in the PeopleSoft Resource Management system.

    • Run the Holiday Load Application Engine process (RS_HOLIDAY) to enter the latest holidays on resource calendars.

Every entry in a resource schedule is associated with a task category. Task categories are used in Resource Matching and in PeopleSoft Resource Management reports. Most of the task categories are predefined in Resource Management; however, an organization can define additional task categories that are specific to its business needs.

The task categories are:

  • Billable External: Select to designate a billable, external (customer) assignment for the resource.

  • Billable Internal: Select to designate a billable, internal (company or agency) assignment for the resource.

  • Corporate Event: Select to schedule the resource to attend a company or agency event.

  • Education-College/Univ: Select to schedule the resource to participate in educational course work.

  • Scheduled Holiday: Designates organization holidays that are defined in the Holiday Date record (HOLIDAY_DATE).

    The Holiday Load process assigns this task category to holidays that it loads into resource calendars. You can also assign this task category when you create appointments manually.

  • Company Holiday: Select to designate holidays that are not defined in the Holiday Date record.

    This task category is not used by the Holiday Load process, and is not recognized as a scheduled holiday during assignment creation.

  • Planned Leave: Select to schedule a resource's planned leave.

  • Meeting: Select to schedule the resource to attend a meeting.

  • Non-billable External: Select to designate a non-billable, external (customer) assignment for the resource.

  • Non-billable Internal: Select to designate a non-billable, internal (company or agency) assignment for the resource.

  • Personal Time Off: Select to schedule a resource for personal time off.

  • Corporate Training: Select to schedule the resource to train for an assignment.

  • Vacation: Select to schedule a resource's vacation.

You can define additional task categories during PeopleSoft Resource Management implementation.

Each task category has a basic flexibility percentage that indicates the degree to which the task is a firm commitment or can be rescheduled. Assignment task categories also have a reserved status flexibility percentage that overrides the basic flexibility percentage if the task has the status Reserved. The Resource Matching feature evaluates the flexibility of the task category that is associated with appointments or assignments on a resource schedule when determining resource availability.

Task category codes, descriptions, and flexibility percentages are discussed in more detail in the topic on enabling resource schedules.

Resource schedule entries are classified as appointments or assignments, which have the following characteristics:

  • Appointments consist of meetings, corporate events, training and education, and any scheduled time away from work.

    You can enter appointments into a resource schedule manually.

  • Assignments consist of work that employees perform at a billable or non-billable rate for internal or external customers.

    You add assignments to resource schedules by running the PeopleSoft Resource Management assignment processes.

An organization defines its holidays in the employee source database. You can establish a single holiday calendar for the organization or different holiday calendars for each country. If changes are made to a holiday calendar that is associated with a resource, the changes are automatically applied to the resource's schedule when you run the Holiday Load Application Engine process (RS_HOLIDAY) from the Load Holidays page. Additionally, resources can refresh holidays on their schedules by initiating the Holiday Load process directly from the monthly schedule.

During PeopleSoft Resource Management implementation, you can set up workflow to trigger notifications when certain changes are made to the resource schedule. The workflow is triggered based on the task category of a new or modified appointment and the role of the user who makes the change. When schedule workflow is activated for a task category, any new appointments or changes to existing appointments in that task category automatically trigger a notification message to the resource or resource manager.