Availability All Editions
For a successful resource management, you need a reliable capacity calculation. Learn below how configuring calendars can support you in this.
- Basics
- Managing Calendars
- Default Calendar/FTE
- Availability/Capacity of a Resource
- Resource Capacity Calculation
- Examples
Basics
Managing Calendars
Under Manage > Calendars (Working Hours), you can view and edit calendars and their exceptions as well as define the default calendar:
You can create different calendars, for example, for other offices with different public holidays. Additionally, you can create derived calendars. For example, a calendar for part-time employees with the same public holidays but different weekly working hours.
Learn more in the Managing Calendars (Working Hours) article.
Default Calendar/FTE
The definition of 1 FTE in your system depends on the weekly working hours of the default calendar and its calendar exceptions. 1 FTE refers to the sum of the working hours within a certain time period and may vary between different weeks (f. ex., in a week with a public holiday, 1 FTE equals fewer hours.)
Find more details on the FTE calculation in the Full Time Equivalent article.
Availability/Capacity of a Resource
The availability or capacity of a resource is defined by the resource’s calendar. The capacity consists of the weekly working hours and the calendar exceptions (public holidays) defined in the respective calendar.
You can adjust the capacity of a resource by adding absences (f.ex., vacation days) in the detail view of this resource:
The percentage entered refers to the capacity set in the calendar. You can enter capacity changes of a resource for any time period. You can also enter different capacities for different time periods for a resource.
Changes always apply to all scenarios. For bulk importing, we recommend using the Quick Import for Resource Absences.
Resource Capacity Calculation
In the Portfolio Designer, the green line in a resource's histogram displays the calculated capacity in FTE. The resource's capacity is displayed in relation to the standard FTE in any time range (e.g., one week or one month).
The following formular applies to all of time periods available for selection:
Resource Capacity in FTE = Resource Capacity in Hours / Weekly Working Hours of the Default Calendar
The resource capacity in hours consists of the working hours in the calendar and the capacity (in percent) of the individual resource for this time period.
Example: According to the default calendar, there are 160 working hours for October 2021, but the resource “Sophie Aaron” has only 50% capacity for this month. Therefore, she has a capacity of 80 hours for this month:
As a formula:
Resource Capacity in Hours = Working Hours in the Resource’s Calendar * Resource Capacity (in %)
For all time periods where there is no changed capacity, the resource capacity is 100% of the calendar hours.
Examples
Below, you can find different options for displaying reduced capacities of your employees in Meisterplan, both temporary and permanent reductions. Of course, you can combine the different options as needed.
One Calendar for All Employees
If you have only few employees working part-time, or many different part-time options, it may be advisable to use only one calendar. For the different part-time options, you can create capacity changes per employee.
Create a calendar with the default working hours:
This is the default calendar, so 1 FTE in a week without exceptions equals 40 hours, and in a week with one exception, 1 FTE equals 32 hours.
Next, create an absence for each part-time employee in their resource detail view:
If you do not specify a start and finish date, the absence is permanent.
A capacity of 50 % equals 0.5 FTE, that is, 20 hours in a week without exceptions. In a week with one exception, 0.5 FTE equal 16 hours.
Full-Time and Part-Time Calendar
If you have several employees with the same part-time model, we recommend displaying the capacity of these employees using a derived calendar. The derived calendar receives its holidays and other exceptions from its source calendar, but you can edit the working hours:
All employees with this calendar have a capacity of 100% of this part-time calendar. This equals 0.5 FTE of the default calendar or 20 hours for a week with no exceptions.
Work Days with Differing Hours
Derived calendars are also useful for displaying special working models:
An employee with this calendar has a capacity 40 hours, which equals 1 FTE in a week with no exceptions.
In a week with a holiday on a Friday, 1 FTE of the default calendar equals 32 hours. The employee with the above-mentioned calendar has a capacity of 36 hours in this week, that is 36/32 = 1.125 FTE.
In a week with a holiday on a Monday, 1 FTE equals 32 hours. The employee with the above-mentioned calendar has a capacity of 31 hours, that is, 31/32 = 0.96875 FTE.