Maintaining Resource Schedules

This chapter provides an overview of resource schedule maintenance and discusses how to work with resource schedules.

Understanding Resource Schedule Maintenance

Resource schedule maintenance is an essential part of effectively managing resources in PeopleSoft Resource Management. PeopleSoft 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.

Prerequisites

Before you work with resource schedules, you must:

Define resource schedule options.

See Setting Up 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 Establishing Resources.

Task Categories

Every entry in a resource schedule is associated with a task category. Task categories are used in Resource Matching and in 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.
Company Holiday: Select to designate organization holidays that are defined in the Holiday Date record (HOLIDAY_DATE).
Planned Leave: Select to schedule a resource's planned leave.
Meeting: Select to schedule the resource to attend a meeting.
Nonbillable External: Select to designate a nonbillable, external (customer) assignment for the resource.
Nonbillable Internal: Select to designate a nonbillable, 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 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 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 chapter on enabling resource schedules.

Assignments and Appointments

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 nonbillable rate for internal or external customers.

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

Holidays

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. In addition, resources can refresh holidays on their schedules by initiating the Holiday Load Application Engine process (RS_HOLIDAY) directly from the monthly schedule.

Notification Messages

During 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.

Working with Resource Schedules

The resource schedules that you can view or modify are based on your user role. When you navigate to the My Monthly Schedule folder, the schedule that appears is associated with your user login. If you have access to other resource schedules, you can navigate to the Monthly Schedules folder option and select a resource schedule to view or modify.

This section discusses how to:

View or modify a resource schedule.
Maintain holidays and third-party calendars.

Pages Used to Work with Resource Schedules

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Monthly Schedule - Resource Search	RS_SCHED_MONTHSRCH	Resource Management, Maintain Schedules, Monthly Schedules	Search for
Monthly Schedule	RS_SCHED_MONTH	Resource Management, Maintain Schedules, Monthly Schedules Resource Management, Maintain Schedules, My Monthly Schedule, Click View Monthly Schedule on the Assign Resource page. Click the View monthly calendar icon for a resource in the Search Results or Considering grid on the Express Search page (RS_EXPRESS_SEARCH). Click the Monthly Calendar icon for a resource on the Staffing Workbench.	View and modify your monthly schedule or the monthly schedule of resources, based on the security access of your user role.
Daily Schedule	RS_SCHED_DAILY	Click the numeric day of the month link on the Monthly Schedule page if an appointment or assignment occurs on that day. (If there are no schedule entries on that day, the day of the month link accesses the Appointment Details page.)	View the resource's daily schedule in half-hourly increments.
Weekly Schedule	RS_SCHED_WEEKWIDE	Click the This week link on the Daily Schedule page.	View the resource's weekly schedule.

Viewing or Modifying Resource Schedules

This section discusses how to view or modify a resource's appointments or assignments from the:

Monthly schedule
Daily schedule
Weekly schedule

Monthly Schedule

Access the Monthly Schedule page.

The first two schedule entries for each day appear on the page.

To manage schedules using the Monthly Schedule page:

Click the arrow indicators to navigation to the next or previous month or year.
Select a specific month and year to jump to a different period.
If there are no schedule entries for a day, click the date link to access the Appointment Details page and create a new appointment.
If there are schedule entries for a day, click the date link to access the Daily Schedule page.
Click an assignment description link to access the Assign Resource page and view details about the assignment.
Click an appointment description link to access the Appointment Details page and view details about the appointment.

Note. An appointment description that is not a link indicates that a task cannot be modified. For example, holidays that are loaded by the Holiday Load process cannot be modified from the resource schedule.

Daily Schedule

Access the Daily Schedule page.

The daily schedule provides a quick overview of tasks for a given day in half-hourly increments. Tasks include a description of the actual task start time, end time, and activity information. Multiple tasks within the half hour appear in order of start time. Highlighting indicates when a task overlaps with another task in a given time period.

The Daily Schedule page functions much like the other schedule pages:

Use the arrow indicators to scroll to the next or previous day.
Click the time link to access the Appointment Details page to create a new appointment.
Click an appointment or assignment description link to view details about the entry on the Appointment Details page or the Assign Resource page.

Weekly Schedule

Access the Weekly Schedule page.

The Weekly Schedule page functions much like the other schedule pages:

Use the arrow indicators to navigate to the next or previous week.
If there are no entries on a day, click the date link to access the Appointment Details page to create a new appointment.
If there are entries on a day, click the date link to access the Daily Schedule page.
Click an appointment or assignment description link to view details about the entry on the Appointment Details page or the Assign Resource page.

Maintaining Holidays

Access the Monthly Schedule page.

Update Employee’s Holidays

Click to initiate the Holiday Load process to refresh holidays on the resource schedule. All of the holidays that are associated with the holiday schedule are inserted into the resource schedule as tasks with the task category HOLIDAY. The refresh process occurs in the background in real time. A message indicates when the process is complete.

Use this button when a resource accepts a future-dated job change that changes the resource's holiday schedule.

Scheduling Appointments

This section discusses how to:

Enter appointment details.
Send a schedule change notification.
View assignment information.

Pages Used to Schedule Appointments

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Appointment Details	RS_SCHED_APPT	Resource Management, Maintain Schedules, Monthly Schedules, Monthly ScheduleClick a numeric date link on the Monthly Schedule page. Resource Management, Maintain Schedules, My Monthly Schedule, Monthly Schedule Click the date link on the Monthly Schedule page. Click a numeric date link on the Monthly Schedule page. Click a time link on the Daily Schedule page. Click an appointment description link on the Monthly Schedule, Weekly Schedule, or Daily Schedule page.	Add, view, or modify an appointment.
Notification Message	RS_SCHED_WFNOTIFY	Click Save on the Appointment Details page.	Send an email notification to the resource or resource manager if a schedule changes.
Assign Resource	RS_ASSIGN_MAIN	Click an assignment description link in the Maintain Schedules component.	View or modify assignment details.

Entering Appointment Details

Access the Appointment Details page.

Start Date

Enter the appointment start date. For a new appointment, the default value is the current system date.

Start Time

Enter the time of day when the appointment starts. For a new appointment, the default value is the standard start time that is specified during implementation.

Task Duration

Enter the number of Hours and Minutes per day that the resource spends on the appointment.

The default value is the standard hours per work day that is specified during implementation on the Installation Options - Resource Management page, except when you create an appointment from the Daily Schedule page. In that case, the default value is 1.00.

Category

Enter the appointment task category. Available values are based on the user role and options that are selected during implementation on the Installation Options - Resource Management page.

Occurrence Information

Create entries for a recurring appointment in the Occurrence Information group box.

Repeat	Enter the appointment frequency. Options are: Daily: Select for events that recur every workday. Monthly by Date: Select for events that recur every month on the same date of the month. Monthly by Day: Select for events that recur every month on the same day of the month, such as the second Tuesday of each month. You must also select a value in the Repeat for Month field. Once: Select for events that only occur at the day, date, and time entered. This is the default value. Weekly: Select for events that recur every week on the same day of the week. Yearly: Select for events that recur every year at the same month, date, and time.
Interval	Enter the appointment frequency interval. For example, enter an interval of 3 with a repeat value of Weekly to schedule the appointment every third week.
Until	Enter the final date of the recurring appointment.
For Month	Enter a value if the event repeats monthly by day. Options are: from first: Select to have the system count forward from the first day of the month to schedule the recurring event. For example, an appointment that starts on Thursday, January 1, and repeats monthly by day until December 31 is scheduled on the first Thursday of every month from January through December. from last: Select to have the system count back from the last day of the month to schedule the recurring event. For example, an appointment that starts on Friday, January 30, and repeats monthly by day until December 31 is scheduled on the last Friday of every month from January through December. This field is available only if the repeat value is Monthly by Day.

Appointment Conflicts

Access the Daily Schedule page.

Conflicting events are highlighted on the Daily Schedule page.

Sending a Schedule Change Notification

Access the Notification Message page.

If email notification options are active, the Notification Message page appears when you save a new or modified appointment.

During implementation on the Installation Options - Resource Management page, you can select the option to send the message to the resource, resource manager, or both. You also select the tasks that, when changed by the resource, the resource manager, or the staffing manager, trigger the workflow.

Note

Enter additional comments to explain the change.

Click to commit the appointment to the schedule and send the notification message to the indicated recipients.

Note. The E-Mail To field appears blank on the Notification Message page if there are no email addresses established for the user IDs that are associated with the recipients. When you click OK on the Notification Message page, a warning appears indicating that no email message was sent because no recipients are defined on the message. The appointment is committed to the schedule. Click OK to close the warning message.

Cancel

Click to cancel the message, discard the save attempt, and return to the Appointment Details page.

Note. When workflow is activated, the appointment will not save until you click OK on the notification message.

Viewing Assignment Information

Access the Assign Resource page.

The Assign Resource page appears when you click an assignment description link from the monthly, daily, or weekly resource schedule.

Your user role and the options that are selected during implementation determine if you can modify the assignment, change assignment dates, or merely review assignment details.

Start Date	Enter the appointment start date. For a new appointment, the default value is the current system date.
Start Time	Enter the time of day when the appointment starts. For a new appointment, the default value is the standard start time that is specified during implementation.
Task Duration	Enter the number of Hours and Minutes per day that the resource spends on the appointment. The default value is the standard hours per work day that is specified during implementation on the Installation Options - Resource Management page, except when you create an appointment from the Daily Schedule page. In that case, the default value is 1.00.
Category	Enter the appointment task category. Available values are based on the user role and options that are selected during implementation on the Installation Options - Resource Management page.