Resource Management people settings

Only Resourcing Administrators can set permission levels for people. By default, new people have Portfolio Viewer permission.

Change permission levels

1. Log into rm.smartsheet.com.
2. On the top right, select Settings > Account Settings. 
3. Select People from the left menu options. 
4. Select the role column and then, from the dropdown, select a new role for the person. 
5. Select Save. 

Project members

Project members need access to specific projects. They don't have assignments but with editor access, they can still run reports, schedule people, or update project settings. When you make someone a project member, the project will show up in their portfolio.

When you make a Portfolio Viewer, Portfolio Reporter, or People Scheduler project member on a project, they become editors on those projects.

Contractors can not be project members.

Resource management roles

Resourcing Administrator

People with Resourcing Administrator level (previously named Administrator) access can change company account settings, alter schedules, adjust bill rates, add/remove people and projects, reset passwords, and confirm others' time.

Portfolio Editor

People at the Portfolio Editor level (previously named Project Manager) can create new projects or modify any existing project in the system. They can also adjust schedules for any project and allocate anyone to different projects.

People Scheduler

The People Scheduler permission level (previously named Scheduler) is meant for people who make day-to-day changes to the Schedule but should not have access to the project's settings. They have all the permissions of the Portfolio Editor, except the ability to create/edit projects, add/invite people, edit account settings, edit people's profiles, and confirm others' time.

Portfolio Reporter

The Portfolio Reporter permission level (previously named Team Member) allows the person to see information on all projects and people within the organization, including budgets and other financial details. However, Portfolio Reporters cannot edit projects or assignments.

Portfolio Viewer

People with the Portfolio Viewer permission level (previously named Restricted Team Member) have the same access as Portfolio Reporters, except that they cannot see any financial details and Analytics.

Project Editor

People with the Project Editor permission level can create and manage projects but cannot access or modify the sensitive details of projects owned by others. They can assign people to their projects but cannot edit the assignments on projects owned by others. When assigned to someone else's project, Project Editors have the same access to that project as a Portfolio Viewer.

Contractor

These people can only view their page for time tracking and their projects. Contractors can account for time only on projects that they've been assigned to by a Resourcing Administrator or Portfolio Editor.

Permission levels and capabilities

The following table lists which capabilities each permission type allows a person to access.

*When mapped as another person's approver

**Only projects owned by the person

There is one Account Owner for each account. This person has Resourcing Admin permissions. They are the user that registers for the free trial or signs the contract for the paid account. Learn how to change the Account Owner.

While individuals may have different roles or disciplines for projects, you can only assign one primary role and discipline per person.

Create roles or disciplines

1. Go to Settings > Account Settings.
2. On the left menu, select Roles or Disciplines, then enter the new Role or Discipline. 

Sample roles

Role indicates the level or title of the person within the organization.

Examples include:

• Junior
• Senior
• Director
• Associate

Sample disciplines

Discipline indicates the type of work a person does within the organization, most often what department they’re in.

Examples include:

• Design
• Strategy
• Research
• Development
• Account Management

In Account Settings, create roles and disciplines. Then set up the bill rate matrix used each time a new project is created. Bill rates are set when you create a project. Any modifications to bill rates need to be made at the project level. 

When you assign someone to a project, Resource Management sets their bill rate according to the bill rate matrix. Depending on the rules you set up, the bill rate will come from project settings, the person's profile settings, or the rate for that role or discipline. 

Create the default bill rate matrix

The default bill rate applies to everyone in your organization. You can add exceptions for specific roles or disciplines. Roles or disciplines with no set bill rate use the default rate.

To define the bill rate for a role and discipline, enter the bill rate in the field where the two intersect. When the discipline and role are assigned to a person, the system will automatically apply the corresponding bill rate.

If an entire discipline or group of roles uses the same rate, you can specify that by building out only one row or column.

Rates from the bill rate matrix can be overridden by a rate specified within a person’s profile.

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Manage bill rate changes

When someone changes a role or bill rate, change their profile settings. Their rates will update on all new projects; existing projects stay the same. 

To change the bill rates for existing projects, modify the bill rate in project settings. You can choose to apply increased rates to the whole project or to specific phases.

Because bill rates are typically tied to contracts, rates are not automatically updated for existing projects when someone is promoted. Resource Management assumes you will still bill them out at the old rate for the remainder of the project.

Prepare your data

To add new people

1. Go to Settings > Account Settings > People.
2. Select Add/Update People.
3. Select Download Template. 
4. Using a spreadsheet program, add new people by filling their information into blank rows.
5. Save the file as a CSV UTF-8.

To make updates to people already in Resource Management

1. Go to Settings > Account Settings > People.
2. Select Add/Update People.
3. Select Export People List.
4. Use a spreadsheet program to change the people attributes you want to update. Be sure to fill in people’s custom fields where applicable.
5. Save the file as a CSV UTF-8.

Tips and tricks

• Ensure to encode CSV files in UTF-8 to prevent errors on rows with special characters.
• Each person must have a first name or email, permission level, and license type. All other fields are optional.
• First and last day of work dates must be in YYYY-MM-DD format.
• Permission level and license type must exactly match their settings in Resource Management.
• You can create new roles, disciplines, and locations in this spreadsheet. 
• Custom field values in this sheet must match available options in Account Settings > People Custom Fields.
• To save time, combine new people and profile updates in the same file.
• Ensure your device's regional settings use a comma as the default for list separators.

Upload your list

1. Go to Settings > Account Settings > People.
2. Select Add/Update People.
3. From the Add/Update People page in Account Settings, select Choose file and select your updated CSV file.
4. To send an invitation to all newly added and/or updated Licensed Users, check the box.
5. Click Upload.

You can navigate away from the page once the upload starts (the import will run in the background), and you'll receive an email when it's complete.

The email includes a link to the status page if there are errors during the import. Click the link to download a list of errors with directions on fixing them.

Column inputs and formatting

This table provides details for each column in your spreadsheet.

With placeholders, you can:

• Budget a project: Create assignments for specific roles and disciplines, without impacting anyone's actual schedule or utilization. The placeholder can be set up with any bill rate you choose for improved budgeting accuracy.
• Resource Manager workflow: Managers can use placeholders to request a team member from a Resource Manager. An assignment for a placeholder lets the Resource Manager know someone needs to be assigned to that project.
• Projecting staffing needs: Use placeholders to schedule future projects. Once they’re scheduled, utilization reports will show you what disciplines can handle the workload and where you may need to hire help. You can estimate how future hires will impact estimates. When you hire, you can reassign those assignments to the new person on your team.

Create placeholders

1. Go to Placeholders in the Settings > Account Settings menu > Placeholders.

2. Select Add.

3. Configure your Placeholder, including Discipline, Role, Placeholder title, Abbreviation, and Color. Discipline and Role are recommended for filters and assignments, but not required.

4. Select Show More to review additional settings for Bill Rate, Location, and other custom fields for Language, Travel Locations, Skills, and Project Management.  

5. Once you have completed your settings, select Save.

That’s it! You have created a placeholder. 

Placeholders have an auto-generated image based on an abbreviation and a color. The image, abbreviation, and color can be changed in the account settings.

Add placeholders on the project page

Add placeholder assignments from either the project schedule or the project worklist.

On the schedule: 

1. Click on a phase or any white space on the schedule.
2. Select Add Team Member to apply filters or to search for the name of the appropriate placeholder.

On the worklist: 

1. Hover or click on the name of the project or phase.
2. Select Add Team Member.
3. Search for the name of the appropriate placeholder.

Add and filter placeholders on the schedule

You can add placeholder assignments to the schedule, just like an assignment for any person.

 To create a new assignment, click on any white space on the schedule and select New Assignment.

Use filters to find the placeholders and people you’re looking for. Placeholder assignments appear semi-opaque, indicating that those assignments belong to a placeholder.

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Use the assignment status filter to view assignments for the staff or for placeholders. Confirmed assignments are staffed to people in the account, while placeholder assignments are specifically for placeholder team members.

Find placeholders in reports

• Group your reports by team member type to separate placeholder assignments from confirmed team member assignments.
• Change your filter criteria to find the placeholders, people, and projects you’re looking for.

Basic profile details:

• Profile image: It's nice to see your team's faces; plus, they'll appear on the organization page and the schedule. A 200 x 200-pixel crop, 300K max, works best.
• First and last name: enter the first and last name of the person
• Email: where a person will receive marketing emails from Resource Management. 
• Cell phone and office phone: add these details if applicable, so your team knows how to get in touch with this person. This information is visible on the profile page to your entire team.
• Location: select where the person is based.
• Employee number: populate this field if you have internal identifiers for the person and would like this information available on report exports.
• People custom fields: additional information that adds further business logic to your organization's account.

   

Administrator fields:

• Availability: Enter details such as a person's first and last day of work. When people work hours that differ from the regular work days and hours you've set in account settings, create a part-time availability for them. This will impact the person's availability on the schedule.

• Utilization: This is a fixed number used to compare how the actual utilization compares to the target for this person. The utilization target is shown in its column in utilization reports and does not impact a person's availability.

• Bill rate: You can choose to use a modified bill rate for this person or use the default bill rate for the person based on their discipline & role. This bill rate comes from the bill rates matrix you built out in account settings. Enter $0 if you want this person to appear as Non-Billable

• Discipline + role: This is the team/group (discipline) and the type of work (role) this person does in your organization.

• Approval workflow: Select who will approve this person's time and/or expenses.

• If enabled, project owners can also approve time and expenses related to projects they own.

• People tags: Populate tags you create in account settings here, or create new tags for people.

Contractors cannot edit profiles.

The default work week for your organization is set in Account Settings. This default work week informs the allocation % target on the schedule so you can schedule your team for 100% of their available time. For example, 40 hours a week would be 100% allocation.

To set availability for a specific person:

1. Go to Settings > Account Settings and click People.
2. Click the name of the individual and make adjustments in the Availability section.

Only assignments created or modified after you set part-time availability setting are affected; you may need to modify existing assignments to reflect updated availability Prior assignments will still show full time availability. 

If a person has zero hours available on any given day, that day is considered a non-working day. Assignments that overlap with a non-working day are removed from timesheet suggestions and do not count towards the project budget in reports

Time suggestions (unconfirmed hours) will not be scheduled if a person is unavailable.

Set first and last days of work

Team members are considered unavailable before their first day of work and after their last day of work. 

To set a first and last day for work:

1. Go to the People page and select Edit Profile. 
2. In the Availability section, enter a first and last day for work. 

Set  permanent part-time availability

For people who have availability that differs from the default settings: 

1. Open the profile of the person whose availability needs adjustment by navigating to Account Settings > People.
2. Click the Add part-time availability button in the person’s profile.
3. In the Start Date and End Date boxes, set the dates: enter the start and end dates to indicate when the working duration will differ from the default work week for your organization. 

If the individual will have part-time availability for an indefinite amount of time, leave the End Date box empty.

Set a temporary part-time availability

If a person is temporarily unavailable during a specific period of time, set a part-time availability block in their profile:

1. Navigate to Account Settings > People.
2. Click the Add part-time availability button in the person’s profile.
3. In the Start Date box, select the first day you want them to show as unavailable and in the End Date box, select the date for the last day they will be unavailable. 
4. In the Monday – Sunday boxes for this part-time block, type 0.

Resource Management will show this person is no longer available.

Locations can be used when sorting or filtering people on your organization page, or they can be used as search criteria for reassigning items on the schedule.

To manage locations:

1. Go to Settings > Account Settings.
2. On the left side, click Locations. 

Here you can edit the existing locations by selecting the name and editing it or deleting it with the red trash can icon. You can also add locations by typing the location in the text box then selecting Add.

People in Resource Management can only have one discipline and role. This is set in their personal profiles.

You can, however, change bill rates for a person using project phases.

For example, Joe could be working on the QA phase of a project with a one bill rate, then work as Technical Adviser for another phase of the project at a different bill rate.

To account for the different bill rates, edit the phases and change the rates.

1. In project settings, click the phase you want to work with. 
2. Under bill rates, select Set different bill rates for this phase.
3. Enter any new bill rates and then, at the bottom of the page, click Save.