Bookings
Bookings are a separate entity in the workspace to store effort estimations. Use Bookings to reserve blocks of time based on how much effort you think the work might take for each assignee or job role in a project. Each booking is linked to a single project and assignee, and each assignee in a project can have only one booking.
Each project has the Booked effort system field that automatically aggregates the total effort allocated via Bookings to all users and job roles in a project. By default, the aggregated sum doesn't include booked effort from subprojects, but you can roll up the field data to include it.
You can see and use Bookings in Resources view, Workload charts, and the horizontal Backlog Box. The Booked effort field is visible in the project info panel and the Table view.
Bookings also have a separate schedule. When you add a booking, you set the start and end dates during which you estimate the assignee will work. The schedule for a booking will be affected by any changes to the assignee's Work Schedule.
Since bookings are linked to projects and not tasks, they're not necessarily a replacement for task effort. Instead, they're another way to store estimations of work. You can use both booked effort and task effort in your account depending on what kind of estimations you need.
Use bookings when:
-
You want a high-level overview of projects and their effort on the Workload chart instead of adding effort in individual tasks.
-
You need to forecast resources before actual tasks are created in the project.
-
You don't need a granular estimation of effort for each task, or you find that you often need to adjust these estimations due to changes.
-
You want to track and compare initial and actual estimates using booked and task effort, respectively.
Task effort and effort stored in bookings are calculated separately in the account. You can compare them using one of these ways:
-
On Table view, check the values in Effort (task effort) and Booked effort (bookings) columns to see the difference between them. Use data rollup for the Booked effort field to include values from subprojects, if needed.
-
Use visualization on Workload charts and in Resources view to compare the user's or job role's booked and task effort in each project for each day. The booking will be highlighted in red if task effort exceeds booked effort.
Note
On Workload charts and in Resources view, booked effort is compared to task effort for each individual day even if you set the zoom level to weeks or months.
All account users, except for collaborators, can add bookings in projects that they have access to unless it's restricted by their access role (the required permission is Edit task dates and dependencies).
-
Open the relevant Workload chart. Alternatively, open the relevant project in Resources view.
-
Expand the row of the relevant user or job role. 1 If you're adding it in Resources view, you may need to click the + Add user button to add the user or job role first.
-
Click the + Add booking button. 2
Notice
To see this button on Workload charts, you need to enable grouping by project. 3
-
In the pop-up that opens:
-
Click Set dates 4 to establish the dates during which the assignee is estimated to work. Keep in mind that these dates can be affected by changes to the user's Work Schedule.
-
Select the effort mode. 5
-
In the Effort field, 6 enter the estimated effort in hours.
-
For Flexible effort mode: adjust the effort for each day, week, or month depending on your zoom level.
-
-
Click Add. 7
Repeat this process for all users and job roles who are planned to work on the project. After you add a booking, you can see it in Resources view, Workload charts, and the horizontal Backlog Box.
Tip
Bookings are also available in Blueprints. You can create blueprints for recurring projects and, in the Resources view, add effort estimations based on bookings.
There are two effort modes available for booked effort:
-
Basic: With this effort mode, you can allocate a certain amount of booked effort in hours per day for each booking. The Basic effort mode for bookings is a full equivalent of the Basic task effort and works the same way.
-
Flexible: This effort mode allows you to allocate a different amount of booked effort for each day, week, or month that the booking spans across. Flexible bookings effort is equivalent to the Flexible task effort.
Note
-
Flexible effort mode in bookings is not supported when you duplicate a project with bookings or create one from blueprints and select to reschedule it.
-
If you allocate hours for a booking on one zoom level, e.g., on weeks, in Flexible mode and then switch to another zoom level, e.g., months, and edit hours allocation again, your original weekly allocation will be recalculated, and the hours for the month that you edit will spread evenly across the days of the month.
All account users, except for collaborators, can edit and delete bookings in projects that they have access to unless it's restricted by their access role (the required permission is Edit task dates and dependencies).
-
Open the relevant Workload chart. Alternatively, open the relevant project in Resources view.
-
Locate and click the relevant booking.
-
In the pop-up, edit the effort or dates of the booking and click Save. 1
Note
The title of the booking can't be changed.
-
To delete the booking, click Delete in the bottom-right corner. 2
Note
If you reschedule a booking with Flexible effort mode, by expanding its duration, the additional days will have 0h allocation until you change it. If you reduce the booking's duration, all allocated hours left from the reduced days will be added to the last day of the booking.
All account users, except for collaborators, can reassign bookings within projects that they have access to unless it's restricted by their access role (the required permission is Edit task dates and dependencies).
You can reassign separate bookings in Resources view:
-
Open the relevant project in Resources view. 1
-
Locate the user or job role with the relevant booking assigned.
-
Hover over the user or job role's name and click the three-dot menu button that appears. 2
-
Select Reassign. 3
-
In the pop-up, click + Select user. 4
-
Select a user or a job role from the list.
-
Click the Reassign button. 5
If you reassign the booking to a user or job role that didn't have a booking before, they'll appear on the view, and the user or job role you reassigned it from will disappear.
If you reassign to a user or job role that already had a booking in that project, the two bookings will be merged:
-
The start date will be the earliest start date of two bookings.
-
The end date will be the latest end date of two bookings.
-
Effort will be combined and reallocated according to the date of the booking and the user's Work Schedule.
-
The resulting merged booking will be in Flexible mode , and the hours will be summed up for each day, week, or month according to the way you allocated them originally.
Tip
It's not possible to reassign separate bookings on Workload charts since the bookings are linked to projects. Instead, you can reassign projects , and the booking will be reassigned alongside the project's tasks. The same applies to moving tasks from the Backlog Box when you staff projects on Workload charts.