Capacity Planning

Capacity Planning is a visual scheduler that shows staff allocation across jobs and tasks alongside each staff's available capacity. Use it to plan who works on what and when, identify over or under-allocated staff, and make informed decisions before committing to new work.

Key terms used in this article:

• Estimated hours - the total hours estimated or quoted for a job task
• Actual hours - hours recorded via timesheets
• Planned hours - hours allocated on the capacity planner
• Unplanned hours - estimated hours minus planned hours

Planned hours and actual hours are independent values. Entering timesheets does not automatically reduce or adjust planned hours on the capacity planner.

• Before getting started

  Confirm the following:

  • Your organisation is on the Advanced plan (or an active trial)
  • Staff capacity hours are configured in your organisation settings. Each staff member needs weekly capacity hours set for Monday through Sunday, along with a productivity percentage. Configure these at Settings > General > Capacity
  • Jobs exist with tasks. Having estimated hours on your tasks is recommended as the capacity planner uses estimated hours to calculate unplanned hours, but it is not required to use the feature
  • Staff members are set up in your organisation
  • The user accessing the feature has at minimum, the View Capacity Plan: Individual permission

• Accessing Capacity Planning

  Capacity Planning can be accessed from two places:

  1. In the main navigation, select Jobs, then select the Capacity Planning tab.
  2. In the Jobs dropdown menu, select Capacity Planning.

  If your organisation is eligible but has not yet activated the feature, you will see an option to start a 14-day free trial. If the Capacity Planning tab does not appear, check that your user account has View Capacity Plan permission set to at least Individual.

  A crown icon appears next to the Capacity Planning tab label when the feature is available through a trial rather than a paid subscription.

• Understanding the interface

  The Capacity Planning page is split into two main areas: the job and task drawer on the left and the scheduler grid on the right.

  Job and task drawer (left panel)

  The left panel lists jobs and their tasks. Each item shows:

  • Job number and name (for jobs) or task name (for tasks)
  • A progress bar showing planned hours against estimated hours
  • Planning status: Unplanned, Partly planned, Fully planned, or Over planned
  • Billable indicator

  You can toggle additional information using Display Options at the top of the drawer:

  • Client name
  • Actual hours - shows hours logged via timesheets
  • Start/end date
  • Allocated staff - shows how many staff members are allocated to the job task via the job's staff allocation

  The drawer supports infinite scrolling - as you scroll down, more jobs and tasks load automatically. Jobs with a status of Cancelled or Completed are excluded from the list.

  Filtering the job and task list

  At the top of the drawer, use Filters to narrow the list:

  • Work type - All, Jobs only, or Tasks only
  • Planning status - Unplanned, Partly planned, Fully planned, Over planned (multi-select)
  • Estimated time - All, Has estimated time, or No estimated time

  Sorting the job and task list

  Use the Sort dropdown to change the order:

  • Job Number (A–Z) - default
  • Job Number (Z–A)
  • Job Name (A–Z)
  • Task Name (A–Z) - displays tasks in a flat list rather than grouped under jobs
  • Unplanned (low to high)
  • Unplanned (high to low)

  Searching the job and task list

  Use the search bar in the drawer to search for jobs or tasks by name or job number.

  Scheduler grid (right panel)

  The right panel displays a calendar grid with:

  • Staff rows listed vertically on the left - each row shows the staff member's name, photo (or avatar), teams they are assigned to, target productivity percentage, and last timesheet entry date
  • Weekly columns across the top - displaying dates grouped by week
  • Capacity indicators on each staff row showing planned hours as a percentage of configured capacity, colour-coded by threshold

  The number of weeks displayed adjusts based on your screen width to make best use of available space. Use the Previous and Next week buttons in the header to navigate, or select a specific month using the month picker. Select Today to scroll back to the current date.

  Staff search

  In the header bar, use the search field to find staff members. Toggle the search dropdown to switch between searching by Staff name or Team name. This filters the staff list in the scheduler grid to show only matching staff members.

  Filtering by work

  Select the Filter button in the header bar to open the advanced filter panel. These filters let you narrow the scheduler grid based on the work allocated to staff:

  • Staff
  • Team
  • Client
  • Job Category
  • Job Status
  • Priority
  • Job Manager
  • Client Manager

  A badge on the filter button shows the count of applied filters.

  Staff row sorting

  Staff rows in the scheduler grid can be sorted using the main panel sort options:

  • Staff name (A–Z) - default
  • Staff name (Z–A)
  • Available time (low to high)
  • Available time (high to low)

  Expanding and collapsing staff rows

  • Select the expand/collapse arrow on a staff member's row to show or hide their individual allocation bars.
  • Use the Show/Hide Planned Work toggle at the top of the staff list to expand or collapse all staff rows at once.
  • When you select a job or task from the drawer, staff rows with existing allocations for that item automatically expand.

• Creating allocations

  There are two ways to create an allocation: using the drag-to-allocate method or the allocation pop-up.

  Drag to allocate (with a task selected)

  1. In the job and task drawer, select a job or task. The card expands to show allocation controls.
  2. The hours to allocate field auto-fills with the remaining unplanned hours for that item. Adjust the value if needed > select Add ↰ or press Enter on your keyboard.
  3. On the scheduler grid, press and hold on the target staff member's row at the start date.
  4. Drag across to the end date. A tooltip follows your cursor showing the allocation details.
  5. Release to create the allocation.

  The hours distribute evenly across available working days in the selected range. Days where the staff member has zero configured capacity (including weekends when Show Weekends is off) are excluded from the distribution. For example, allocating 10 hours from Monday to Sunday for a staff member with no weekend capacity results in 2 hours per day across the 5 weekdays.

  If the hours to allocate field is set to 0, releasing the drag opens the allocation pop-up instead, allowing you to enter the hours manually. To cancel while dragging, press the Escape key. The hours return to the unplanned total and the selection clears.

  Allocation pop-up (without a task selected)

  1. On the scheduler grid, press and hold on a staff member's row at the desired start date and drag across to the end date.
  2. Release to open the allocation pop-up, pre-filled with the selected staff member and date range.
  3. Select a Job (required). Use the search field to find jobs.
  4. Optionally select a Task. The task dropdown populates based on the selected job.
  5. The Unplanned hours display shows remaining unplanned hours for the selected item.
  6. Optionally select Allocate time to weekends to include weekend days in the allocation.
  7. Enter the Total hours.
  8. The pop-up displays hours per day based on total hours divided by the number of available days (days where the staff member has zero capacity are excluded).
  9. Select Save.

  When a job or task is selected from the drawer, staff rows that already have allocations for that item automatically expand and those existing allocations are highlighted.

• Editing allocations

  Resize an allocation

  1. Hover over the left or right edge of an allocation bar until the cursor changes to a resize handle.
  2. Drag the edge left or right to adjust the start or end date.

  The minimum allocation duration is 1 day. When you resize an allocation, the total allocated hours remain the same. The hours are redistributed evenly across the new date range, excluding days where the staff member has zero capacity.

  Move an allocation to different dates

  Drag the allocation bar horizontally to shift it to a new date range on the same staff member's row.

  Reassign an allocation to a different staff member

  Drag the allocation bar vertically and drop it on a different staff member's row.

  Inline editing

  1. Hover over an allocation bar and select the edit icon (pencil) that appears.
  2. The bar expands to show time input fields for each day in the allocation.
  3. Adjust individual day values, or update the total hours field to redistribute hours evenly across all days.
  4. Select Save to apply changes, or Cancel (or press Escape) to discard.

  Edit via pop-up

  1. Double-click an existing allocation bar to open the allocation pop-up.
  2. From here you can change the start date, end date, total hours, or weekend inclusion.
  3. The job and staff fields are read-only when editing.

• Removing allocations

  1. Hover over an allocation bar and select the edit icon (pencil) to enter edit mode. Then select the delete icon (trash) that appears on the bar.
  2. Alternatively, double-click the allocation bar to open the pop-up and select Remove.
  3. A confirmation dialog appears.
  4. Confirm the removal.

  When an allocation is removed, the hours return to the item's unplanned total.

• Display options

  Select the settings icon (gear) in the header bar to access display options for the scheduler grid.

  Show Weekends

  Toggle Show Weekends on or off. The default is off. When off, Saturday and Sunday columns are hidden from the calendar grid.

  Capacity thresholds

  Capacity thresholds determine the colour coding of the weekly capacity indicators on each staff row. An administrator can configure these values:

  • Under Capacity - the percentage below which a staff member is considered under-utilised. Default: 80%
  • Over Capacity - the percentage above which a staff member is considered over-allocated. Default: 100%

  These thresholds are set at the account level and apply to all users across the organisation. Only administrators can modify these values.

• Understanding capacity indicators

  Each staff row displays a weekly capacity summary showing planned hours and the corresponding percentage of configured capacity.

  The capacity formula is:

  Planned hours ÷ Configured capacity hours × 100%

  Configured capacity hours are derived from the staff member's weekly capacity settings multiplied by their productivity percentage.

  Colour coding

  Colour	Condition	Meaning
  Yellow / Amber	Below the Under Capacity threshold (default < 80%)	Staff member has significant available capacity
  Green	Between the Under Capacity and Over Capacity thresholds (default 80%–100%)	Staff member is at ideal utilisation
  Red / Pink	Above the Over Capacity threshold (default > 100%)	Staff member is over-allocated

  When a staff member is over-allocated, the available hours display as a negative value (for example, "- 2h 20m"). A capacity legend at the top of the scheduler grid shows the meaning of each colour.