Managing bookings in a single project view

Bookings come into play in the early preparation phase of a project when you start assembling the project team. Booking your team members' time in advance helps you ensure you'll have the right people available when the project starts.

This article focuses on managing resource bookings on a single project level. If you want to know more about how to manage bookings on a portfolio level, check out our article on managing bookings across the portfolio.

If you haven't used bookings before and want to learn more about the concept bookings, we recommend reading Resource bookings - an overview first.

1. Example flow

Before we dive into the exact functionalities of the project-level booking tool, let’s walk through an example use case to illustrate how the bookings fit into a quote-to-project flow.

Step 1: create a quote (optional)

First, let's create a quote to scope out the project. We'll use the Cost and provider info section to indicate which team member or role will most likely deliver the service. This will help to automate resource booking later on when we turn the quote into a project, as these same users or roles will be automatically linked with that service.

Step 2: turn the quote into a project (optional)

Next, let's use the Create project button to turn the quote into a project. The people and roles that we’ve listed on the quote will automatically become project members, along with the project creator.

Step 3: adjust and confirm bookings

Once the project it created, let's navigate to the Bookings tab in the project view. 

We can see that tentative bookings have already been created based on the quote to automate resource planning. The quoted hours are divided equally across the working days that fall within the project timeframe. 

For example, we quoted 50 hours for project management and linked Sophie as the doer. The project lasts for 4 weeks, which includes 20 workdays. Therefore, (50 hours / 20 workdays =) 2.5 hours of Sophie’s time has been tentatively booked on each workday. We can see the daily breakdown by clicking on the booking.

All bookings are tentative to start with. We now need to adjust the bookings according to the actual schedule and needs.

We know we will need John the Designer for the first week and a half of the project. Let’s adjust the booking by dragging it.

The dynamic utilization heatmap is instantly updated accordingly.

The red color indicates that we have now overbooked John. If we click on the red cell, we can see what other projects he’s booked for during that week. 

As we don’t want to overbook John, let’s extend the design time frame to two weeks. After that, we can turn the tentative booking into a fixed one to lock it in.

We don’t know yet who will do the copywriting, but we know we'll need that skill set for the last three weeks of the project. Let's modify the booking accordingly.

Once we know who will do the copywriting, we can replace the role with a specific user. We can cross-check from the portfolio level overview who has the best availability for that role in the given period.

Let's say we decide to assign copywriting to Dave. All Copywriter's bookings will be transferred over to Dave and the role placeholder will be removed as it's no longer needed.

The heatmap confirms there are no scheduling conflicts across the projects. Therefore, we can convert all bookings into fixed ones to lock in the resources. 

Step 4: proceed with granular project planning

Now that we've booked the time, we can be sure the right people will be available to work on our project. Once the project kicks off, we can start filling the booked time by creating tasks and time entries and assigning them to the booked team members.

2. How to use the booking tool

This paragraph will take a deeper dive into different actions you can perform within the Bookings tab. To get a better understanding of bookings in a project flow, read the example flow above.

To book resources or manage existing bookings, navigate to the Bookings tab in the project view.

On the left, you can see a list of project members. 

• The Booked rows show you how many hours of each team member's time is currently booked for this particular project.
• The Booked column shows you how many hours worth of bookings you have made in total for this particular project (i.e., it’s the sum of all individual bookings).

On the right, you can see a heatmap that shows you:

1. How much of each person’s time is already booked across all projects, so you can understand their availability. The utilization level here is calculated purely based on bookings.
   
   You can click on the heatmap to see what other projects they are currently reserved for.
   
2. Current tentative and fixed bookings for this project.
   
   Note! If you create your project from a quote where you’ve filled out the 'Cost and provider' info with a user or a role, Scoro will automatically create tentative bookings based on the quoted hours to automate resource planning. You can turn this automation off from Settings > Work and projects > Projects by disabling the setting Create tentative bookings based on the quote.

Time off is also visible on the heatmap. A yellow corner indicates that the user has taken time off during that time period, and a violet corner means the user has extra availability. Click on the corner to see more details of the user's time off or extra availability.

You can also navigate from the Bookings tab directly to the Bookings module by clicking the Bookings tab title.

3.1. Heatmap

The heatmap compares the resource's total availability in the given period with their bookings across all projects to calculate their utilization.

Users

Availability	Calculated based on each user's availability settings.
Utilization	Calculated by comparing the user's total availability with already booked time.

Roles (a.k.a role placeholders)

Availability	Calculated based on the total remaining availability of all the team members in this role.
Utilization	Calculated by comparing the total remaining availability of all the users in this role with the bookings created for the placeholder.

Example:
Jane and Dave are Copywriters. Total daily availability for both is 8 hours, which means the maximum total availability for the Copywriter role is 2 x 8 = 16 hours per day. If Jane already has 6 hours booked and Dave has 4 hours booked, it instantly means the availability of the Copywriter role is now 16 – (6 + 4) = 6 hours.

Now, let’s suppose we also book the Copywriter as a placeholder for 3 hours on Monday. This means the utilization of the Copywriter placeholder on Monday is instantly 50% because the total availability was 6 hours to start with.

The calculation: bookings for the placeholder (3 h) / availability of the role (6 h) = 50%.

You can check the current availability of the placeholder by clicking on the heatmap.

If you want a more compact view of the overall utilization levels, you can simply collapse the booking row.

You can choose whether you want to see the heatmap based on the utilization percentage, booked hours, or remaining hours, depending on which insights you need.

You can also zoom in either on a day, week or month level, depending on how granular you want to go.

Heatmap legend:

• Solid background – refers to fixed bookings.
• Striped background – refers to tentative bookings.
• Green – indicates less time has been booked than is available within that period. The resource can take on additional work.
• Red – indicates more hours have been booked than the resource has available within that period. The resource is overbooked.
• N/A – indicates the resource is not available during that time due to time off.
• No capacity – applies only to role placeholders. Indicates the that team members linked to this role do not have any available hours left, i.e., the the role is already at capacity.
  • Red background means the role has been overbooked and current bookings need to be adjusted to free up time and prevent resourcing conflicts. You can click on the cell to see what projects the placeholder is booked for.
  • White background means the role has no capacity because people in this role are off that day. In other words – you can’t free up time for that role by readjusting bookings as no bookings have been made.
• Yellow corner - user has time off (click on the corner to see more details).
• Violet corner - user has extra availability (click on the corner to see more details).

3.2. Create a booking

To create a booking, click on the three dots next to the user/role name and choose New booking.

Alternatively, you can just find the suitable slot on the Booked row and left-click to open the booking modal.

The booking modal lets you adjust the following booking details:

• Booking time frame – define the time span of the booking. Scoro will book time only on the actual workdays within the selected period. For example, if you site doesn’t include weekends in the workweek, Scoro will automatically disregard weekends within that timeframe. The Total workdays counter shows you how many workdays fall into your selected timeframe.
• Amount – choose how much of the resource’s time you want to book either in percentages or hours.
  
  Example calculations:
  • 6 h per day: 6 hours of the resource’s time is booked on each workday within the selected timeframe.
  • 75% per day: 75% of the resource’s total daily availability is booked on each workday.
    • For example, if their daily availability is 8 hours, 6 hours are booked each day. If on some days their availability is 4 hours, only 3 hours are booked that day.
  • 10 hours total: the total number of hours is divided by the number of workdays, and the respective amount of time is booked each day.
    • For example, 10 hours across 5 workdays amounts to 2 hour per day.
• Booking type – choose whether it’s a tentative booking or a fixed booking. See more above.

As soon as you save the booking, the heatmap is updated to reflect the new utilization levels.

3.3. Modify the booking

To adjust the time frame, modify the daily workload, or change the booking type, click on the booked slot. This opens up the booking modal, where you can change the details.

1. Alternatively, you can adjust the time frame of the booking by simply dragging it.

3.4. Replace a role placeholder with a user

Role placeholders act as placeholder members for the project. They help you indicate a resource need, but they have to be replaced with a specific team member eventually. Only tentative bookings can be placed for role placeholders because it's unknown who exactly will deliver that work.

Once you know which team member will deliver the work, click the Assign a user button next to the user's name to replace the placeholder with the user.

Alternatively, click the three-dot icon, select Assign a user, and choose the user.

Once assigned, all bookings will be transferred to that user, and the placeholder will be removed from the project as it’s no longer needed. 

After that, you can turn the tentative booking into a fixed one.

3.5. Transfer booking(s) to another user

If the original team member becomes unavailable, you can easily transfer bookings to another user. Click on the three dots next to the user name and select Transfer bookings. Choose who you want to assign the bookings to. 

Once you confirm the transfer, all the bookings of that user will be transferred to the newly selected user. If the newly selected user is not yet a project member, they will be added to the project automatically. 

Make sure you review the bookings after the transfer and adjust the schedule, if needed, to avoid overbooking.

3.6. Delete booking(s)

To delete a specific booking, click on the booked slot and then on the trash can icon in the bottom left corner of the modal.

To clear all the bookings of a specific user or placeholder at once, click on the three dots next to the resource name and select Clear bookings.

3.7. Shift all bookings at once

If you've already made bookings for your projects to scope out resources, but the project timeline changes, you can easily shift the bookings accordingly as well. To do this, simply update the project time frame from the header and tick the Bookings checkbox.

For example, we have a two-week-long project that's already scoped but is now delayed by two weeks. We need to move the project timeline along with the current bookings. This is how the project looks before the timeline and booking adjustments.

After changing the project start date and the related bookings, we can see that the start dates have changed, but everything else stays the same.

If your project start and end date adjustments make the project timeframe smaller, the bookings will spill over past the project due date, and you will need to review your bookings to fit the new timeline.

For example, here we have the same project, but we moved the due date to one week earlier, making the bookings spill over.

4. Utilization report

The bookings dimension can also be tracked from the Utilization report. Use the Utilization filter to understand the team utilization levels based on all bookings or only fixed bookings. These insights can help you decide who to substitute placeholders with.

To understand the total utilization of the role, which combines all user-level bookings and placeholder bookings together, filter the report by 'All bookings' and the specific role. The Total column will show you the combined data.

The bookings layer helps you get a better understanding of your utilization forecast, whereas the time entries layer gives you better insights into actual utilization retrospectively.

5. FAQ

How do bookings differ from tasks and time entries?	Simply put – bookings help you plan people, tasks help you plan work. Bookings help you reserve someone’s time. You don’t have to know yet what they will be working on exactly. Bookings are easy to adjust or remove as the project plan changes, so your utilization forecast remains up to date. Tasks help you plan out work and deliverables in more detail. You should already know what the person will be working on. Booking: I need 10 hours of John’s time next week. Task: I need John to work 10 hours on the website design next week. Time entries: I need John to work on the website design for 5 hours on Monday and 5 hours on Tuesday next week. You don’t need to delete bookings once you start creating tasks, as they don’t duplicate each other. Rather, they give you different insights. For this reason, the Utilization report also has both filters: you can look at utilization either based on bookings or based on tasks and time entries. We recommend to: Use the bookings layer to look at the overall utilization forecast to understand long- and short-term resource needs vs availability. Use the tasks and time entries layer to retrospectively look at the actual utilization of your team to understand what they worked on and how much time it actually took.
Do I need to delete bookings when I start creating tasks for the booked time frame?	Bookings and tasks are independent of each other. You don’t need to delete bookings once you start creating more specific tasks or time entries. Bookings can stay in place as they simply show you how much of the resource’s time you booked in the first place.
How is role placeholder availability calculated?	Role placeholder’s availability is calculated based on the remaining availability of the users linked to this role. Read more here.
How is the role placeholder utilization level calculated?	Roles act a standalone dummy members in projects. Their utilization level is calculated purely based on the bookings made for this placeholder. Read more here.
How do bookings work with retainers?	The booking tool always shows the bookings for all retainer periods. The view is not limited to the current period in order to give you a more high-level, long-term overview of bookings.
What’s the best practice for adopting bookings?	In order to ensure accurate data and unlock the full potential of bookings, you should ensure that your whole project management team uses bookings to plan out their resource needs. Bookings need to become an integral part of the project workflow.
Why can’t I see the Bookings tab?	If you can’t see the Bookings tab, it means your user doesn’t have the permission to View bookings. Contact your site admin.
Can I shift all bookings at once when the project dates change?	Changing the project start and end dates is easy: click on the project dates next to the project's progress bar and select the new dates. To shift all bookings simultaneously with the date changes, tick the Bookings checkbox and click Save to confirm the changes.