The Allocate-Task Allocation tab is used to control the number of hours a particular employee works on a certain activity, and the number of units of a certain expense he is entitled to make while working on the selected project. The control hours for activity and control units for expense enables you to know how much of the allocated time and expense you have used and how much is left.
When employees record a time or expense entry, they are informed as to how much of the allocated time and expense has been used and how much can still be used on that project. For example, you would specify, Employee A working on Project B, will spend 10 hours on Activity1, and use up 10 units of Expense1.
The following information describes the options on the Allocate-Task Allocation tab:
View By
View By:
Choose the option, employee or project, for which you want to allocate the items.
Project/Employee ID:
Either the Employee or Project field will be displayed here depending upon what you selected in the View By field. Employee name is also displayed on selecting an Employee ID from the drop-down. If your employee or project doesn't match any of the existing ones, you can create a new employee/project on the fly using the Add New option from the drop-down list. Adding a new item on the fly requires the Allow Add New security permission for the Employee or Project screen.
Check Conflicts:
BillQuick Online can be set up to check for any conflicts while allocating tasks to employees. When this option is selected, it warns you when the start date of a new task falls between other assigned tasks.
Show Vendor:
Select this option if you want the available list of employees to include the vendors as well. It is enabled only when employee is selected in the View By drop-down list.
Show Active Projects Only:
Only projects with active status are displayed in the list. By default, this option is checked.
Details
Employee ID/Project ID:
The ID of the employee or project you are allocating hours or units. This changes depending upon your selection in the View By field.
Item ID:
Activity for which
you are defining hours or expense code for which you are defining expense
units. Hours or units can be allocated to a group of items as well. For
that you need to select an activity or expense group from the Item drop-down.
You can also create a new activity
or expense on the fly by clicking
next
to the Item ID field.
Start Date:
The start date for the allocation. This is the date when the employee is required to start work on the project and be monitored.
End Date:
The end date for the allocation. This is the date when the task should be completed.
Units:
The number of units of a particular expense that you expect the selected employee to make.
Delay (Days):
Displays the number of days an assigned task gets delayed. This can be useful in future allocations as it gives an idea as to how many days are actually needed to complete a task.
% Complete:
Displays the completion percentage of the allocated task. This percentage can be entered and updated by the employee as well as the project manager, depending upon their security permissions.
Priority:
You can set the priority of an allocated task. For example, Urgent, Low, etc. It helps the assigned employee in prioritizing various tasks.
Predecessor Task:
Project managers can set up dependent tasks ensuring automatic rescheduling of current tasks if the parent task is delayed. Here, you can specify a predecessor task for the current task, thus creating a dependency between the two. If the previous task gets delayed, the current task will be accordingly delayed. You can see the previously allocated task details (if any) in this field including the employee, activity or expense involved and number of units.
Memo:
Allows you to add a detailed memo to the selected task. Type as much text as desired or use Auto Complete shorthand codes to insert standard text.
Allocate Grid
Edit:
Click to make changes to a listed entry.
Employee ID/Project ID:
The ID of the employee or project you are allocating hours or units. This changes depending upon your selection in the View By field.
You can allocate hours and units to
employee groups.
ID:
Activity for which you are defining hours or expense code for which you are defining expense units. Hours or units can be allocated to a group of items as well. For that you need to select an activity or expense group from the Item drop-down.
Description:
Displays custom description for each allocated task.
Units:
The number of hours you expect the employee to spend on the selected activity or if the item is an expense, the number of units the employee is allowed to use. When allocating hours or units to a group of activities or expenses, the value is applied to all the items in the group combined. For example, if the CAD activity group contains 7 items and you allocate 10 hours to the group for a project, then the entire group is allocated 10 hours.
In case of an employee who has been
allocated certain hours or units individually as well in a group, his
individual allocation will take precedence over group allocation.
Expense:
This check box is selected when an expense item has been allocated and deselected if a service item has been allocated.
Group:
This check box is selected if the allocation is specified to an employee or vendor group.
The Project Control Hours Comparison
report gives a comparison of Hours Spent, Allocated
Hours and Hours Remaining for each employee.
Start Date:
The start date for the allocation. This is the date when the employee is required to start work on the project and be monitored.
End Date:
The end date for the allocation. This is the date when the allotted task should be accomplished.
While calculating hours/units spent,
BillQuick Online looks for the time entry/expense entry date to be greater
than or equal to the Start Date. If the Start date is blank, then this
condition is not used. It also looks for the time and expense entry date
to be less than or equal to the End Date. If the End Date is blank, then
this condition is ignored.
Gantt View:
You can view the task allocations on a Gantt chart, which graphically represents these allocations in the form of a horizontal bar chart. When this option is checked, a Gantt chart displays at the bottom of the Task Allocation grid and can be resized to have a better view. You can print this Gantt chart, if desired, and also use the shortcut menu for more options. The Gantt chart is very helpful in monitoring a project's progress.
On
this panel, you can view the task allocations per employee with corresponding
bar charts indicating the duration, start/finish dates and percent complete
of each assigned task.
You can click 
to see the allocations at the item level.
The
% Complete displayed in the Gantt View is based on the actual time entries
recorded by an employee and hence represents the actual spent percentage.
The horizontal bars display
the duration (start and finish dates) per task and summarize it per employee.
You can drag
a task to change its start and end dates or stretch it to change the end date.
The relationship
between the predecessor and dependent tasks is reflected in the chart
in the form of arrows. The bars also indicate how much of the
task has been completed so far (% Complete).
Help:
Opens the BillQuick Online Help in the Allocate section.
Print:
Opens the corresponding report that enables you to print, preview or cancel the report.
Copy From Budget
Imports budgeted time and expense for the selected project. Budget settings for a project can be used as a basis for allocating hours and units to projects. The employees, activities and expenses for a particular project can be restricted to the ones specified in the budget.
Copy From Project:
This option is available only when you have selected the View By: Project mode. Click to open the Copy From Existing screen.
New:
Click to add a new row or record.
Delete:
Click to delete the selected item or record in the grid.
Save:
This saves the changes made to the current record selected in the grid.
Refresh:
Refresh the information displayed on the screen.