Set up resources for projects

To correctly manage resource activities, you must set up your resources and the related costs and prices. The project-related prices, discounts, and cost factor rules are set up on the project card. You can specify the costs and prices for individual resources, resource groups, or all available resources of the company.

When resources are used or sold in a project, the prices and costs associated with them are retrieved from the information that you set up.

You specify the default amount per hour when the resource is created. For example, if you use a specific machine on a project for five hours, the project would be calculated based on the amount per hour.

Note

You can purchase external resources, for example, to invoice a vendor for work delivered. For more information, see Record Purchases.

For external resources, we recommend that you name or group them so that they are not confused with your internal resources.

If you are posting intercompany transactions, although you can a resource to a line on a sales order, if you convert the sales order to a purchase order on the receiving side the resource will not be included. To use resources in intercompany transactions, use the IC Purch. G/L Acc. No. field on the resource card to specify the account to which to post the expenses.

To set up a resource

Create a card for each resource that you want to use in projects.

1. Choose the icon, enter Resources, and then choose the related link.
2. Choose the New action.
3. Fill in the fields as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.

To set up a resource group

You can combine several resources in one resource group. All capacities and budgets of resource groups are accumulated from the individual resources. It is also possible to enter capacities for resource groups either independently of the accumulated values or in addition to them.

1. Choose the icon, enter Resource groups, and then choose the related link.
2. Choose the New action.
3. Fill in the fields as necessary.

To set capacity for a resource

To calculate how much time a resource can spend on projects, their capacity must first be set up as available time per period on the work calendar. This setup is used when you fill in project planning lines that contain the resource. For more information, see Create Projects.

1. Choose the icon, enter Resources, and then choose the related link.
2. Open the relevant resource card, and then choose the Resource Capacity action.
3. On the Resource Capacity page, in the View By field, specify the length of the period, such as Day, that is shown on columns on the Resource Capacity Matrix FastTab.
4. For each resource on a line, specify for each period on the columns the number of hours that the resource is available.
5. Alternatively, to detail the resource's weekly capacity within a starting and ending date, choose the Set Capacity action.
6. On the Resource Capacity Settings page, fill in the fields as necessary.
7. Choose the Update Capacity action. The Resource Capacity page is updated with the entered capacity.
8. Close the page.

To set up alternate resource costs

In addition to the cost specified on the resource card, you can set up alternate costs for each resource. For example, if you pay an employee a higher hourly rate for overtime, you can set up a resource cost for the overtime rate. The alternate cost that you set up for the resource will override the cost on the resource card when you use the resource in the resource journal.

1. Choose the icon, enter Resources, and then choose the related link.
2. Select the resource for that you want to set up one or more alternate costs for, and then choose the Costs action.
3. On the Resource Costs page, fill in the fields on a line as necessary.
4. Repeat step 3 for each alternate resource cost that you want to set up.

Note. To set up resource costs that will apply to all resources and resource groups, open the Resource Costs page and fill in the fields.

To set up alternate resource prices

In addition to price specified on the resource card, you can set up alternate prices for each resource. These alternate prices can be conditional. They can depend on whether the resource is used with a specific project or work type.

1. Choose the icon, enter Resources, and then choose the related link.
2. Select the resource for that you want to set up one or more alternate prices for, and then choose the Prices action.
3. On the Resource Prices page, fill in the fields on a line as necessary.
4. Repeat step 3 for each alternate resource price that you want to set up.

See also

Setting Up Project Management
Project Management
Finance
Purchasing
Sales
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