Soft book a resource

Important

Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation has evolved into Dynamics 365 Project Operations. For more information, see Project Service Automation Transition.

Applies to Project Service app version 3.x

You can tentatively schedule or "soft book" a resource onto a project team to show that you plan to assign the resource to the project. Soft bookings don’t consume a resource’s available capacity, and you can assign soft-booked team members to project tasks. However, because soft booking doesn’t consume a resource’s capacity, you can still "hard book" the resource for other tasks within the same period. Generic resources can’t be soft booked, nor can a soft booking fulfill a request for a generic resource.

Soft-booked project team members are listed on the Team tab of the Project page, with their soft-booked hours shown in the Soft Booked Hours column in the Named Team Members view. Soft-booked team members are also listed on the Schedule board. Because they are soft booked, the Schedule board doesn't show any consumption of capacity for these resources. Soft-booked time doesn’t show up on the Reconciliation tab, nor is it shown in the Extend Bookings field in the Reconciliation tab of the Schedule board.

There are two ways to soft book a team member onto a project: directly from the Schedule board, or by adding the team member on the Team tab.

Soft book from the Schedule board

Complete the following steps to soft book a resource from the Schedule board.

1. Open the Schedule board, and then in the Booking Requirements panel, select the Project tab.
2. Find the project for which you want to soft book a resource. If there are a large number of projects in the list, select the Project column header, and then use the filter to search for one or more projects.
3. Select the project, and then drag-and-drop it on the resource’s time grid.
4. In the Create Resource Booking panel, adjust the start and end date, set the Booking Status to Soft, and then set the hours.
5. Click Book. The resource now shows on the Team tab as a resource for the project. On the Named Team Member view you’ll see the soft-booked hours in the Soft Booked Hours column.

Note

You can now assign the soft booked resource to tasks on the Schedule tab. On the Reconciliation tab, the resource shows a booking deficit relative to the task assignment as the Reconciliation tab only considers hard-bookings. You can use the Extend Bookings feature to hard-book the resource to eliminate the deficit of hard-bookings against the resources assignments. You’ll have to manually cancel the soft booking for the resource by using Maintain Bookings.

Soft book on the Team tab

You can add team members directly on the Team tab, and then change their booking status from Hard to Soft with Maintain Bookings. When you add a team member this way, it will always result in a hard-booking unless you select the allocation method as None.

To use this method, complete the following steps.

1. On the Project page, on the Team tab, click New.
2. Select the bookable resource, the role, and the from and to dates.
3. Select an allocation method other than None.
4. Select Save. You’ll see the resource on the grid and their hours in the Hard Booked Hours column.
5. Maintain the resource’s bookings by selecting Maintain Bookings.
6. When the Schedule board opens, expand the resource to show their bookings. You will see the booking shown as Hard.
7. Right-click the booking, and under Change Status, select Soft Book > Soft. The booking status is now Soft.
8. After you close the Schedule board, you’ll see that the hours for the resource have moved from the Hard Booked Hours column to the Soft Booked Hours on the Team tab grid, when looking at the Named Team Members view.

Note

When you use Maintain Bookings to change the status from Hard to Soft, if you hard-book a resource onto the team and then assign tasks to the resource, the task assignments for the resource are retained. However, on the Reconciliation tab, the resource will have a booking deficiency because only hard-bookings are considered when reconciling bookings versus assignments. You can use the Extend Bookings feature on the Reconciliation tab to hard-book the resource to eliminate the deficit of hard bookings against the resources assignments. You’ll have to cancel the soft booking for the resource by using Maintain Bookings.

When you’re ready to change a soft-booked team member resource to a hard-booked team member, do the following:

1. On the Schedule board, expand the resource to show their bookings. You’ll see the booking shown as Soft.
2. Right-click the booking, and under Change Status, select Hard Book > Hard. The booking status is now Hard.
3. After you close the Schedule board, return to the project, and open the Team tab, you’ll see that the hours for the resource have moved from the Soft Booked Hours column to the Hard Booked Hours column on the Team tab when in the Named Team Members view. If the resource was assigned to tasks, they’ll no longer show a booking deficit on the Reconciliation tab as their bookings are now hard.