Booking statuses

2024-05-28

Applies To: Project Operations Integrated with ERP, Core deployment - deal to proforma invoicing

Regardless of whether your organization is operating in Centralized mode or Hybrid mode (decentralized), four booking statuses are available in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Hard, Soft, Proposed, and Canceled.

Booking statuses are defined or updated during the booking process, and are most often established in three ways:

Book from the Team member grid.
Book from the Schedule board or Schedule assistant.
Book from the Project page.

For more information about each of these options, see Book to a Project.

You can use the functionality in Universal Resource Scheduling for Dynamics 365 Field Service to set up booking statuses for your organization. For information about how to complete this setup, see Set up booking statuses.

Hard booking

Use the Hard booking status when a resource manager or project manager wants to firmly allocate and reserve a resource to a project. The resource is automatically added to the project team, and the resource's capacity is consumed by the amount of time that's allocated to the project.

Soft booking

Use the Soft booking status when you must reserve a resource for a specific project, but you want that resource to remain allocable to other projects until you make a final decision about the booking allocation. When you use soft booking, the resource's capacity isn't consumed and is available to other projects, but the resource is added to the project team.

Proposed booking

When your organization is operating in Centralized mode, project managers request resources that have specific characteristics, and the resource manager proposes resources for those requests by using proposed booking. Until a final decision about a proposal is made, the resource's capacity isn't consumed, and the proposed resource isn't added to the project team.

Canceled booking

All booking statuses can be canceled at any point. Cancellation of a booking frees capacity-allocated time for resources, but it doesn't remove those resources from the project's Team member grid.

Resource requirement types

Because of the technical design of Project Operations, bookings must always be made against a resource requirement. The process for generating a resource requirement can be initiated from the project's Team member grid, and is available for both generic resources and named resources.

If you must book a resource directly to a project, but there's no specific request for that need, you can book the resource against the project requirement. This type of requirement is known as a primary requirement. It's automatically created when the project is created. You can use it when a resource manager or project manager wants to allocate a resource to a project before they have a resource requirement.

Change booking statuses

As projects evolve, so do the bookings. The booking statuses must reflect any changes. Booking statuses can be updated in three places:

In the Schedule board, by selecting and holding (or right-clicking) a specific booking.
In the Team member grid, by using the Maintain bookings option that's available when a resource is selected.
In the Resource request cycle process. For more information, see Book to a project in Centralized resource booking.

The following table describes the booking status changes and some typical situations where the changes are applicable.

Current status	New status	Typical scenario	Impact on capacity and the project team
Proposed	Soft	The resource manager proposed a resource based on a request, but the project manager isn't ready to confirm that booking.	The resource is added to the project's Team member grid.
Proposed	Hard	The resource manager proposed a resource based on a request, and the project manager wants to confirm that booking.	The resource is added to the project's Team member grid, and resource capacity is consumed.
Proposed	Canceled	The resource manager proposed a resource in a request, but the project manager didn't accept the proposal.	No impact.
Soft	Hard	A project that was waiting to be started is confirmed, and the proposed resources must be hard booked to the project.	Resource capacity is consumed.
Soft	Canceled	A resource that was soft booked is no longer required in the project, and the booking must be removed.	No impact.
Hard	Canceled	A task was suspended, and a hard-booked resource must be freed.	Resource capacity is freed.

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