ProjectLoad Blog

Not only can you view a Gantt chart detailing all of the phases and activities within a project, but you can now create a multi-project Gantt chart. Just go to the “Projects” page, set your filter criteria and click the “Search” button. Then click the “Chart” button at the bottom of the page to open a new window containing a multi-project Gantt chart. It works the same way as the regular, single project Gantt chart except that in this version, each bar represents a single project. You can also click on a project bar to open a complete Gantt chart on that project.

Almost everyone has some activities that do not have target dates. The daily administrative duties that everyone needs to do, a routine job that has to be performed every day, day in and day out, or some task that needs to get done each week regardless of other duties that may come along. ProjectLoad provides several methods to forecast the work of each individual. For activities that have a known target date and number of hours, this forecasting is pretty straightforward (although there are a few options available in how to spread the hours). However, it is important to include those activities that may not have a known date or hours, but will nevertheless take up some portion of a person’s time.

ProjectLoad provides this function by allowing you to “reserve” some amount of time each day, week, or month. You can activate this option by editing the activity and selecting the “Reserve ____ hours per _____ for this activity". You simply fill in how many hours you wish to reserve and whether or not they are to be reserved for each work day, work week, or work month.

There is an important difference between choosing to reserve by work day versus work week or work month. The work day option assumes you will be spending the time on the task during that day and if you don’t, it quietly disappears. The work week and work month options assume you are working with a repetitive task that will require the specified amount of time somewhere during that week (or month). For example:

• If you have a task that you are trying to set aside some generic time for (such as general administration meetings), you should use the daily reserve option. This works well because it assumes you’ll be spending the time on it during that day and if you don’t, it drops off. Thus if you set aside two hours per day, and you have gone through the first three days of the week without charging any time the system will assume only four more hours for the week (two per day).
• If you have a task that requires some average number of hours each week (maybe you spend ten hours each week reviewing reports or performing some operations tasks), then you should reserve ten hours per work week. This option assumes that you will need to spend the full ten hours at some point during the week. If you have gone through the first three days of the week without charging any time the system will place five hours on each of the last two days so you can get in your full ten hours. If you spend the ten hour in the first two days, the rest of the week is assumed to be clear.

Forecasting your work allows your manager to see how much time you have available in the future, and helps him or her plan project schedules much more accurately. It also prevents overloading of personnel when two different managers try to assign work to the same person. In order for forecasting to be accurate, it is important to make certain ProjectLoad has as complete a picture as possible of where your time will be needed.

For each “Work Hours” report, drill-downs into the column level (e.g. year, month or week) are now supported. The year, month or week listed in the report heading is now a link. Just click on one of these links to open a new report window that displays the underlying monthly or daily data.

If your organization uses the user-defined, they may now be included in all of the Work Hours reports. Your user-defined fields will now appear in the “Optional Columns” block of the report. Simply check off the ones you want appear in the report and generate the report as usual.

Supervisors now have a new “Incomplete Timesheet” option at the bottom of their “Settings” page. If this section is enabled, the “Home” page will contain a listing of incomplete timesheets. The person’s name is a link that when clicked will open an e-mail addressed to that person (if there are multiple people, an “E-mail All” link will appear at the bottom which will create one e-mail addressed to all people). The second column contains the hours recorded for the month and is a link that will open the monthly timesheet view for that person.

This new feature will make it easier for supervisors to identify personnel who have not completed their timesheet and send them reminders.

For quite a while, ProjectLoad has been able to associate files with a project. Now administrators may make files and document available to all ProjectLoad users in the organization. This can serve as a central repository for common files like policies and procedures, organization charts or any document of general use to all personnel.

A new “Organization Files” link appears at the bottom of the “Administration Menu” page. Simply click on this administrator link to manage organization-level files. Everyone else in the organization can access these files by first going to the “Settings” page and adding the “Common Files” home page section to their display. Then when the “Home” page is viewed, these common files will be listed and made available for download.