Our objective is to speed up Time and Expense entry - also by restricting the selection options of projects to just the ones relevant to the user.


Project Sharing


By default, the project is shared as Public Read Only, which means that e.g. everyone can reference the project/line in a time + expense report. The advantage is low admin overhead for the project manager, but that the user might have to search through quite a few projects and might pick the wrong one.


The alternative is to set the Sharing Rule for Project (Setup > Security Controls > Sharing Settings) to Private. This means that the project manager (or the person who created the record) must explicitly share the project. As a result, the user sees only the project they are assigned to.


Note that Project Line sharing is ignored by the standard Salesforce Lookup entry options (e.g. Project Mode: Individual).


Project Line Access

If you enabled Project Sharing, users can only access project lines if they are given access (via project line allocation). 

To ease administration, the project line is automatically shared:

  • The Project Manager automatically get access to all lines (e.g. admin sets up projects)
  • The Project Line Resource gets access to access to this specific line.

Additional options:

  • For a specific Resource, you can select "Access all Project Lines" - example: Support staff
  • For a specific Project, you can select "Share all Lines" - example: General and Administration projects
  • For a specific Project Line, you can select "Share All" - for users who have access to the Project, e.g. Support 
  • For all users, you can select "Access all Project Lines" in Accorto Settings 


Project Line Allocation


The Project Line Allocation + Sharing Tab allows managing

  • Resource allocation and
  • User (sharing) access.

In a Project Line, click on the [Allocation] button.  
Another option to manage the project allocations via the Project Overview link.


Sharing


To reduce the number of selection options in the Timesheet or Expense entry, you would set the Project level Sharing to "Private".


If you assign a Resource to the Project Line, it is then automatically shared with the user of the resource.


This screen allows adding multiple users to have access to this Project Line. The option Add user only to this line allows adding user just to this Project Line.


For projects which are shared by all (e.g. overhead projects or projects like Vacation, Holiday, PTO), select the "Share All Lines" flag on the Project.



Resource Allocation


For capturing actual time, the user/resource just needs to have access to the project line (sharing) but does not have to be allocated (= planned).


Resource records are created for Salesforce Users Contacts. Here you can also add Resources not associated with a User (e.g. room, vehicle, ...).


When allocating resources to a Project Line, the following planning scenarios are supported:

  • Single User (Resource) - a single resource is allocated to the Project Line by defining the resource in the Project Line - or alternatively by clicking on the Allocation button in Project Line.
  • Multiple Users (Resources) - In the Project Line, click on the Allocation button and add the users. You need to add the user for Salesforce sharing and the Resource is automatically derived. 

Each resource has a daily capacity (default 8h).



Project Line Allocation + Sharing


In the allocation you define

  • Active - required for Scheduling. Not active, means that the user has no access to the project task.
  • User - required for access
  • Resource - optional, derived from the Resource user
  • Capacity Percent (defaults to 100 for active lines)
  • Mandatory Resource - if selected and if multiple resources are allocated, if the mandatory resource is not available for a given day, nothing is scheduled for that day.
  • Effort Considered - if not selected (exception), the time for this resource is not included in the effort for the Project Line. Example: a Room is booked and maybe charged, but the project line estimate does not include the time for the room.
  • Optional description

The Project Line Effort is allocated to the different resources based on the resource's capacity and stops when all of the planned effort is allocated to the resource(s). If the effort of a Resource is not considered, it is booked for the duration and the days, other resources are scheduled.