You decide whether to allocate budgets by week or month in resource allocation. The decision is firm-dependent, since there are benefits to both. Despite your choice, you can run resource allocation reports at both the weekly and monthly level.
This article highlights the benefits of both allocation types and explains how to toggle between them.
Note: This article assumes that you know how to access resource allocation in BigTime.
Weekly vs Monthly Allocations
Consider the details below to help guide your decision to allocate your budgets by week or month.
Weekly allocations mean you’ll allocate budgets by week (see image below), and offers a detailed view of your business and staffers. This view is ideal for tracking shorter projects, typically those that last less than 12 weeks.
It’s also helpful for companies that want to keep a close pulse of their resources, like staffers’ time. This level of detail can help prevent common, but costly errors, like exceeding budgets. For example, in the image below we know precisely the number of hours Henry spends each week on “Design: Task 1.”
Monthly allocations mean you’ll allocate budgets by month (see image below). It’s a good option if you want a more global view of your business and for projects with longer durations and larger teams.
Plus, some firms already follow a month-to-month schedule for setting goals, tracking metrics, and delegating assignments, so monthly allocation easily integrates with their workflow.
Now we’ll show you how easy it is to make your selection.
How To Select Weekly or Monthly Allocations
Navigate to ALLOCATIONS (see this article to learn how). Then, click EDIT ALLOCATION. Find the SETTINGS header on the gray sidebar. Click the red triangle and a short picklist will populate. This is where you’ll select weekly or monthly allocations.
Easily toggle between these allocation periods. If you’re using weekly allocations, then select monthly from the picklist and your Resource Allocation editor will be updated accordingly.