Manage Assignments in BigTime Foresight

Table of Contents

Managing Assignments: Use Cases and Benefits
Understanding Assignments
Assignment Types in BigTime Foresight
     Status-Based Assignments
     Billability-Based Assignments
     Form Type-Based Assignments Jun 23, 2025 Update
     Utilization Type-Based Assignments and Calculations
          Utilization by Capacity
          Utilization by Time Frame
          Utilization by Weekday
          Utilization Weekday by Capacity
          No Utilization
Assignment Creation Locations
Understanding "Reduce Billable Capacity" and "Use Leftover Capacity" in Calculations
     What is "Reduce Billable Capacity"?
          When to use it?
     What is "Use Leftover Capacity"?
          When to use it?
     How They Work Together
     Key Benefits
Overbooking Warning
Understanding Off-Hours Work and Calculations
     Purpose of Off-Hours Work
     Where to Change Off-Hours Work Settings
     How the Off-Hours Work Checkbox Affects Calculations
     Examples of Off-Hours Work Usage
     When to Use Off-Hours Work
Scheduling Utilization Outside Full Day Time Off and Public Holidays
     Schedule Utilization Outside Full Day Time Off
     Schedule Utilization Outside Public Holidays
Understanding "No Utilization" Assignments
Creating an Assignment Using Compact Form
Creating Bulk Assignments for the Entire Team
Customizing Assignment Tiles Display
     Data Set List For All Permissions
     Setting Up an Assignment Display
Frequently Asked Questions
     How do I manage bill rates for assignments?
     I don't know how much I will utilize a staffer's working time on a project. How do I account for this when planning an assignment?
     Can I create an assignment without a person assigned to it?
     What happens if I need to change the Bill Rate on an Assignment in Foresight to see how an adjusted rate impacts a team member's future assignments?
     Can I connect assignments to an existing demand?
     Can I edit an assignment created with the Compact Form using the Standard Form?
     What if I want to control how public holidays are handled in my assignment?

Managing Assignments: Use Cases and Benefits

Effective assignment management is a cornerstone of long-term planning and resource optimization in professional services firms. In BigTime Foresight, assignments go beyond simple task allocation; they provide a framework for aligning team capacities with project demands, ensuring both client satisfaction and business profitability. By integrating assignments into strategic foresight, firms can anticipate workload distribution, forecast revenue, and address resource gaps before they become bottlenecks.

This comprehensive approach not only supports operational efficiency but also fosters informed decision-making. Assignments allow managers to simulate project scenarios, compare resource allocation strategies, and adjust plans dynamically to maximize outcomes. Businesses can fine-tune their planning processes by leveraging tools like draft assignments, filters, and utilization options, enhancing productivity and financial clarity.

In this article, you'll explore the fundamentals of assignments in Foresight, from understanding their types and statuses to utilizing advanced features like bill rate adjustments, bulk scheduling, and demand connections. Discover how assignments serve as a vital tool for driving long-term success and meeting the complex needs of modern professional services firms.

Understanding Assignments

Assignments are a crucial component of Foresight. They provide detailed information about who works, for how long, and on which projects. Furthermore, Foresight uses assignments to calculate the income and costs your team members generate. This step comes after creating estimations and is essential for effectively planning and managing your project.

Assignment Types in BigTime Foresight

Status-Based Assignments

In Foresight, assignments are categorized into three distinct statuses, each serving a specific purpose in resource planning and project management:

• Active Assignment
  This status is used when you are confident about an assignment. Setting an assignment to "Active" confirms it as part of the project plan. Active assignments are included in reports and impact resource availability and project budgets.
• Reserved Assignment
  Reserved assignments are used when there is a high likelihood of execution but some uncertainty remains. This status allows managers to earmark resources without fully committing them, helping to maintain flexibility while planning for upcoming needs.
• Draft Assignments
  Draft assignments are ideal for testing different scenarios or conducting what-if analyses. This status enables you to explore various resource allocation strategies without affecting live project data, helping to identify the most effective team or plan for a project.

Billability-Based Assignments 

Assignments can be either billable or non-billable, enabling differentiation between revenue-generating and internal tasks:

• Billable Assignments: Work tied to a client with defined rates, contributing to project revenue.
• Non-Billable Assignments: Internal or support tasks that do not generate direct income but are essential for operational success.

These assignment types provide a structured planning and resource allocation approach, enabling organizations to simulate, adapt, and optimize their project strategies effectively. By leveraging these configurations, businesses can enhance capacity planning, improve team productivity, and maximize profitability.

Form Type-Based Assignments, Jun 23, 2025 Update 

BigTime Foresight offers two assignment form types to better fit different planning needs:

Use the Compact Form when:

• You need to assign work quickly.
• You’re doing short-term or high-volume scheduling.
• You prefer fewer fields and faster input.

Use the Standard Form when:

• You need advanced utilization settings and detailed financial metrics such as Total Income or Total Cost.
• You want full control over every aspect of the assignment.
• You are managing longer or more complex projects.

Utilization Type-Based Assignments and Calculations

In Foresight, assignments can be configured based on various utilization types, allowing for precise planning and flexibility to suit different project needs. Here’s an overview of the available utilization types:

Utilization by Capacity

Assign work based on a percentage of the staffer's capacity. You can specify the percentage (e.g., 100%) and define the workdays. Additional options allow you to:

• Reduce billable capacity if needed.
• Assign leftover billable capacity to other tasks or projects.

Choosing this option allows you to tell the system how much of your staffer's overall capacity you want to use on this project. Let’s say your staffer, Francis, works full time, usually about 160 hours. His capacity can be set in his profile, in “Settings.” If we set his capacity on the project to 50%, this will inform the system to assign 80 hours from that month to that project.

Please note that you can also choose weekdays in this option, for example, 100% capacity for Monday and Friday.

As we can see in this screenshot, our project only chose 50% of Francis's available capacity.

Utilization by Time Frame

Assign work based on a specific time frame and duration (e.g., 8 hours per day). This type also includes options to adjust utilization around:

• Time Off: Decide whether to schedule utilization outside of full-day time off or reduce the planned hours.
• Public Holidays: You can schedule utilization outside public holidays or reduce planned hours accordingly.

You can choose from Day, Week, Month, or whole Assignment. Then, you can select several hours in that particular time frame. You can also decide how to distribute that utilization by selecting workdays.

Let’s take a look at different examples.

If we set Day as a time frame and set 4 hours, Foresight will assign 4 hours on that project to each working day. If we change it to a week and decide that our staff will work 32 hours, Foresight will split those 32 hours into 6 hours and 24 minutes each day. When choosing a month, Foresight will take the number of workdays in said month and distribute hours and minutes accordingly. The same will happen with the assignment.

So, what will happen if we decide to assign a number of hours and minutes that are not easily divided, like 37 hours and 17 minutes per week?

As we can see, Foresight divided that time into two groups, so that the sum of the assigned daily time will reflect how much we assigned per week. Foresight will always try to distribute time as close to even as possible.

Utilization by Weekday

Plan work daily by specifying the exact number of hours for each weekday. You can also adjust schedules to account for the following:

• Full day off.
• Public holidays.

Here, you can assign the desired number of hours per weekday. As you can see, there are also options to include or exclude time off or holidays. However, as mentioned earlier, Foresight takes this value as an absolute since this is daily utilization. It will not change whether we check those adjusted schedules for time off/public holiday boxes or not. 

Utilization Weekday by Capacity

Assign work as a percentage of capacity for each weekday (e.g., 100% Monday–Friday, 0% for weekends). This allows for tailored schedules while maintaining a capacity-based approach. Additional options include assigning leftover billable capacity.

We can use billable capacity, meaning Foresight will assign this % capacity out of the currently available capacity. Learn more about Reduce Billable Capacity in the section: Understanding "Reduce Billable Capacity" and "Use Leftover Capacity" in Calculations

No Utilization

This type can be used to assign a staffer to a project without scheduling work hours. It is useful for side projects, bench assignments, or situations where work hours will be logged based on actual activities rather than predefined schedules.

Last but not least is “no utilization.” It’s pretty simple: If you do not want to plan work for your staffer but allow him to log time in the project, we can choose this type, and Foresight will not assign him any working hours towards this project.

Assignment Creation Locations

There are several main places in BigTime where you can plan assignments for your team. These include the Staff List Tab, Project List Tab, and the Calendars section.

Keep in mind: any area that shows staff or project details can redirect you to the Project Profile or Staffer Profile, where you can quickly create new assignments.

Main locations for planning assignments:

• Staff List Tab → Staff Member → Calendar
• Projects List Tab → Project → Team → Team Members section
• Projects List Tab → Project → Team Calendar
• Calendar Tab → Team Members
• Calendar Tab → Projects

Secondary locations that link you to assignment planning:

• Projects List Tab → Project → Team → Search for Team Members and/or Staff Members from the list → Create Assignment button
• Demand Board Tab → Project → Team → Search for Team Members and/or Staff Members from the list → Create Assignment button
• Time Off Tab → Staffer → Calendar

These extra locations are designed to make your workflow easier. For example, if you add Time Off for someone and then decide to assign them a task, you can jump straight to their profile—there's no need to go back to the Staff List or search for them again.

However, we don't recommend these alternate locations when you are first planning assignments. For the best experience, use the main assignment locations listed first.

Understanding "Reduce Billable Capacity" and "Use Leftover Capacity" in Calculations

When managing assignments in Foresight, features such as Reduce Billable Capacity and Use Leftover Capacity are designed to help you effectively allocate resources and prevent overbooking. Below is a step-by-step guide to understanding and applying these options:

What is "Reduce Billable Capacity"?

This option reduces team members' capacity for billable projects by reserving time for non-billable or internal work. For example:

• Suppose a staffer is assigned 20 monthly hours to an internal, non-billable project. In that case, selecting Reduce Billable Capacity ensures these hours are deducted from their total capacity, leaving the remaining time for billable work.
• This ensures that the non-billable work is prioritized and accounted for in capacity planning.

When to use it?

• Assigning resources to internal activities like team meetings, training, or admin tasks.
• Reserving time for fixed non-billable tasks to avoid scheduling conflicts with billable projects.

What is "Use Leftover Capacity"?

This option allocates only the remaining unused hours of a staff member’s capacity to a specific project. Considering other existing commitments, it ensures the assignment doesn’t exceed the team member’s available time.

For example:

• If a staffer has already been assigned to a high-priority project taking up 60% of their time, using Use Leftover Capacity on a secondary assignment automatically schedules only 40% of their availability.
• This prevents overbooking while efficiently utilizing the available capacity.

When to use it?

• Assigning lower-priority projects or tasks without risking overallocation.
• Balancing workloads by using only the uncommitted time of team members.

How They Work Together

1. "Reduce Billable Capacity" Example:
   A staffer is assigned 10 hours per week to internal work (non-billable). This assignment reduces their availability for billable projects by 10 hours, ensuring the calendar reflects accurate availability for client work.
   
   
2. "Use Leftover Capacity" Example:
   After assigning non-billable hours, a staffer has 20 hours remaining in their capacity. Using the Use Leftover Capacity option, a client project is assigned, and another assignment is scheduled in the leftover time. 

Key Benefits

• Prevents overbooking of resources by managing capacity accurately.
• Enables prioritization of critical assignments (billable or non-billable).
• Enhances forecasting accuracy for project planning and workload management.

By understanding and applying Reduce Billable Capacity and Use Leftover Capacity, you can optimize your resource allocation, maintain balanced workloads, and ensure efficient project execution while aligning with your business priorities.

Overbooking Warning

Overbooking occurs when you assign more work to your staff than their capacity. This does not take into account any other active assignments. When this happens, Foresight will notify you.

Information about overbooking will also appear when adding or changing utilization. Before unveiling the “Utilization” tab, you will see this icon with an exclamation mark, informing you about overbooking and how many hours are overbooked.

Once you click on the “Utilization” option, you will also be met with a simplified time frame informing you where overbooking occurs. You will see a violet bar covering part of the time where overbooking occurs. Here, on the screenshot, we can estimate it’s from around March to the end of May.

We recommend opening the staffer’s calendar to review the conflict. You’ll be able to:

• Check assignments from other projects.
• Adjust your current plan accordingly.
• Coordinate with the staffer or other project managers to align on available capacity.

Understanding Off-Hours Work and Calculations

Overview 

Off-Hours Work, also referred to as Background Work, is an additional assignment status that allows for work scheduling outside of standard utilization and overbooking calculations. It is particularly useful for tasks like software maintenance, preparation, or other supplementary work that should not impact a staffer’s availability for primary assignments.

 

Off-Hours Work, also referred to as Background Work, is an additional assignment status that allows for work scheduling outside of standard utilization and overbooking calculations. It is particularly useful for tasks like software maintenance, preparation, or other supplementary work that should not impact a staffer’s availability for primary assignments.

Purpose of Off-Hours Work

• Schedule work without contributing to the staffer’s utilization percentage.
• To avoid this work affecting overbooking calculations, ensure that critical assignments remain prioritized.

For instance, if a team member has regular project commitments but needs to perform maintenance tasks that are not part of their main capacity, you can assign them as Off-Hours Work.

Where to Change Off-Hours Work Settings

To configure how Off-Hours Work interacts with utilization and overbooking:

1. Click on the Three Dots next to your profile name.
2. Select My Settings.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page to locate:
   • Scheduled Utilization Settings
   • Overbooking Settings
4. Adjust these settings to define how Off-Hours Work assignments are calculated.

How the Off-Hours Work Checkbox Affects Calculations

1. Utilization Calculation 

   When the Off-Hours Work checkbox is selected for an assignment:

   • The assigned hours will not count towards the staffer’s scheduled utilization percentage.
   • This ensures that the primary workload metrics remain unaffected.

2. Overbooking Calculation 

   When enabled, the checkbox prevents Off-Hours Work from being included in overbooking thresholds.

   • This allows additional tasks to be scheduled without flagging the staffer as overbooked.

When to Use Off-Hours Work

• Scheduling supplemental tasks that are not part of regular project commitments.
• Assigning low-priority tasks without disrupting capacity planning for higher-priority work.
• Tracking background activities without inflating utilization percentages or triggering overbooking alerts.

Examples of Off-Hours Work Usage

1. Example One: Off-Hours Work Disabled
   • Result: All assigned hours are included in utilization and overbooking calculations, affecting the staffer’s availability for other tasks.
2. Example Two: Off-Hours Work Enabled

   • Result: Hours assigned to this status are excluded from utilization and overbooking calculations, preserving availability for other assignments.

     

3. Example Three: Off-Hours Settings Unchecked (Globally)

   • Result: Regardless of assignment-specific settings, all hours are calculated normally.

     

4. Example Four: Off-Hours Settings Checked (Globally)

   • Result: The global settings ensure that Off-Hours assignments do not influence utilization or overbooking, regardless of individual assignment settings.

     

     In summary, configuring the Off-Hours Work status for an assignment determines whether that assignment affects staffer availability. You should configure this status based on your organization’s needs and processes.

Scheduling Utilization Outside Full Day Time Off and Public Holidays

When creating an assignment and configuring your staffer's utilization on a project based on the Time Frame, you will notice two additional options in the form of checkboxes. Each option expands when selected, allowing you to decide how the utilization hours should be calculated regarding time off and public holidays.

Default Behavior Without Adjustments

If no options (checkboxes) are selected, the tool will assign the exact number of hours entered in the assignment, including time off or public holidays.

Adjusting Utilization Settings

• Selecting the main checkbox enables the system to consider time off or public holidays when scheduling.
• Additional checkboxes allow you to decide whether the system should reduce the total hours assigned or redistribute the hours across working days.

This configuration ensures flexible and precise scheduling tailored to specific requirements regarding time off and public holidays.

Schedule Utilization Outside Full Day Time Off

Reduce Utilization By Full Day Time Off

This option excludes full-day time off when calculating staff utilization. For example, if a team member is assigned 40 hours per week and takes a full day off on a Monday, selecting this option will reduce the weekly utilization for that period to 32 hours. The daily utilization for the remaining working days, however, remains unchanged.

Schedule Utilization Outside Full Day Time Off

This option redistributes the hours assigned for the month, excluding any full-day time off, while maintaining the total hours in the assignment. For example, if you assign 168 hours in a month and a staffer takes one full day off, the system will redistribute those 8 hours across the remaining workdays. Thus, the daily workload will adjust, but the total assignment hours will remain at 168.

Schedule Utilization Outside Public Holidays

Reduce Utilization by Public Holidays

This option excludes public holidays when calculating a staffer’s utilization. For example, suppose a team member is assigned 40 hours a week and a public holiday falls on a Monday. In that case, selecting this option will reduce the weekly utilization for that period to 32 hours. The daily utilization for the remaining working days, however, remains unchanged.

Schedule Utilization Outside Public Holidays

This option redistributes the scheduled hours for the month, ensuring no work is assigned on public holidays while maintaining the total hours in the assignment. For example, if you assign 168 hours in a month with one public holiday, the system will redistribute the 8 hours from that day across the remaining workdays, keeping the total monthly hours at 168.

How Does It Work in Practice?

The number of hours you entered will remain unchanged in the assignment settings at the bottom. However, in the financial summary of the assignment at the top, you will see that the planned number of hours is reduced accordingly. Check the values under Scheduled - Work to see the adjusted hours.

Understanding "No Utilization" Assignments

 

The "No Utilization" setting allows you to assign a staffer to a project without allocating any planned work hours. This approach can be useful in various scenarios where flexibility or specific cost/revenue separation is needed. Below are practical examples of when to use this setting:

1. Side Projects or Non-Billable Bench Assignments If you want a staffer to log time on a side project or a non-billable bench project, "No Utilization" is an ideal option. For instance, if the staffer will only work on the project when they are on the bench, you can assign them to the project without planning specific hours. The client should add a dedicated bench project for this purpose, allowing accurate time tracking.
2. Uncertainty About Overtime When unsure whether overtime will occur on a project, you can create an assignment with "No Utilization." This allows the staffer to log their time as it happens, without pre-planning hours. The logged time will be calculated based on the details provided in the budget section.
3. Time & Materials Projects with Out-of-Charge Work In cases where the client pays for specific tasks, such as development, but not for others, like bug fixes, "No Utilization" can help separate costs and revenue. For example:
   • Create one assignment for the billable development work.
   • Create a second assignment with "No Utilization" for the non-billable bug fixes.
     This ensures that only the costs, not the revenue, are accounted for on the "No Utilization" assignment, enabling clear cost and revenue tracking for the project.

This flexibility ensures accurate resource management and financial planning, even in complex project scenarios.

Creating an Assignment Using Compact Form

Follow these steps to quickly create an assignment using the Compact Form:

1. Click the Create Assignment icon.

2. Use the toggle at the top of the form to switch to the Compact Form.

3. Choose your planning method:

• Capacity – Plan using a percentage (%) of the staffer’s total capacity.
• Time per Day – Plan a specific number of hours per day.

If you’re planning by % of capacity, you can skip the Total Time field—it will be calculated automatically for you.

4. Fill in the key scheduling fields:

• Total Time (Hours)
• Total Duration (Days)
• Start Date and Due Date

You can start with any field—BigTime will automatically adjust the others based on what you enter.

5. Set the assignment status: Choose between Active, Reserved, or Draft.

6. Select the Task/Deliverable/Phase name from the predefined list.

The list of available tasks comes from the Project List setup in BigTime. 

Go to the following instructions to learn more about tasks in BigTime: Using Tasks in BigTime and Task-Based Resourcing in BigTime Foresight

7. Configure financial settings - Select the Staffer’s Bill Rate.

8. Define if the assignment is:

• Non-billable – Learn more: What is Billable Capacity? and Understanding "Reduce Billable Capacity" and "Use Leftover Capacity" in Calculations
• Off-hours Work – Learn more: Understanding Off-Hours Work and Calculations

9. (Optional) Add a Label — it will appear as a tag on the assignment tile, such as in calendars.

10. Click Apply and Close to finish.

Creating Bulk Assignments for the Entire Team

This way, you will open a separate "Search for Team Members" modal to browse staffers and assign them to projects. Click the "Bulk Scheduling" button and select the staffers for whom you want to create assignments for this project. A new "Create Assignment" modal will open, not including the financial summary that appears when planning an assignment for a single person.

Customizing Assignment Tiles Display

To better adapt Foresight to the needs of various management models, we provide the ability to customize the assignment view. You can easily configure your calendar views to display the most relevant data, ensuring quick access to the information you need.

There are the following possibilities to customize assignment views: 

• You choose which data you want to display on assignment tiles.
• Configuration is specific to your account only.
• Configuring Assignment Settings affects the following calendars: Team Calendar (Calendar Tab), Projects (Calendar Tab), and Team Calendar (in Project Profile).
• The data set you can choose from is adjusted to the permissions you are granted.
• You can customize all three assignment views: Compact, Standard, and Extended.

Data Set List For All Permissions

In the list below, you can check the data set available for managers with all permissions granted:

• Avatar
• Client Name
• Note
• Default Role
• Project Role
• Label
• Work
• Scheduled Cost
• Scheduled Revenue

The data set differs depending on the view.

Setting Up An Assignment Display

To configure Assignment Display Settings, follow the steps below: 

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I manage bill rates for assignments?

Let’s say you have already planned the staffer's utilization and the number of hours he will work on a project. You can configure the financial data related to this work in the Bill Rate section. Here, you can set the amount your client(s) will pay for work done by that specific staffer.

Good revenue planning has three aspects: the project's time frame, staffer utilization (how much time they’ll spend on a given project), and bill rate.

The image below shows the Bill Rate tab in the Assignment settings. Here, you’ll see two rate fields:

• Staffer's Bill Rate: where in the system the rate should come from, and
• Rate: what specific rate do we want to assign for the staffer’s assignment

Here's a breakdown of where precisely the rates come from and how they differ:

If the rates are taken from BigTime and are not configurable in Foresight, we can say that BigTime is the source of truth about rates, and Foresight is the source of truth about project revenues.

I don't know how much I will utilize a staffer's working time on a project. How do I account for this when planning an assignment?

Although creating an assignment involves planning utilization, you do not need to know at the planning stage how much work time the project will require. In this situation, when creating an assignment, simply select “No utilization.” This will indicate the person's presence in the project but not their level of involvement. This option is intended to help you with your planning.

Can I create an assignment without a person assigned to it?

Yes, this is what Demand is for. Learn more in: Planning Project Demand in BigTime Foresight

What happens if I need to change the Bill Rate on an Assignment in Foresight to see how an adjusted rate impacts a team member's future assignments?

Bill Rates on an Assignment can be adjusted anytime and will not impact the Rate applied to the hours logged in BigTime. If time is already tracked to a corresponding Assignment in Foresight, then the Bill Rate cannot be adjusted, and the Bill Rate field will be disabled. We recommend you split the Assignment and create a new one to see a different Bill Rate for future scheduled hours.

Can I connect assignments to an existing demand?

Yes, you can. This article, FAQ: How to Connect Assignments to an Existing Demand, provides instructions on connecting assignments to existing demands.

Can I edit an assignment created with the Compact Form using the Standard Form?

Yes! Once an assignment is created—regardless of which form was used—you can reopen and edit it using either the Compact or Standard form. Just toggle between forms at the top of the assignment window.

What if I want to control how public holidays are handled in my assignment?

Public holidays are automatically accounted for in capacity calculations, just like time off. However, in the Compact Form, these settings apply by default and can’t be manually adjusted. To customize how public holidays are treated (e.g., include or exclude them from scheduling), open the assignment in the Standard Form, where more advanced options are available.