User Guide

Workload Planner

Workload Planner is the capacity-planning and workload-balancing module in Xfatora. It helps teams review workload across employees, teams, and departments; compare Estimated Hours with spent hours; detect overload early; and plan realistic delivery windows using actual available capacity instead of rough headcount assumptions.

Workload Planner is the planning layer between execution data and management decisions. It is not a project-execution workspace and not a time-capture screen.

The module supports visibility and control of:

  • Capacity
  • Total Capacity
  • Total Available Cap
  • Estimated hours overload
  • Spent hours overload
  • Total overload hours
  • Standard workload per day (hours)
  • Total standard hours
  • Holiday and Leave planning impact
  • Billable vs unbillable workload context
  • Staff exception handling for non-standard capacity patterns

Workload Planner should be used as a forward-looking management workspace:

  • Projects remains the execution module for tasks and delivery tracking.
  • Time & Attendance remains the source of attendance, leave, and time-event capture.
  • Workload Planner uses these inputs to answer planning questions: who is overloaded, who has capacity left, where bottlenecks are likely to emerge, and whether upcoming commitments remain realistic.

When used correctly, Workload Planner reduces silent overcommitment, surfaces hidden bottlenecks before deadline slips, improves staffing and sequencing decisions, and creates a consistent weekly management review rhythm.

Roles & permissions

  • PMO Lead
  • Reviews: cross-team workload, capacity pressure, overload totals, and planning-window risk.
  • Can adjust: prioritization and escalation across teams/departments.
  • Should not change loosely: raw task or attendance records without data-owner involvement.
  • Delivery Manager
  • Reviews: team overload, estimate-vs-spent drift, and near-term commitment pressure.
  • Can adjust: assignment balancing and sequencing with team leads.
  • Should not change loosely: enterprise-wide workload policy.
  • Department Manager
  • Reviews: department capacity, overload concentration, and exception patterns.
  • Can adjust: local balancing and department-level allocation.
  • Should not change loosely: cross-department rules or organization-wide standard workload settings.
  • Team Lead
  • Reviews: employee-level workload, near-term pressure, and staff exceptions.
  • Can adjust: balancing actions inside team scope and escalation requests.
  • Should not change loosely: organization-wide capacity assumptions.
  • Resource Planner
  • Reviews: Total Capacity, Total Available Cap, staffing sufficiency, and scenarios.
  • Can adjust: reallocation models and staffing recommendations.
  • Should not change loosely: project scope or leave approvals outside ownership.
  • Executive Reviewer (read-only)
  • Reviews: strategic-level overload and commitment risk visibility.
  • Can adjust: portfolio-level prioritization through governance decisions.
  • Should not change loosely: operational planning data.

Operating rule: keep ownership split. Projects own task details, attendance workflows own Holiday/Leave records, and Workload Planner owners govern balancing and capacity decisions.

Setup checklist

  1. Define policy for Standard workload per day (hours) and whether it is uniform or role/team/function-specific.
  2. Confirm working days of the week to match the real business calendar.
  3. Validate employee/team/department mapping in People Records.
  4. Audit task ownership, estimated hours, and assignment quality in project source data.
  5. Confirm billable/unbillable project classification quality.
  6. Verify Holiday and Leave integration readiness from attendance workflows.
  7. Define Staff exception rules for part-time, reduced schedules, temporary limits, or other non-standard patterns.
  8. Set planning-window standards (weekly, biweekly, monthly).
  9. Publish recurring management review cadence and clear ownership for weekly planning meetings.
  10. Test realistic scenarios before go-live (normal load, overload, leave-heavy windows, billable/unbillable rebalance).

Key workflows

  1. Review workload by period
  2. Select the planning date range.
  3. Filter by department, team, or employee.
  4. Review workload totals and Number of tasks.
  5. Identify overload and underutilization patterns.
  6. Record balancing/escalation actions for the next window.
  1. Review capacity
  2. Review Capacity and Total Capacity.
  3. Compare with Total Available Cap.
  4. Validate whether Standard workload per day still reflects operational reality.
  5. Check if current assumptions imply unrealistic availability.
  6. Decide whether staffing, sequencing, or scope decisions are required.
  1. Review overload
  2. Review Estimated hours overload and spent hours overload.
  3. Check Total overload hours by team/department.
  4. Identify persistent overload hotspots.
  5. Decide whether to rebalance work, delay commitments, or add support.
  6. Track improvement in the next cycle.
  1. Compare estimated vs spent effort
  2. Open workload overview.
  3. Compare Estimated Hours with spent hours.
  4. Review Total Estimated Time against Total Spent Time.
  5. Identify recurring estimation drift.
  6. Correct future assumptions based on actual effort patterns.
  1. Plan around Holiday and Leave
  2. Review upcoming Holiday and Leave entries.
  3. Check capacity drop during the target period.
  4. Reassign work before absence windows begin.
  5. Validate whether delivery dates remain realistic.
  6. Communicate planning impact to stakeholders.
  1. Handle Staff exceptions
  2. Identify employees with non-standard availability.
  3. Apply the correct Staff exception/custom workload rule.
  4. Recalculate workload and capacity totals.
  5. Review updated overload indicators.
  6. Communicate impact to managers and affected teams.
  1. Run department-level capacity review
  2. Filter by department.
  3. Review Statistics by estimate hours, Statistics by spent hours, and Statistics by departments.
  4. Assess overload concentration and capacity pressure.
  5. Decide whether to reprioritize, delay, or add support.
  6. Track outcomes in the next cycle.

Reports

  • Workload overview by period
  • Used for workload totals by selected date range with employee/team/department slicing.
  • Supports weekly balancing decisions.
  • Capacity totals
  • Used to review Capacity, Total Capacity, Total Available Cap, and Total standard hours.
  • Supports staffing sufficiency and commitment realism checks.
  • Overload totals
  • Used to review Estimated hours overload, spent hours overload, and Total overload hours.
  • Supports early escalation before deadline slips.
  • Estimated/spent statistics
  • Used to compare Estimated Hours, spent hours, Total Estimated Time, and Total Spent Time.
  • Supports planning and forecast-quality improvements.
  • Department statistics
  • Used to review department-level workload distribution and overload concentration.
  • Billable/unbillable workload context
  • Used to review billable/unbillable project lists and Billable expected context.
  • Supports commercially informed planning decisions.

Recommended cadence: weekly review for capacity/overload and monthly deep review for estimate-vs-spent drift and department-level posture.

Troubleshooting / FAQ

  • Workload looks wrong because source tasks are incomplete.
  • Validate assignment completeness, ownership, and estimate quality in project source data.
  • Holiday or Leave impact is missing.
  • Confirm attendance/leave integration readiness and validate date-range coverage in the planning window.
  • Staff exception is not applied.
  • Check exception scope, effective date range, and employee mapping.
  • Capacity seems overstated.
  • Recheck Standard workload per day (hours), working days, and leave deductions.
  • Overload is not reflected correctly.
  • Validate estimate/spent inputs and ensure planning window includes the target period.
  • Billable and unbillable projects are mixed.
  • Review project classification quality and confirm ownership of project tagging.
  • Teams confuse Workload Planner with Projects.
  • Reconfirm boundary: Projects executes work; Workload Planner balances capacity and overload.
  • Teams confuse Workload Planner with Time & Attendance.
  • Reconfirm boundary: Time & Attendance captures time and leave records; Workload Planner uses their impact for planning.

Need help with this section? Contact our team for guided setup support.