Creating Assignments

Assignments are the unique links between projects, tasks, and employees that define how a project is organized for time entry. Assignments must be created before employees can begin tracking their time.

 

The Project Assignments view is where assignments are created and managed for the Employees & Projects area of the software. Assignments made in this view appear in Dovico Planning & TimesheetDovico Timesheet's time and expense entry views with each employee only seeing the specific projects and tasks that have been assigned to them. The Project Assignments view graphically displays assignments on the left pane and displays all available tasks, employees (teams) and task groups within the 3 panes on the right.

 

Details on how assignments are displayed in the Project Assignments view.

 

There are 2 ways to create assignments in the Project Assignments view. You can drag and drop (1), or use the toolbar's Assign button (2).

 

To create a large number of assignments, you should consider using the Quick Assign view.

 

Important Tip:

  • Before creating or editing any assignments, check the various toolbars to see if any filters or are currently applied in the assignment tree or in any of the panes at the right (employees, tasks, etc.).  Although filters can be very useful when making or editing assignments, they can also cause confusion if you do not remember or recognize that they have been applied.

 

 

Assign using Drag and Drop

Select Project Assignments from the menu (Menu > Views tab > Employees & Projects > Project Assignments).

To assign tasks to projects:

  1. In the assignment tree, locate and select the project to which you want to assign tasks.

  2. Select one or more tasks from the task pane on the right.

  3. Drag and drop the task(s) on top of the project's name in the assignment tree.

 

Note: You can only drag and drop items into their suitable hierarchy levels. For example, you can drag tasks onto projects, but you will receive an error message if you drag employees over projects, clients or task groups.

 

 

To assign employees to tasks:

  1. Locate and select the task in the assignment tree.

  2. Select one or more employees from the employee pane on the right.

  3. Drag and drop the employee(s) on top of the task's name in the assignment tree.

 

 

 

Assign using the Assign function

Select Project Assignments from the menu (Menu > Views tab > Employees & Projects > Project Assignments).

To assign tasks to projects:

  1. In the assignment tree, locate and select the project to which you want to assign tasks.

  2. Click the Assign button located on the toolbar. The Assignments List window opens.


                  

  3. Click the Tasks tab at the top of the Assignments List window.

  4. Select one or more tasks to assign to this project and click OK. To select more than one item, hold the Ctrl key while making your selections.

 

To assign employees to tasks:

  1. Locate and select the task in the assignment tree.

  2. Click the Assign button located on the toolbar.

  3. Click the Employees tab at the top of the Assignments List window.

  4. Select one or more employees to assign to this task and click OK. To select more than one item, hold the Ctrl key while making your selections.

 

Tip: If using project-based approval workflows, then you should reviews these whenever employees are added to a project.

To assign task groups to projects:

You can assign one task at a time, or easily assign multiple tasks at once by using Task Groups.

 

Note: To automatically assign tasks when assigning task groups, verify that this option is enabled in the Options view.

 

  1. Locate and select the project in the assignment tree.

  2. Click the Assign button located on the toolbar.

  3. Click the Task Groups tab at the top of the Assignments List window.

  4. Select one or more tasks groups to assign to this project and click OK.

 

To assign teams to tasks:

You can assign one employee at a time, or easily assign multiple employees at once by using Teams. Unlike when assigning by task group, the team level is not displayed in the assignment tree. The individual team members are displayed directly under the task.

 

  1. Locate and select the task in the assignment tree.

  2. Click the Assign button located on the toolbar.

  3. Click the Teams tab at the top of the Assignments List window.

  4. Select one or more teams to assign to this task and click OK.

 

 

 

To remove assignments:

 

Warning:  When an assignment is removed, timesheet entries made for the project are not deleted but any estimate/budget information associated with the assignment is removed. This means that data (reports) showing budgeted vs. actual information will no longer show the estimate/budget for the removed assignments. An alternative to removing assignments is to hide them.

 

  1. Select the item (project, task, employee or task group) from which all assignments are to be removed.

  1. Click the Remove Assignments button .

 

 

Notes:

  • Project Planning tool projects can be identified in the Project Assignments view by a small orange circle in the project icon . Changes to assignments and estimate information for these projects can only be accomplished using the Project Planning tool.

  • Projects linked to Microsoft Project are displayed in the Project Assignments view with an .mpp (or .published) extension appended to the project name. Changes to assignments and estimate information for these projects can only be accomplished using Microsoft Project.

  • Tasks automatically assigned using Global Tasks are not displayed in the Project Assignments view.

  • When a task is added to a task group assignment using either the assign button or using drag and drop (see below), the task is not actually associated to the task group when reporting is done at the task group level. That is, if a task is added to a task group using these methods, any time entered against this task assignment will not appear in reports showing information at the task group level. For task time entries to appear in Task Group reports, the task - task group association must be done from the task's properties window.

 

Tips:

  • Many of the toolbar functions described in this topic are also available by using your mouse's right click button.

  • To make a large number of assignments, it may be easier to use the Quick Assign view.

  • Review budget vs. actual statistics for any item in the assignment tree.

  • Use Filtering to limit the amount of data displayed in the assignment tree.

  • Use the Limited Access Group filter to only view those items assigned to specific Access Groups.

     

  • Use Show/Hide Assignments to temporarily hide a task from an employee's time entry view.

  • Use the Copy function to make a copy of an existing project or task assignment structure.

  • Use the Assignment Copy function to copy an employee's assignments to one or more other employees.

  • To select adjacent items within a list, click the first item, and then hold down Shift and click the last item.

  • To select non-adjacent items, click the first item, and then hold down Ctrl and click additional items.