We understand that flexibility and efficiency are key to managing creative projects successfully. That's why we've introduced a feature that allows you to plan out jobs and assign tasks and their corresponding hours to roles instead of specific users.
This feature is designed to enhance your project planning process by focusing on the skills and expertise needed for each task rather than who is available. By assigning tasks to roles, you can ensure that the right type of work is being handled by the right people, even if you haven't yet decided exactly who will be doing it.
How Does It Benefit You?
Flexibility in Planning: Plan your projects with greater flexibility by focusing on the roles required for each task. This means you can map out your project’s needs without having to worry about individual team members’ availability right away. This helps in laying down a comprehensive plan that can be easily adjusted as your project progresses.
Efficient Resource Allocation: By assigning tasks to roles, you can quickly see what types of work need to be done and match them with the most suitable team members when the time comes. This allows you to efficiently allocate your resources and ensure that every task is handled by someone with the appropriate skills and expertise.
Streamlined Scheduling: Role-based job planning simplifies the scheduling process. You can allocate hours to roles, ensuring that each aspect of the project is accounted for, and later refine your plan by assigning specific team members as their availability becomes clear. This helps you create a more accurate and realistic project timeline.
In the following sections, we'll dive deeper into how to use this feature effectively, providing step-by-step instructions and tips to help you get the most out of role-based job planning in Streamtime. Let's get started on making your project management smoother and more efficient.
👀 📺 Prefer to watch a video? Check out our 5-minute walkthrough
👀 📺 Prefer to watch a video? Check out our 5-minute walkthrough
How to Create a Role
Roles are a master item that are universal across your entire Streamtime account. for more information on master items check out our master setting article here.
In the ⚙️ Settings menu, select Roles under Master Settings.
In the top right corner, hover over the ➕ Create menu and click Role.
A new row will appear in your list. Name your new role in this field.
Set their hourly rate for each of your rate cards.
How to Assign a Role to an Item
When you want to plan by role, not much changes to your workflow except when it comes to assigning a team member. Instead of selecting a specific team member, you'll choose a role. This is handy when you want to allocate items based on the required skills rather than specific people. For example, if you're planning a campaign and need a designer, you can assign the role of "Designer" without picking a specific person right away.
Click on Team Member in the item details.
From the dropdown menu, select the role you want to assign to the item, such as "Designer" or "Developer."
How To Include a Role Summary on a Quote
Adding a role summary to your quotes enhances transparency with your clients. It clarifies the cost implications of each role, leading to better budget discussions and decisions. This approach also offers flexibility, allowing you to adjust the team later without altering the initial quote, accommodating changes in project scope or team availability.
Here’s how to add a role summary to a quote:
In the ➕Create menu, select Quote.
Review your quote as necessary and click Continue to settings.
3. In the right panel, check the Role summary field.
Click Create and edit.
You will now see your role summary. You can edit this if you choose.
Assigning team members to a role
Assign Team Member To a Role For Whole Job/Phase.
Assign Team Member To a Role For Whole Job/Phase.
When you need to ensure one person takes on a specific role for a job, this process helps you assign all related hours to that team member. For example, assigning a project manager to a job ensures all project manager hours are covered without individually assigning each task.
Click the empty avatar icon on the right of the team section in the jumbotron. Note: Hovering over this icon shows a breakdown of all unassigned time.
Select the role you want to assign. On the right, you’ll see how many hours are required for that role for the entire job.
You'll now see a list of all your team members and their availability for the job period. You can adjust the availability period and search for team members here.
By default, only team members with the specified role in their profile are shown. To include team members with different main roles, toggle the switch to show the entire team.
In this case, we see a project manager with availability for the whole job. Select them.
Before hitting the assign button, double-check that you won’t need to manually unassign this team member from each item individually. Then, click the assign button.
Only want them to look after one phase of the job?
To assign a team member to a role for a phase only just use this avatar button in the phase bar and follow the same steps.
Assign Team Members to Role For An Item
Assign Team Members to Role For An Item
Assigning roles per item in Streamtime is essential when you have multiple team members fulfilling various roles within a single job. This process ensures all planned hours are accounted for and distributed among the appropriate team members. For example, if you're working on a design project and need both a designer and a developer, you can assign hours to each team member based on their role and availability.
Here’s how to do it:
You'll see a prompt saying 'Click to assign team members.' Go ahead and click on this.
A list of all team members with the relevant role will appear. Choose one or more team members to assign to the planned hours. You’ll also see their availability for the period of the item.
Need to swap someone with a different role? Toggle the list to show all team members in the organisation.
Distribute the hours among the selected team members as needed. You can split the hours however you wish.
If you don’t assign all the hours, the remainder will stay as an unassigned bucket on the item, ready for you to assign later.
Once you are done click Assign
Assign a Team Members to Roles from the Schedule
Assign a Team Members to Roles from the Schedule
Our Schedule View is a powerful feature that allows you to plan a job while keeping an eye on your team’s availability. We’ve made it easy to assign team members to roles in the Schedule View, giving you full visibility while planning a job.
Head to the Schedule View. You can get there quickly from your Job Page by clicking on the Schedule icon right above the first phase of your job.
Locate the item you want to assign team members to and expand it.
Click the Assign icon to bring up the Team Member Selection drop-down.
You will now see all of your team members who have been assigned that role and their availability. Select your team member from this list and assign them some hours.
If you want to add hours to a person who doesn’t have this role assigned to them, click the switch.
Once you have allocated your hours to your team members, hit the Assign button. Any hours you haven’t assigned to a team member will remain as unassigned so you can come back later and assign them.
Viewing unassigned time
You can see total unassigned time of each role per job in the jumbotron and per phase.
You can also see unassigned time per role on the availability modal. Make sure you have ‘Include Unscheduled’ toggled on, as all unassigned time is unscheduled. You will then see the hours you’ve planned for roles spread evenly across the date ranges of the items. If there are no dates on the items, the time is not included.
This is helpful for longer range capacity planning. It means you can plan by role and hours are unassigned, but when you look at your overall capacity in the future, you’ll get an idea of what you’ve already planned for different roles and where you might need to shuffle work, or look for extra people.