This reference describes task resourcing within a project. A budget estimate, a staff assignment, a scheduled allocation and a time entry are separate records of the work.
Views
View | Contents |
Work Breakdown | Deliverables, tasks and their resource entries. A resource entry identifies a role and, when assigned, a person. |
Staff Timeline | Work shown against staff members over time. Weeks and Days change the timeline scale. |
Work tab | The project’s task list, assignments, status and resource information. |
Resource terms
Term | Definition |
Resource requirement | The type and amount of resource needed for a task. A role can be specified before a particular person is assigned. |
Staff assignment | The person associated with the task or resource requirement. Assignment alone does not reserve hours in a particular week. |
Budgeted hours | The hours of the task’s budget lines on the original budget and variation estimate screens (hour and day lines count; per-item and lump-sum lines do not). When the lines hold no hours, Drum uses the task’s own quantity in hours. Assignment rows on the task do not set those estimate-screen hours. |
Planned or allocated hours | Hours scheduled for the work over particular dates or weeks. |
Actual hours | Time logged against the task. Actual time can exist even when no scheduled allocation was created. |
Unallocated requirement | Required work that still needs scheduling or staff allocation. Interpret it alongside the task’s estimates, existing plan and actual work. |
Reading differences
Budgeted, planned and actual hours can differ. A difference can represent work that has not yet been scheduled, a revised plan or time recorded outside the original estimate. It is not automatically spare capacity or a budget saving.
A resource entry can show actual time with no original budgeted hours. This makes unbudgeted work visible rather than silently adding it to the original estimate.
Budget money on a resource row
On the Work tab and in project resourcing, the budget money pill on a resource row shows a tooltip that labels where that money comes from:
Tooltip | Meaning |
Budget line | The row is paired with a budget line. The pill uses that line’s money, plus any approved variation money on the row. |
Variation | The row was created by a variation. The pill uses that variation money. |
Assignment | The row is an assignment (or similar planned row) with no paired budget line. The pill shows the row’s own planned money, which is assignment, not budget-line money. |
Scheduling and capacity
Staff Timeline displays when work is planned. Naming someone on a task is not the same as scheduling them. Capacity also depends on their work schedule and other commitments.
Requirements can be spread across more than one week. A task called “Meeting” is still a task; its name does not create a separate resource type or guarantee an even weekly schedule.
Changing assignees
Changing who is assigned on a task does not, by itself, change planned hours, rates, budget lines or variation rows.
When you remove someone, Drum only drops assignment rows that have zero planned hours and no budget line, variation link or delivery data. Otherwise the person stays assigned and a notice explains why. Typical reasons are:
they have planned hours on the task (change the resourcing in Drum first)
a budget line of the task names them (change it on the Original Budget page)
they are on a variation line of the task
they have tracked or allocated time, an allocation, cost to complete lines or a finalised resource on the task
Assignee changes are refused when:
the task belongs to a variation that is not yet approved (change members after the variation is approved)
you try to assign someone whose time row on that task already has planned hours (that promotion would change the hours)
For the step-by-step on the Work tab, including start and due dates, see How to update a project task.
Booking a resource entry by dragging it onto staff
In the Days view of the Staff Timeline, you can drag a resource entry from the Work Breakdown onto a staff member's day. This books them on that task and assigns the entry to them. You can only drop it on staff who hold the entry's resource type. Other staff rows are dimmed while you drag.
The booking dialog then opens so you can set the start and hours. The entry is only linked to the booking if you keep it on the same task. If you pick other work in the dialog, the booking goes on that work instead.
If the entry is already assigned to someone else, Drum asks you to confirm first:
Reassign the [role] role from [current person] to [new person]? The entry has no bookings or logged time yet, so it moves to the new person with its budget.
Book [new person] in their own [role] role? The current person keeps the entry because it has bookings or logged time, or because the new person already has that role on the task. The booking goes on the new person's existing line for that role, on an unassigned line for that role (which moves to them), or on a new line for them with no budget.
Multi-day allocations
A new daily allocation with more hours than fit in the rest of the day is saved as one allocation per working day. Each day stacks after that person's other allocations and skips days off, public holidays and full days of leave. Partial leave shortens that day's working time. With Ignore leave turned on, leave is not skipped. When booking, you can also set Hours per day or Include weekends and public holidays under Advanced.
Chip: each part shows a chip such as 2/3 and a dashed edge. Hover over it to see Multi-day, for example Day 2 of 3, Fri 16 Oct to Tue 20 Oct.
Editing a part: changes that day only. The dialog says Changes here apply to this day only.
Deleting a part: removes that day only. Drum asks Delete this day? This is day 2 of 3; the other days stay.
Giving a part to someone else: that day leaves the series and becomes a separate allocation.
There is no way to move or delete all the days at once. Change or delete each day.