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Dynamics 365 October 2017 Update: Universal Resource Schedule Enhancements

Post Author: Joe D365 | November 13th, 2017

When scheduling a resource requirement in Dynamics 365, we now have the ability to take an existing resource requirement and break down the hours into different date ranges by creating multiple requirement details.

To accomplish this:

Navigate to the resource requirement record that needs to be scheduled.

Click on specify pattern to break down the resource requirement into multiple requirement details.

universal resource schedule

Navigating to the schedule board, a requirement that has been broken down into multiple requirement details is rendered on the schedule board as shown below.

universal resource schedule

When a booking record for a requirement detail is scheduled within the specified pattern, the amount of hours that have been scheduled is displayed as shown below.

universal resource schedule

Progress Display

The number of hours that need to be staffed and the total number of hours currently booked for the requirement are displayed in the chart at the bottom right of the schedule board. The colors within the chart are based on the booking status which is configurable within the field service administration panel.

universal resource schedule

Display Associated Resources

When a search is made for available resources to staff a resource requirement, resources that are currently associated to the resource requirement (if any) are displayed in a box at the top of the schedule board.

This provides the dispatcher with the ability to view current resources that are scheduled to a resource requirement and provides the ability for schedulers to prioritize current resources when staffing an ongoing resource requirement.

universal resource schedule

Seamless Zooming

When viewing the schedule board, we now have the ability to either zoom in or out depending on the current view that the schedule board is set to. Example: If a schedule board is set to display bookings on the weekly view, you can navigate to the weeks schedule for a resource and perform the following steps.

Right click and zoom in.

The schedule board will display all the bookings for the specific resource for the week in question in the daily view as shown below.

universal resource schedule

Substitute Resources

With the recent updates to Dynamics 365 for field service, we now have the ability to substitute a resource that is currently assigned to a booking by following the steps below.

Navigate to the schedule board and right click on the booking that needs a new resource.

Click on Substitute resource as shown below.

universal resource schedule

The booking that requires a resource change along with the resource gets loaded to the top of the schedule board. This gives the dispatcher context on the booking that requires a new resource and the current resource that is assigned to the booking.

The schedule board will then display a list of available resources that can be assigned to the booking in question – based on the start time and end time for the booking that is displayed in the filter panel.

You can then select a new resource from the list of resources that have availability that covers the start time and end time of the booking in question. Click substitute at the top of the schedule board to complete the swap.

universal resource schedule

Copying Resource Requirements

The ability to copy existing resource requirements is now available in Dynamics 365 with the October 2017 Update. This is useful especially when you have bookings that have certain skill and time requirements. This can be accomplished by following the steps below.

Navigate to the resource requirement that needs to be copied

Click copy

The details of the requirement along with related child records like characteristics and roles will be copied over to the new resource requirement record.

universal resource schedule

That's what's new for Universal Resource Schedule Enhancements from the Dynamics 365 October 2017 Update. Be sure to search our blog for more posts on the Dynamics 365 October 2017 update and get all the latest info!

Happy Dynamics 365'ing!

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

One comment on “Dynamics 365 October 2017 Update: Universal Resource Schedule Enhancements”

  1. Thanks Joe! Two questions - is this for the Project Service Automation module? And also, the images embedded don't enlarge so it's hard to read what they say. Could you make it so that you can see a larger version? Thanks!

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