<key-takeaways>
<color="white">
If you want to dive deeper into resource tracking:
- How to track resource availability and manage shortages effectively
- Resource optimization tactics for teams that put people first
- A guide to making informed decisions using in-depth resource analysis
</key-takeaways>
Effective resource tracking is about gathering well-organized, easily comprehensible, and accurate data, monitoring the right metrics, and using these insights to make informed decisions that result in successful project delivery.
While we’ve made it sound oh so simple, the reality is that:
- Many resource managers and project managers are unsure of which metrics to track
- Even if they do know what to track, they still struggle to collate the right information from a medley of different tools
The first problem results in insufficient data for decision-making; the second leaves managers overwhelmed and grappling to connect the dots.
This article helps you prevent both.
What is resource tracking?
Resource tracking is the process of overseeing how resources are assigned and utilized throughout a project.
In this article, resources refer to people, time, and money—but in the larger context of project management, the term can often include:
- Office space
- Materials
- Software and hardware
- Machinery
Why is it important to track resources?
Tracking resources ensures you prioritize high-value work and utilize your people’s time efficiently—but that’s just the tip of the tracking iceberg! Here are five company-changing benefits of effective resource tracking:
1. Keep your projects on schedule
Proactive resource tracking allows for real-time visibility into how resources are allocated and utilized.
When you have a clear and up-to-date view of who is working on what, and how much time is being dedicated to each task, you can identify potential bottlenecks and overallocations early—and make adjustments before minor issues escalate into major delays.
.jpeg)
2. Understand where your team’s attention is focused
Knowing who’s doing what and when helps you maintain clarity and control over your project workflows. It also ensures every team member knows their role and what’s expected of them—now and in the upcoming weeks and months.
With these insights, you can manage and balance workloads more effectively, quickly spotting if someone is overloaded with too many tasks or twiddling their thumbs with too few.
<sme-box>
<sme-color=”green”>
<sme-image>
.jpeg)
</sme-image>
<sme-author>
Lauren O’Halloran
</sme-author>
<sme-position>
Director of Production at Toaster
</sme-position>
<sme-quotes>
Lauren O’Halloran, the Director of Production at creative agency Toaster, manages workloads for 100+ team members in London, San Francisco, Singapore, and New Delhi.
As part of her resource tracking process, O’Halloran and her team check for workload imbalances in daily standups using their project management tool, Trello, then review longer-term allocations in their resource management tool (it’s Float!) every Monday.
This helps them identify team members who might be light on or overloaded with project work in the coming weeks, and reshuffle allocations or bring on additional help.
</sme-quotes>
</sme-box>
3. Spot the need for more people, time, or budget early
By tracking the actual time spent on tasks compared to initial estimates during your resource forecasting phase, you can identify if a project timeline is at risk and make necessary adjustments, like extending deadlines, bringing on freelance help, or reassigning tasks.
Similarly, if project expenses accumulate faster than you and your team initially anticipated, you can reallocate funds or build a case for additional budget early while still keeping your projects on track.
4. Stay on top of budgets and billable hours
Monitoring how time and resources are being used helps you ensure that every hour worked—both billable and non-billable—is accounted for and aligned with a project’s financial goals.
Real-time tracking enables you to immediately spot when a project is veering off course and take action before it’s too late.
5. Help your team deliver their best work
Project quality is directly correlated with your team’s overall happiness and job satisfaction—and there’s no faster way to lower morale than overloading your team with too much work.
Tracking your team’s capacity helps you spot team members who are overallocated (or dangerously close) and intervene before team members burn out.
After all, resource tracking is about team members and their time as much as it’s about clients and budgets.
<pull-quote>
<quote>
Let’s shift our perspective and fully embrace the fact that people have their own needs and limitations. By acknowledging that we are all human, we can foster a more supportive and understanding way of scheduling our teams.
</quote>
<pull-quote-author>
Matt Smith, Producer at STORM+SHELTER
</pull-quote-author>
</pull-quote>
Use these 9 metrics to track your resources effectively
Below are the metrics and elements you should be tracking for project success:
People
- Utilization rate
- Allocations
- Capacity (number of hours)
- Available skills
Cost and time
- Scheduled hours (billable vs. non-billable hours)
- Scheduled vs. logged time
- Time off and public holidays
- Overtime
- Budget
<sme-box>
<sme-color=“pink”>
<sme-quotes>
💡 Editor’s note: we strongly recommend using resource management software to track these metrics. A dedicated tool consolidates relevant project data in one central place and gives you and your team actionable insights in real time. We’ll illustrate each metric below with examples from Float, but you can track them with any resource management tool—we just can’t promise it will be as easy (or fun) as using Float 😉
</sme-quotes>
</sme-box>
1. Utilization rates
Utilization rates show how much productive work your people are doing compared to their capacity, and can signal instances of excessive workload. Targeting a resource utilization rate between 70% and 80% is generally advisable, as it allows flexibility for project adjustments and helps prevent burnout. But there's nothing wrong with 100% utilization if it also accounts for tasks outside of billable project work, like meetings or internal training.
Alternatively, resource underutilization might arise. For instance, this happens when a team member logs fewer hours due to a skill mismatch, like a data scientist handling data entry much more quickly than a junior person would. Bottlenecks like waiting on dependent tasks can also lead to reduced output.
2. Allocations
Resource allocations help you grasp which projects your team is engaged in and the portion of their time dedicated to each. They provide insights for your resource management plan and help improve decisions on prioritization.
A broader, shared perspective of your team’s time is important for prioritizing work. For instance, imagine your design team allocates six daily hours to a design project with a deadline far out in the future. Faced with a new, urgent project, you can promptly reduce hours from the longer-term project to focus on the impending due date.
3. Capacity (number of hours)
Your capacity hours are the total hours your team is available for work. Capacity planning is important in this context because capacity constantly changes depending on factors like the team’s workload, administrative tasks, and time off.
For example, a copywriter might have less time to work on multiple project tasks when they work on revisions for a client’s website copy. Or the designer you depended on for an urgent project is suddenly off with a nasty flu for the next seven days.
If you don’t consider these possibilities while planning projects or scheduling resources, your estimates might be off, and your people might be overloaded or underutilized.
4. Available skills
Your projects can only happen when people have the right skill sets to get them done. As new projects come in, it’s crucial to review available resources to detect any skill gaps that could stop the projects from progressing.
For instance, if an upcoming project requires engineers proficient in JavaScript and C++, ensure you’re tracking these skills to guarantee resource availability before launching a new website project.
Skill tracking should be a routine task involving:
- Identifying skills needed for upcoming projects
- Locating individuals with the required skills who may be engaged or on leave
5. Scheduled hours (billable hours & non-billable hours)
Billable hours determine project costs, so it’s important to track them to avoid overruns. You can track them in tandem with non-billable hours, as comparing them will show whether your project is profitable.
For example: while overseeing a team of agency designers, you spot an increasing chunk of time dedicated to non-billable tasks. Small red flag! This could indicate a potential financial loss.
6. Logged hours to scheduled hours
Comparing these two shows you if your estimates were accurate. It also improves resource forecasting and gives you a solid baseline for future resource plans.
A disparity between logged and scheduled hours can point you to adjusting your project timelines before it is too late.
7. Time off, public holidays, and custom holidays
Time off, public holidays, and custom holidays affect your team’s availability and, by extension, the progress of all your projects. You need to take all of the above into consideration during resource planning and allocations, so you don’t suddenly realize—usually, when it is far too late—that there are no resources to work on pending tasks.
Your team’s time off is reflected directly on the Schedule.
8. Overtime
Overtime impacts both team well-being and the accuracy of your project estimates, and it directly impacts project costs.
You can track your team’s overtime hours in two places in Float:
- Directly on the schedule where it is displayed in red. You can see the number of overtime next to their profile.
- On the Report dashboard, where you can find a summary of overtime hours by person, department, or project
If you notice that your team members are working overtime, you can change the project schedule or resource allocation for the project.
9. Budget
No one wants cost overruns, which is why keeping a close eye on your project budget is essential. However, overspending can sometimes happen without your notice, especially if you’re tracking it in a spreadsheet that doesn’t reflect changes in the project as they happen.
If you use Float, resource tracking is made easier with the ability to plan and estimate your projects by setting budgets—in hours or in fees—at the project, phase, and even individual task level.
You can distribute your total budget amount (e.g. $10,000 or 100 hours) across allocations, track your balances and see remaining budgets in real time, and manage internal costs by tracking non-billable tasks separately.
<cta-box>
<image-color="yellow">
Tracking resources doesn’t have to be complicated
Everything you need to know about your project data in one central place. Plenty of actionable insights in real time.
<cta-button>Get a free trial</cta-button>
</cta-box>
5 resource tracking best practices to power your project
For a tracking system that works, there are a few recommended actions you could take. Below are five of them:
1. Stay on top of workload imbalances
Resource tracking done the right way should empower you to immediately spot when someone’s workload is increasing and make adjustments before the situation snowballs.
Similarly, you should look out for team members who are under capacity: underutilized team members can feel disconnected and undervalued, so it’s important to make sure everyone has the chance to contribute their knowledge and skills.
Make sure your tracking system allows you to be aware of imbalances so you can adjust quickly and early.
2. Make forecasting part of your process
Tracking and forecasting should be two sides of the same coin: your resource tracking system should be an always-on machine that continuously gathers real-time utilization data, which, in turn, helps you predict future needs and plan more accurately.
By reviewing historical data and integrating forecasting into your resource tracking process, you can help your team be aware of and prepared for future demands. This forward-looking approach keeps projects on track and helps you manage overall project efficiency.
3. Track both billable and non-billable hours
Your focus shouldn’t only be on billable time. Non-billable activities—like meetings, ad hoc requests, admin, and internal training—can cut into a significant chunk of your team’s time.
Not accounting for these necessary tasks means you won’t have an accurate view into the true cost of doing business (and you might assume your team members have more hours available than they actually do).
Understanding how much time is devoted to non-billable activities helps you identify areas where efficiency can be improved or where certain project tasks might be streamlined.
4. Put your people first
We’re talking about ‘resource tracking,’ but let’s not forget what it’s really about: your team—a collection of individuals with unique skills, interests, work styles, locations, and commitments outside of work.
You’re not just tracking ‘resources’; you’re managing people’s valuable time—and your process should reflect that by involving team members and keeping communication lines open.
<sme-box>
<sme-color=”green”>
<sme-image>
</sme-image>
<sme-author>
Maike Jahnens
</sme-author>
<sme-position>
Head of Financial Operations and Capacity Management at Scholz & Friends
</sme-position>
<sme-quotes>
Once a week, we have a virtual capacity planning meeting with account managers and creative directors, in which we go through projects in Float to see team workloads and availability and answer important questions like: Is this project properly planned? How much time can we allocate to tentative projects without blocking confirmed projects? Can we predict how much work is coming in?
</sme-quotes>
</sme-box>
5. Use a dedicated resource management tool
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: you can’t track without the right tool, and none is more fit for purpose than resource management software.
Tools like Float put people at the heart of your planning while making it easier to gather, filter, and analyze data. When you have all your people in a centralized resource management tool, the resource tracking process goes on autopilot.
<sme-box>
<sme-color=”green”>
<sme-image>
.jpeg)
</sme-image>
<sme-author>
Emily Feliciano
</sme-author>
<sme-position>
Senior Creative Resource Manager at Atlassian
</sme-position>
<sme-quotes>
Unlike rigid timesheet tracking, a resource management tool allows for a more intuitive approach to managing tasks and provides a comprehensive overview. This is important for understanding team capacity and ensuring it stays balanced, avoiding both overwhelm and underutilization.
</sme-quotes>
</sme-box>
[fs-toc-omit]Insights are just the first step in the right direction
Information about your resources becomes powerful when you use it to make informed decisions. Based on your findings, you might need to consider slowing down spending, hiring more personnel before initiating a project, or redistributing team members to other projects.
Whatever the situation, we think you can rely on Float (or any other tool... but mostly Float 😉) to simplify your resource-tracking process and get valuable insights to guide your actions. With all your project and people data consolidated, real-time updates, and seamless integrations, our resource management software is the ideal tool to improve your tracking.
<hr>
FAQs
Some FAQs about resource tracking
Common challenges in resource tracking include:
- Inadequate visibility into resource utilization
- Inaccurate forecasting of resource needs
- Inefficient resource allocation
- Lack of coordination among team members
- Unexpected changes in project planning or priorities
Your resources could be used for multiple projects at the same time. But you need to ensure they are involved in projects with the most impact.
You can prioritize projects by deciding how each project matches business goals, what your resource capability is, how urgent a project is, and what’s at risk if you don’t finish it.
Once you figure these out, you can make better choices using the information you find while tracking resources.
Estimates are usually not 100% accurate, but they can be close.
If you notice that while tracking your resources, your estimates are consistently off, it might indicate larger issues like wrong baselines. For example, assuming a task will take one hour when it actually takes four.
Digging deeper to find the cause is important so you don’t miss the mark.
For instance, you might discover that project managers use guesses instead of past project data during resource scheduling. If that’s the case, you can work on improving your estimates.
The closer your estimates are to reality, the better for your project.
.jpg)
