Bench forecast criteria
Bench Management suggests consultants whose booked work is about to end. On this page you define, once for your whole company, what counts as such a gap. The criteria govern suggestions only: an authorized user can always put a person on the bench by hand.
The page is available in the ‘Administration’ menu item under ‘Resource management’ and ‘Bench forecast criteria’.
Note: The page is only shown when the ‘Bench management’ client setting and the resource management module are switched on, and only to users with the permission ‘Administer data fields’. ‘View bench’ and ‘Manage bench’ do not grant access to it.
Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Forecast horizon | How many weeks ahead the calculation looks. A gap that starts later than this is not reported yet. |
| Maximum occupied capacity | The share of the standard working time up to which a week counts as underutilized. A week here is any seven consecutive days, not only a calendar week, so at a 40-hour standard 20 % means one booked day per week. A person at or below this share is a candidate; a person above it is not. |
| Minimum consecutive duration | How many consecutive underutilized weeks are needed before the gap counts. Short transitions between assignments stay out of the list. |
| Soft booking contribution | The share of a soft booking that counts as occupied capacity. Zero ignores soft bookings; a full share treats them like confirmed work. |
| Reservation contribution | The same for reservations. |
Options
Each option is switched off by default, which keeps the calculation described above. Switch on what fits how your company manages its bench.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Use each person's own working time | Measures a person against their own working time instead of the standard working time. Without it, the hours a part-time employee does not work count as occupied, so someone working 30 of 40 hours never drops below 25 %. |
| Leave absences out | Absences and public holidays reduce the capacity instead of counting as occupied. Days on which the person is absent for their whole working time neither end a free period nor count towards its minimum duration, so a free period with a few days of vacation in it can fall short of the minimum. A week in which the person is absent on every working day is skipped as a whole. Without it, two public holidays in one week already count as 40 % occupied. |
| Split suggestions by start | Suggestions show Available now when the free period starts within the weeks set in Available now within, and At risk when it starts later. The list is then sorted by Available from unless you choose another order. |
| Show tentative work separately | Free periods are calculated from confirmed bookings only, and the two contribution fields are locked. A Follow-up column shows whether soft bookings and reservations would cover the free period (Planned) or part of it (Partly planned). |
| Allow dismissing suggestions | Users who may manage a person can hide their suggestion until a chosen date (at most two years ahead), or until its free period ends or the person's bookings change. A later free period of the same person is suggested again. Dismissed people are listed only when the status filter asks for them. Switching the option off ends every current dismissal, so switching it back on starts with none. |
| Base “Review needed” on the forecast | A confirmed member stays On bench only while their free period has started within the current seven days and does not end within the Available now within period. Otherwise their status reads Review needed, with the reason in the hover text. Without it, a member needs review once their confirmed bookings in the current week exceed the maximum occupied capacity. |
Available now within appears when Split suggestions by start or Base “Review needed” on the forecast is switched on. It accepts 1 to 52 weeks, but no more than the Forecast horizon, because both options measure it inside the horizon.
All values and options apply to everyone in your company. Click Save to apply them. The suggestions are recalculated in the background afterwards; until that has run, the list still reflects the previous criteria.
Note: If a colleague saved the page while you were editing it, your save is refused with a note to reload. Reload the page and apply your change again.
What the criteria do not affect
- Confirmed bench membership. People already on the bench stay there until someone removes them.
- Manual additions. Anyone within a user's ‘Manage bench’ permission can be added regardless of the criteria.
- Availability elsewhere. The Resource Plan, resource requests and the internal marketplace keep their own availability calculations, see Booking accounting types.