Availability

The Availability function in the Planning and Budgeting > Departments module allows a department to evaluate its employee and equipment needs by comparing resource availability to planned use.

To do so, departments create Availability records that set the number of hours a classification of its employee or equipment resources is available each month. (For example, employees in the Water Department's Water Treatment Operators classification might work 168 hours in January, 152 hours in February, etc.) Then, as Resource records are added to Planned Tasks, Lucity produces totals for the planned use of each resource classification. [I wrote this, but now I'm not sure it's true.]

OK. After much investigation, I give up: I don't understand how Availability works. The Desktop HG has one page on the subject, and the How To provides steps without much explanation. It tells you to enter only the Total Available figure, "if desired," and says that the Planned Usage numbers come from Work Orders. That doesn't make sense to me. Wouldn't they come from Resource records added to the Planned Task?

When I enter values in the monthly Available fields, Lucity doesn't calculate the Total Available. But when I enter a Total, Lucity doesn't populate the monthly figures, either.

Availability grid

The Work > Planning and Budgeting > Departments > Availability grid displays availability and planned use data for a department's Employee and Equipment resource Classifications.

Using Grids >> Grid Tools >> Editable Grids >> Using Forms >>

How to create an Availability record for a Department resource classification[See multiple questions. -KT]

Planning and Budgeting Department Availability fields

Classification/Class Type*	Identifies a grouping of Employee or Equipment resources associated with this department and fiscal year. Options in this picklist come from the Employee Classification Setup and Equipment Classification Setup modules.
Available (monthly fields)	Indicate the hours each month this resource classification is available to be scheduled for work.
Total Available	Indicates the total number of hours in this fiscal year that this resource classification is available to be scheduled for work. Why doesn't Lucity calculate this figure? It does on other, similar pages. If it's different, we should explain how/why. [See note in How To above.]
Planned (monthly fields)	Calculate the number of hours each month this resource classification is scheduled to work on Planned Tasks. Lucity produces these values using data These fields populate from Work Orders in the system that have scheduled this Classification of employee. [is this right? it contradicts the info in the how-to.] These fields are updated regularly by Lucity Nightly Tasks. You can also update the numbers on-demand by runningone of the Perform Cost UpdateToolkits.
Total Planned	Calculates the total number of hours in this fiscal year that this resource classification is scheduled to work on Work Orders in the system. [Where does info come from?] This field is updated regularly by Lucity Nightly Services. You can also update the total on-demand by runningone of the Perform Cost UpdateToolkits. [confirm]

*Required.