Resource and project management software is a key component of smoothly running everyday tasks for your business, and it refers to the particular tasks that organize a team to accomplish a series of objectives by a certain deadline. When you utilize resource management software, it helps managers keep track of obstacles for plan creation, identify available resources and identify what deliverables need to be achieved. A resource capacity planning tool is an excellent addition to help with this.

At BigTime, we offer a wide variety of features with the best resource planning tools. Our resource management software features will simplify how your business plans staff hours needed to finish their projects on deadline every week. You can take advantage of reports that syndicate staff members, time, and budgets. Project managers can even see their employees’ availability in real-time to see whether they can take on any more work or need to cut down their projects. Project managers can also directly assign tasks or projects to their employees quickly by utilizing resource capacity planning software management, which is ideal for resource planning online.

Some of the benefits here include:

  • Reduce the time spent planning and meeting around what your employee’s capacities are
  • Consolidate data to simplify the project management process
  • Eliminate any need for manual entry into Excel spreadsheets
  • Easily figure out which of your staff members are available by their respective department or role

Our software also offers skills matching, meaning that each individual project — with its unique roles and skills needed — can help match up the best employee for the task depending on their skills.

A configurable category allows you to group skills according to your business needs.

Another great feature is being able to view and keep track of your own employees by their specific skill sets. You can also rate your employees on a scale from 1 to 5 to get an idea of which employee is more efficient in regards to specific skills. Plus, you can import an external spreadsheet if you already have something you’re using.

Using our allocation dashboard is easy; simply enter the assigned task hours for each project and see the allocated time for each employee. BigTime’s utilization dashboard goes beyond project management to provide operational insight. The dashboard’s budgeted hours, input hours, and billable hours are broken down to allow companies to diagnose their resources' efficiency and create custom reports in real-time.

The Best Free Resource Management Software

If you’re conducting a search for “resource management software free,” you will find that while we do not offer free management software for small businesses, we do offer a free trial for any new users. This is an excellent opportunity to test out our software and see if it’s the best fit for you and your firm.

Here at BigTime, we strongly encourage firm owners and project managers to employ the use of paid resource management software systems as opposed to standard free software like Excel templates. Here are a few of the downsides of using resource management tools, such as excel free or another free resource planning template, rather than a paid professional program like a Microsoft capacity planning tool.

Spreadsheets Are Not Very User-Friendly

It is simply not user-friendly to use spreadsheets. Although they are customizable and familiar, you’ll have to scroll through hundreds — if not thousands — of rows and columns when you need to handle large amounts of data. Developing spreadsheets that are easy to ingest and easy to read can be challenging.

Spreadsheets Are Not as Secure

Unlike dedicated systems, spreadsheets can be distributed to anyone, anywhere, by sending an email. Employees with dissatisfaction or dishonesty are more likely to share leads and customer data with outside sources (your competitors).

Spreadsheets (Their Users) Are Prone to Errors

A spreadsheet doesn’t make mistakes, but its users certainly do. It’s only natural that spreadsheets will contain errors because so many people are working on them at the same time, and so many edits and calculations take place simultaneously. This is why you should use a database software solution that has the capability of resolving errors on its own or flagging them for your attention. It's easy to miss errors in large spreadsheets, especially if you're not thoroughly combing each row.

Visualizing Data Is Much More Difficult

The visualization of data can be irritating when working with a team. Spreadsheets can go on for hundreds of rows and are challenging to read and share. Creating these sheets is incredibly time-consuming and not always necessary. In addition, Excel is unstructured, and it flounders when it comes to the JSON data format, which is often used in data analysis. This can make project management for small businesses difficult.

Resource Capacity Planning Software

Companies are able to compare production loads against available capacity by using resource capacity planning systems. Making capacity plans can prevent production bottlenecks, which can negatively impact the entire supply chain. Resource planning software Microsoft can distribute production needs across available machine capacity based on data about materials, equipment availability, and person-hours and costs so that demand can be met on time.

Resource Management Software for Small Business

Resource management software is particularly useful for small businesses for these five reasons:

1. Stay on Track With Schedule and Budget

Small businesses have little room for error, so it is imperative that you adhere to your project schedule and budget. You have a better chance of achieving your objectives on time and within your budget if you plan and manage a project effectively from the beginning to the end.

2. Chances for Success Increases

A project manager’s ability to construct a detailed schedule often determines whether a project fails or succeeds.

Was the project closely monitored to ensure milestones were met on time and were adjustments made to get back on track when unforeseen obstacles emerged? Unfortunately, most small businesses underestimate the importance of this part of a project.

3. Offers You More Control

The lack of workers you can spread around to do other important tasks can make a project spiral out of control and tie up an organization’s resources. Therefore, you need to implement project management to avoid constant interruptions in your business.

4. Gives You Insights That Are Actionable

A good project manager documents data, accumulates data, and ensures accountability. After completing a project, you can review results, evaluate whether something went well or poorly, and adjust future projects accordingly.

It’s better to be prepared instead of flailing in the dark, doomed to repeat past mistakes or ignore previous successes.

5. Gives Accountability

There is often an accountability issue with project management for small businesses. When roles are unclear, important tasks can go awry.

As part of good project management, staff roles are clearly defined and assigned so that there are no questions about whose responsibility it is.

Resource Management Techniques and Tools

Keeping an eye on your project deadlines and budgets on a daily basis is paramount to effective project management; however, that can be challenging. If you want to avoid mistakes, you should start utilizing resource allocation in your organization to ensure that each of your projects is completed on time and with the necessary staff.

By keeping projects on schedule and within budget and using these project resource management processes, resource allocation saves your firm both time and money. Read on for a few resource management tools and techniques to help keep you moving forward with your resource management tools:

Remember To Think Long Term

In order to allocate resources effectively, you must look ahead to where your project and your staff will be in weeks, months, and sometimes years. A smart way to make reliable decisions about how your projects will be managed is needed if you want to guarantee that they will be under the budget and will meet every deadline.

Keep Projects on Track by Prioritizing

Keep in mind that you are in complete control. Having to plan your firm’s projects can be overwhelming: a lot of time and money is riding on your ability to develop accurate plans and to see them through to completion. Scheduling or budgeting errors can ruin a project at any point.

Keep Yourself Informed at All Times

You need instant and easy access to the progress and status of every employee’s tasks. After all, you are the person who has your finger on the pulse of every project. Using elegant and informative graphics and good project resource management software will keep you informed about your firm’s upcoming projects in real-time.

Know What Your Firm’s Capacity Is

The availability of the people in your firm can be difficult to predict. A good project plan should consider the employees’ capacity, which is how many hours the employees are available to work, on average, during the month. These project resource management tools and techniques will help tremendously in the long run.

Let BigTime Help Manage Your Processes

Are you ready to implement resource management software in your firm? Look no further than BigTime! BigTime’s software helps the world’s best professional services firms achieve their full potential. Accounting, architects, engineers, IT consultants, and contractors rely on our award-winning PSA software to increase profitability and productivity. Timesheets are not enough in the services economy. They require a system that allows them to manage their team communication, projects, resources, invoicing, and finances. Our resource management techniques in project management can offer every member of your team the tools they need to complete their projects on time and within budget.

You can keep your team members organized and manage all workflows, reports, and expenses via our project management software, which seamlessly integrates with any platform. Make sure you compare actual hours against projected budgets, track any amounts and project budgets needed, and assign fees, hourly rates, and expense budgets for each project. Request a demo now to learn more about what we offer.