In this article, you will discover what it is like to be a manager in Forecast. And, you get to find out about the best practices which will help you with making most of this third highest of permission levels.
Time to read: Approximately 8.6 minutes
Main takeaways:
- Create and delete projects
- Edit the teams, time entries and schedule
- Create/edit/view reports
- As a manager, you have similar rights to Controllers, except you will not be able to view and edit financial information
Before we begin, NOTE:
As a manager, you will be able to view and edit only those projects to which you have been assigned. So, depending on how many projects you are a part of the team, your My Projects page might look something like the following:
With this in mind, consider:
Managing Projects
Step 1: Create/Delete projects
Tip: Be sure to see all of the settings when you are creating a new project!
And, as a manager, you can delete projects:
Step 2: Control the team and time entries
More the merrier: go to project settings (the three dots, i.e. the hamburger icon) and go for ‘teams’. Then, invite someone new.
Note: In order to enable proper reporting, ensure that both the main role and project role are filled in accordingly.
And, bear in mind that one person can have different roles depending on the project, e.g. Glenn can be a PM on project x and a designer on project y. Nevertheless, one person can have only one main role attached to a specific billing rate in the rate cards.
Then, register your own as well as your team member´s time through the timesheets.
- Control whose time you want to view and edit
- Choose the task on which you want to register hours. You can also choose between adding the non-project time of either internal or time-off.
- Simply add your time. Note that you can do so in whatever format you like, whether 4:30, 4.30 or 4.5
- Adjust what you see: show or hide project name, id, milestone and more
5. Enable or disable the AI which will help you out with some handy suggestions. Tip and a note: the more you use the system, the better will the AI get.
Tip: Be sure to check and experiment with all the other settings such as 'starred', 'recent activity', 'planned', and so on!
Step 3: Schedule people
One way to do it is through the heatmap.
There are other ways to schedule the people you work with. See:
https://help.forecast.it/schedule-people-view-walkthrough
Reporting
Step1: Create and view reports
Create your report from one of the two places: through the "new" button or under your company name.
Should you want to see the reports tab, note that you will see a number of ready-made reports that you can use.
Step 2: Edit Reports
1. Clicking on the hamburger menu, i.e. the three dots will prompt the menu from which you can choose to either delete or edit a report
2. Click here to create a new report
Then,
1.1. EDITING A REPORT
1. Edit your report name. When you hover over the field, you will be able to easily adjust the name of the report. TIP: All your reports are live, so we recommend you make a distinction between those reports which are internal and external. The suggested way about it would be to have a name, e.g. 'Task List - Internal'.
2. Expand your reports with all the different components. See more here https://help.forecast.it/edit-and-share-reports
3. Save
4. Set your filters. NOTE: Once these are applied and saved, the given filter settings will stay in place
5. However for more info about the specific report
6. Click here to see a list of all the different things you can expand your view with
7. Delete
Step 3: Share!
NOTE: You can share reports with people even if they are not users of Forecast
Look for the familiar icon:
Learn more about sharing reports here: https://help.forecast.it/edit-and-share-reports