Resource planning software for a small team

Short answer: Resource planning means knowing who on your team has room for new work before you promise a date to a client. Alori is building capacity planning on top of time tracking, so you can see hours booked against hours available for each person. It is coming soon, and you can join the waitlist at the bottom of this page. Today, Alori already shows your team's calendars side by side, puts a crew on each job and logs their hours, assigns work, and tracks projects with leads and target dates.

The problem: saying yes without knowing

In a small firm, the owner usually plans resources in their head. A new client signs, and the question is the same every time: who can take it, and when?

Without a clear view, it goes like this:

• The same two people get every new project, and they burn out.
• Someone else has a quiet week nobody notices.
• Dates get promised to clients, then pushed back.
• Planning happens in a spreadsheet that is out of date by Tuesday.

Resource planning software fixes the view, but most of it is built for large companies and needs time data you do not have yet.

How it will work in Alori (coming soon)

Capacity planning is part of the time and billing app, because it needs to know where the hours go. What we are building:

1. Hours available per person. Each teammate's working hours set their capacity.
2. Hours planned and logged. Work assigned and time logged count against that capacity. Hours are already logged on jobs today; counting them against capacity is the part we are building.
3. Who has room. A view of each person's load for the weeks ahead, so you can see who can take the next project.
4. Utilization. How much of each person's time went to billable work.

The details may change before launch. Joining the waitlist is the best way to tell us how your team plans.

What you can do in Alori today

You can already plan most of the week in one place:

• Team calendars side by side. On the Schedule, tick teammates under Team. In the Day view, each person gets a column. See schedule.
• A crew on each job. Pick the person leading a job and the teammates working with them. People on the crew are busy for the job's time, so their booking page does not offer it. See jobs.
• Hours that log themselves. When a job starts, its crew is clocked in on it; when it is finished, the clocks stop. Employees › Timesheets shows each person's week, line by line. See employees.
• Drag to replan. Drag a visit to a new time, or drag its bottom edge to change its length, with one-click undo.
• Calendar sync. Connect Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar, up to 6 accounts, so busy times are never offered for booking. With Google, other events can also show on the schedule.
• Assign and accept. Pick a teammate as a task's assignee. They get a notice and click Accept, or Can't do it to send it back with a reason.
• Tasks as a board. See tasks by status, and filter by assignee, priority or project to see one person's load. See tasks.
• Projects with a lead and a date. Each project has a lead, a target date (this week, in 2 weeks, end of the month) and progress that counts tasks done.
• Shared booking. A team booking link can give each new booking to one free person in turn.

Who it is for

• Management consultants planning engagements across a small team. See Alori for consulting firms.
• Software development shops juggling client projects. See Alori for software dev shops.
• Agencies and studios where the same designers work across many clients.

What you need

• An Alori app with Tasks and Schedule. Starting is free, no card needed, with unlimited users on every plan. See pricing.
• Your team invited, so every person has a calendar and can be assigned work.

FAQ

Is resource planning available in Alori now? Not as capacity or utilization reports. Those are coming soon with time and billing. Join the waitlist at the bottom of this page. Team calendars, task assignment and projects are live today.

Can I see one person's workload today? Yes, in a simple way. Filter the task board by assignee to see what is on their plate, look at their column in the Day view of the Schedule, and open their timesheet to see the hours they logged on jobs this week.

Does it work with Google Calendar and Outlook? Yes. Each teammate can connect Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar from Settings, up to 6 accounts.

Is this built for large companies? No. Alori is the all-in-one app for small service businesses. Resource planning is designed for teams where the owner still knows everyone by name.