Allocations

An allocation plans who works on a team or project, from when, and for how much of their time. The forecast uses allocations to work out what each team and project costs.

An allocation is a plan. What people actually worked on is recorded separately, as effort.

You need access to change the people, contractors or teams you’re allocating — ask your Flowstate admin.

Put someone on a project

1. Go to Delivery → Roadmap → Projects and double-click the project.
2. Open Resourcing plan.
3. Under People on the left, find the person.
4. Drag them onto Human resources, or select + on their row. They’re added full time (1.0 FTE) for the project’s dates.
5. To change their share of time, select the FTE value, type the new one and press Enter.
6. To change their dates, drag either end of their bar.

To take someone off the project, select Remove on their row.

The project page adds employees and contractors. To put a vacancy on a project, use Playground.

Put a team on a project

1. On the project’s Resourcing plan tab, choose Teams on the left.
2. Drag the team onto Human resources.
3. In Add team to project, enter an FTE, Start Date and, if known, End Date.
4. Select Add team.

To change it later, select Edit on the team’s row.

When a team is on a project, the people on that team count towards the project for their share of the team’s time. On the timeline, that time shows as a striped bar. See Time that flows through a team.

If the team’s people are already on the project individually, tick Ownership only in step 3 instead. The team is linked to the project for search and reporting, but its time isn’t counted.

Use the Allocations timeline

Resourcing → People and teams → Allocations shows everyone’s allocations on one timeline: a row for each employee and contractor, grouped by team. People without a team are under Unassigned, at the end.

Each bar shows its FTE, such as 0.5 FTE. Vacancies aren’t on the timeline; they’re on the Vacancies tab.

Add someone to a project from the timeline

1. Select an empty part of the person’s row, on the date they start.
2. In Assign to project, search for the project in Search projects… and choose it.
3. Enter the FTE, above 0 and no more than 1, and check the Start date and End date.
4. Select Create allocation.

Change a project allocation’s dates

To move a project allocation, drag its blue bar. To change its dates, drag either end. The change saves straight away.

Changes to green team bars and striped bars aren’t saved. Change those allocations on the person’s side panel or on the team.

Change an allocation’s FTE or remove it

You can’t change an allocation’s FTE or remove it on the timeline. Do it here instead:

• On the person’s side panel: select Schedule and hover the allocation. Select the pencil to open Edit Allocation, or the bin for End today or Remove allocation. See Change or end an allocation.
• On the project’s Resourcing plan tab: select the person’s FTE value to change it, or Remove on their row. See Put someone on a project.
• On the team’s side panel, for striped bars: select Allocations and change the team’s time on the project. See Change or end a team’s project allocation.

Open a project or team from a bar

• Select a blue or striped bar to open the project’s side panel.
• Select a green bar to open the team’s side panel.

Zoom, collapse and filter

• Zoom in or out with the − and + buttons, or drag the slider between them.
• Select a team’s row in the left column to collapse or expand it.
• Show Project Allocations, Team Allocations or All Allocations. Turn off Show inherited to hide the striped bars.
• Filter by Team, Role, Skill, Location, Type, Project or your custom attributes (Not set finds everyone an attribute is empty for), or search with Find in view…. The Project filter shows people who are on the project directly.
• Switch between Monthly and Quarterly. The red Today line marks today.

Flowstate remembers your zoom, view, Show inherited and collapsed teams for next time. Filters start fresh.

Other places to change allocations

Changes save straight away, to live data or to the scenario you’re in. AI agents are planned on projects too; see Agents.

How allocations affect cost

• Each person’s cost for a month is shared across their teams and projects, by how much of their time is on each.
• Time that isn’t on any team shows under No team in the forecast, so your teams plus No team add up to your whole payroll.
• A project’s cost includes the time allocated to it directly and through teams.
• An allocation only counts between its own dates and the person’s employment dates.

Allocations don’t feed effort, capitalisation or R&D tax claims; those use the effort people report. Team allocations do decide whose week each team manager reviews. See How the effort estimate is built.

How the forecast works out cost is on How costs are calculated.

If something’s not right

Someone’s cost shows under No team. Part of their time isn’t on a team. Add a team allocation from their side panel.

A team on a project adds nothing to the forecast. It’s linked with Ownership only. Select Edit on its row, untick Ownership only and enter an FTE.

Dragging a team bar or striped bar doesn’t change it. Those can’t be changed on the timeline. Change a team allocation on the person’s Schedule tab, and a striped bar on the team’s Allocations tab.

Create allocation does nothing. Enter an FTE above 0 and no more than 1.

Someone isn’t showing when you filter the timeline by project. They’re on the project through their team. Turn off the Project filter and look at their row, or check the project’s Resourcing plan tab.

For your technical team

Team and project allocations can be read and written through the Assignments API.