Level resources on this computer

Pro planAnyone signed in to the organization

When a person is booked past what they can give, Plan > Level on this computer… works out which tasks to move and says why for each one: who is over, on which days, and which task kept its place. Nothing moves until you accept. The moves you accept apply as one step, with one Undo, and no constraint is written.

Level the plan

Choose Plan > Level on this computer…, or press Level… in the Resource usage view.
The app works out the moves on your computer. A large plan takes a few seconds, and nothing is uploaded.
Read the Proposed moves. Each one names the task, how many working days it is delayed and the start it moves to, and the reason, for example “Dana is at 150% on Nov 12, over the 100% it can give. Pour slab keeps its place.” Each move also says where the finish goes if it alone were accepted.
Accept or reject each move, or press Accept all or Reject all. Past 15 moves, a box finds a move by task or resource.
Press Accept, which reads the number of moves you chose, for example Accept 3 moves. The status line reads “Accepted 3 leveling moves. No constraint was written.” One Undo takes them all back.

Above the moves, the dialog says when the project finishes now and when it finishes with the moves you accept. Tasks that follow a moved task move with it, and the dialog counts them. When it cannot clear a day because nothing there can move, it lists the day under “Still over after leveling”, with the tasks on it.

Leveling options

Within slack only, so the finish never moves. A delay longer than the task’s total slack is not proposed.
Lower units before delaying, for people who can share their time. A task first gives up units on the over-allocated resource, down to what fits beside the other tasks, and its dates stay. Its work falls with its units.
Leave started tasks where they are, on by default. Turned off, a task that has started but has no work recorded yet can move, and the move clears its actual start; the preview says so. A task with progress or actual work never moves.
Only the selected tasks may move. Select rows in the grid first. This option is not on the phone.

Which task gives way

On the earliest over-allocated day, the tasks loading that resource are ranked, and the lowest-ranked one that can move gives way. A task that cannot move ranks first, then the higher Priority (0 to 1000, as in Microsoft Project), then the task with less total slack, then the earlier start, then the file’s order. With every Priority equal, as in most files, slack decides.

A task never moves when it is a summary or a milestone, is done, is scheduled by hand, has a Priority of 1000, or has a hard constraint. A task with a Start No Earlier Than constraint can move.

Clear leveling

Once a set of moves is on the plan, Plan > Clear leveling takes back the last set you accepted, as one step you can undo. The why panel of a task held back by leveling says so.

When you save

The moves are saved as Microsoft Project’s own leveling delay, so Microsoft Project keeps the tasks where you leveled them when it opens the file. A plan leveled in Microsoft Project keeps its leveled starts in Onplana Schedule through later edits, too.

Notes

On a phone or a tablet, the command is More > Level on this device…, with the same preview and options, less selected tasks.
Plan > Level resources… is a different, free tool: Onplana’s Resource Leveler, run on the copy uploaded for a health check, which writes each move as a Start No Earlier Than date. See Level resources and optimize the plan.
Leveling reads each resource’s Max Units and each assignment’s units, spread evenly over the task’s working time.

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