Direct Answer: How to Use the Resource Usage View in OnePlan
To use the Resource Usage view in OnePlan, open a plan’s Work Plan, select Options in the toolbar, and select Resource Usage. A pane opens below the Work Plan grid listing every work resource on the plan, with the hours each resource is assigned in each time interval across all work items. Expand a resource to see the individual work items behind its totals, use Group By to switch between grouping by Resource and by Task, and use the zoom controls to change the time interval displayed.
What This Article Covers: Resource Usage
This article explains how to open the Resource Usage view in the Work Plan, read the hours it displays, and use its toolbar to change the grouping and time interval. The Resource Usage view shows work assignments across all work items in the plan at the time interval you choose, so you can see how each resource’s time is distributed.
What you will accomplish By the end of this article, you will be able to turn on the Resource Usage view, expand a resource to see the work items driving its assigned hours, change the grouping and time interval, and identify where a resource is overallocated.
Before You Begin: Resource Usage
- A OnePlan account with access to the plan’s Work Plan.
- A plan with at least one Work type resource assigned to a work item. See How to Assign Resources to Work Items in OnePlan.
Note: The Resource Usage view shows Work type resources only. Material and Cost resources are not displayed, because they are not distributed across time intervals.
Why This Matters: Resource Usage
Context: Visibility Across Work Items
The Assigned Resources field and the Advanced Edit dialog show you the resources on one work item at a time. The Resource Usage view inverts that: it is organized by resource, and shows each resource’s assignments across every work item in the plan at once. This is the fastest way to answer “what is this person actually working on, and when?”
Context: Better Capacity Insight
Seeing how a resource’s time is distributed across intervals — rather than as a single total for a task — makes uneven workloads and conflicts visible. A resource can look reasonably loaded at the plan level while being badly overbooked in a particular week, and that only shows up when the assignments are laid out across time.
Context: Choose the Interval That Matters
Different planning questions need different resolutions. Day-level detail matters when you are resolving a specific conflict; a wider interval is more useful when you are checking whether a quarter is realistic. The zoom controls let you move between them without leaving the view.
Step-by-Step: Using the Resource Usage View in OnePlan
Task: Open the Resource Usage View
Starting from a plan’s Work Plan:
- Select Options in the Work Plan toolbar.
- Select Resource Usage. A check mark appears next to it when the view is on.
The Resource Usage pane opens below the Work Plan grid.
Note: To close the pane, select Options > Resource Usage again to clear the check mark.
Task: Read the Resource Usage Pane
The pane has a Resource / Task column, Start and Due columns, and a time-scaled grid to the right.
- Resource / Task — The resource name on parent rows, and the work item name on the rows beneath it.
- Start — The start date of the work item on that row.
- Due — The due date of the work item on that row.
- Time-scaled cells — The hours the resource is assigned in that interval. Parent rows show the resource’s total across all work items; child rows show the hours from a single work item.
The timescale header has two rows: a wider period on top and the current interval beneath it. Zoomed out, the header shows months above and weeks below; zoomed in, it shows weeks above and individual days below.
Cell shading indicates how heavily the resource is allocated in that interval, scaling from green through to red as allocation increases toward and past capacity. Green cells are within the resource’s capacity for that interval, and red cells are over it — for example, 80 hours in a single week against a 40-hour capacity. At the day-level interval, columns for non-working days such as weekends are also shaded, separately from the allocation colors.
Note: Hours shown here reflect any time-phased detail carried on the assignment. Assignments brought into OnePlan from Microsoft Project can include time-phased detail, and those phased values appear in the matching intervals rather than as an even spread.
Task: Expand and Collapse Resources
Starting from the Resource Usage pane:
- Select the expand arrow to the left of a resource to show the work items contributing to its assigned hours.
- Select it again to collapse the resource.
- To expand or collapse every row at once, use the expand all (+) and collapse all (−) icons in the pane’s toolbar.
Task: Change the Grouping
Starting from the Resource Usage pane:
- Select Group By in the pane’s toolbar.
- Select Resource to list resources as parent rows with their work items beneath, or Task to list work items as parent rows with their assigned resources beneath.
Note: Group by Resource to answer questions about a person’s workload. Group by Task to see which resources are contributing to a specific work item and when.
Task: Change the Time Interval
Starting from the Resource Usage pane:
- Select Zoom In (magnifier with +) to move to a narrower time interval and see more granular detail.
- Select Zoom Out (magnifier with −) to move to a wider time interval and see a longer span at once.
- Select Zoom Fit to fit the plan’s full date range into the visible width of the pane.
Note: The Resource Usage pane uses the same Zoom In, Zoom Out, Zoom Fit, and Scroll To controls as the Work Plan Gantt. See Use the Work Plan Gantt.
Task: Scroll the Timescale to a Work Item
Select a work item row in the Resource Usage pane, then select the Scroll To icon at the far right of the pane’s toolbar. The timescale scrolls to bring that work item’s dates into view, which saves scrolling manually when a plan spans many months.
Frequently Asked Questions: Resource Usage
Q: What is the Resource Usage view in OnePlan?
A: In OnePlan, the Resource Usage view is a pane below the Work Plan grid that shows each work resource’s assigned hours per time interval across every work item in the plan. It is turned on from Options > Resource Usage in the Work Plan toolbar, and it lets you see how a resource’s time is distributed rather than viewing assignments one work item at a time.
Q: How do I turn on the Resource Usage view in OnePlan?
A: In OnePlan, open the plan’s Work Plan, select Options in the toolbar, and select Resource Usage. A check mark appears next to it and the pane opens below the Work Plan grid. Select Options > Resource Usage again to close it.
Q: How do I change the time interval in the Resource Usage view?
A: In OnePlan, use the zoom in and zoom out icons in the Resource Usage pane’s toolbar. Zooming in moves to a narrower interval for more granular detail, and zooming out moves to a wider interval so you can see a longer span at once.
Q: Do material and cost resources appear in the Resource Usage view?
A: In OnePlan, no. The Resource Usage view shows Work type resources only, because material and cost assignments are not distributed across time intervals. Material and cost assignments are visible on the Material and Cost tabs of the Advanced Edit dialog for a work item.
Q: Why are some cells in the Resource Usage view red?
A: In OnePlan, cell shading in the Resource Usage view scales from green to red based on how heavily the resource is allocated in that interval, so red cells indicate the resource is at or over capacity for that interval. Expand the resource to see which work items are contributing to the total, then reduce the assignment, phase it differently, or move work to resolve the conflict.
Q: Can I see which work items are driving a resource’s hours?
A: In OnePlan, yes. Select the expand arrow to the left of a resource in the Resource Usage pane to list the work items contributing to its assigned hours, each with its own Start and Due dates and per-interval values.
What to Do Next: Resource Usage
Resolve what you find: - How to Assign Resources to Work Items in OnePlan - Replace Resources in the Work Plan
Use the other Work Plan views:
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