Resource Center Administration in OnePlan - Overview

Direct Answer: What Is the Resource Center in OnePlan?

The Resource Center is the administrative hub in OnePlan for managing the pool of resources — people and non-people alike — used across every plan in your environment. From the Resource Center, administrators invite named users, create generic resources categorized as Work, Material, or Cost, build teams, assign Enterprise Security Groups, and manage licensing.

What This Article Covers: Resource Center Administration

This article explains what the Resource Center is, who uses it, and the core concepts an administrator needs to understand before managing resources: named vs. generic resources, resource types, teams, security groups and permissions, licensing, and keeping resources in sync with Entra/Active Directory.

Who This Article Is For: Resource Center Administration

This article is for OnePlan administrators responsible for provisioning and maintaining the resource pool — adding new hires, retiring departed employees, setting up placeholder roles, organizing teams, and controlling what resources and users can access.

Why This Matters: Resource Center Administration

Single source of truth for planning

Every Work Plan, Resource Plan, and Financial Plan in OnePlan draws from the same Resource Center. Keeping it accurate and current directly affects the accuracy of capacity, cost, and assignment data across the entire platform.

Controls access and licensing

The Resource Center is where Enterprise Security Group assignments and license consumption are managed. Misconfigured resources can mean users have the wrong level of access, or that your organization is paying for licenses it doesn't need.

Enables accurate cost and capacity planning

Resource Type (Work, Material, Cost), cost/rate fields, and calendars set in the Resource Center determine how a resource is planned and costed everywhere it's assigned — in the Work Plan, Resource Plan, and Financial Plan.

Understanding Resource Center Administration in OnePlan

Named Resources vs. Generic Resources

OnePlan distinguishes between two kinds of resources:

Named resources represent a specific person, added either from your Entra/Office 365 tenant or by external email. Named resources are always automatically categorized as Work type. See How to Add Named Resources in OnePlan.
Generic resources represent a role, placeholder, material, or flat cost that isn't tied to a specific person — for example, a "Business Analyst" role, a piece of equipment, or a licensing fee. Generic resources can be categorized as Work, Material, or Cost. See How to Add and Categorize Generic Resources in OnePlan.

Resource Types: Work, Material, and Cost

Every resource in OnePlan — named or generic — carries a Resource Type:

Work — Labor-based resources, including all named resources and Teams.
Material — Physical goods or supplies consumed by a plan.
Cost — Flat, non-labor, non-material costs such as licenses or vendor fees.

Resource Type determines which tab a resource appears under in the Work Plan's resource assignment picker and the Task Information Advanced Edit dialog, and it cannot be changed once a resource is saved — so it's important to get right at creation time.

Users vs. Resources

Users and Resources serve different purposes in OnePlan. A User has login credentials and can access the system but is not necessarily available for planning (for example, an executive who only reviews reports). A Resource represents any entity — human or non-human — allocated to complete project work, and may or may not have system access. See Understanding the Difference Between Users and Resources.

Teams

Teams group resources together — by department, division, or scrum team — so they can be assigned to Work Items and Resource Plans as a single unit rather than individually. Team allocation can be set as a flat percentage or broken down by time period. See Create and Manage Teams in the Resource Center and Allocate Resources to Teams (Total Percentage and Time-Phased Allocation).

Enterprise Security Groups and Permissions

Enterprise Security Groups control which apps and areas a named resource can access, what plan-level apps are available, what license they consume, and their global permissions (for example, view-all vs. edit-all). Enterprise Security Groups apply only to named resources. See Enterprise Security Groups - Overview.

Licensing

Licenses are applied through a named resource's Enterprise Security Group assignment — the group determines what license type the resource consumes. To stop a resource from consuming a license, mark it Inactive in the Resource Center; this removes it from the license count without deleting its historical data. See Remove a User from the License Count (or, Remove a User's License).

Keeping Resources in Sync (Entra/AD Synchronization)

If your organization manages users through Entra/Active Directory, OnePlan can synchronize selected AD groups into the Resource Center on demand. Synchronization is add-only — removing a group from the sync list will not delete users already added to the Resource Center. See How Do I Manage AD Synchronization.

Resource Managers

Resource Managers are the users responsible for reviewing and approving resource plan commitments when Resource Negotiations are enabled. Resource Managers can be set by Department, Role, Manager, or Timesheet Manager. See How Do I Set Resource Managers.

Common Scenarios

Onboarding a new employee — Add a named resource via Entra (if they're part of your tenant) or by external email, assign their Enterprise Security Group, and set their cost/rate.
Planning for a role you haven't hired yet — Create a generic resource categorized as Work to represent the role until a named resource is added.
Tracking equipment or a flat cost in a plan — Create a generic resource categorized as Material or Cost.
An employee leaves the organization — Mark them Inactive in the Resource Center to remove them from the license count. See Remove a User from the License Count (or, Remove a User's License).
Updating many resources at once after a reorg — Use Bulk Edit to update a field across multiple selected resources. See Bulk Edit Resources in the Resource Center.

Frequently Asked Questions: Resource Center Administration

Q: What's the difference between a named resource and a generic resource?

A: In OnePlan, a named resource represents a specific person and is always categorized as Work. A generic resource represents a role, material, or flat cost not tied to a specific person, and can be categorized as Work, Material, or Cost.

Q: Can I change a resource's type after it's created?

A: In OnePlan, no. Resource Type is set when a generic resource is created and cannot be edited afterward. Named resources are always Work type and this cannot be changed at all.

Q: Do Enterprise Security Groups apply to generic resources?

A: In OnePlan, no. Enterprise Security Groups control system access and apply only to named resources, since generic resources don't log in to OnePlan.

Q: How do I stop a former employee from consuming a license without deleting their historical data?

A: In OnePlan, mark the resource Inactive on the Edit Resource form in the Resource Center. This removes the resource from the license count while preserving their history in the Resource Center.

What to Do Next: Resource Center Administration

Add resources:

Organize resources:

Manage access and licensing:

Configure cost and planning settings: