January 28, 2025
pro tier

 

Effective capacity planning helps accounting firms meet client needs without overloading resources, missing deadlines, annoying clients, or exhausting staff. Mango allows you to better allocate your resources by providing a clear view of the needs of each project, showing staff workloads, and allowing you to easily reallocate as needed.

Capacity planning expands Budgets set for clients, and allows additional budgeting for Project Management at the project and task level. For additional information on client budgeting, see the Budgeting for Client Engagements topic.

Accessing Capacity Planning

You can access Capacity Planning from the menu.

1. Click Project Management.
2. Click Capacity Planning.

Configuring Capacity Planning

Capacity planning requires tasks and projects to be budgeted, and it is most beneficial when time is tracked by project. These are configured in PM Settings.

1. Click  Project Management.
2. Click Dashboard.
3. Click the PM Settings button.
   
4. In the Budget section, select the Enable Capacity Planning check box.
5. Select the Enable Project Budgets check box.
6. Select the Enable Task Budgets check box.
7. Optionally select the Enable Track Time by Projects check box (recommended).

For additional information, see the Project Management Settings topic.

Using Capacity Planning

The Capacity Planning window allows you to toggle between viewing tasks and viewing projects. Click the Tasks tab to view tasks, or click Projects to view whole projects.

The left side of the window displays a list of staff members. Click on Unassigned to see unassigned tasks or projects, or click on any staff member to see tasks or projects assigned to that user. The number of tasks or projects and their hours worked on those tasks or projects is shown.

The right side of the window displays a calendar of items due. The calendar is broken into views for Overdue, This Week, Next Week, or Week after Next. Click on the view to show tasks or projects with due dates for that period. In each day, tasks or projects are shown with hyperlinks to the Client and Project, the hours worked, and its status. Click on the status to display a prompt to mark it complete. Drag and drop a task or project on a week period or day to change the due date, or drop it on a User’s name to assign it to that user.

For additional information, see the Client View and Project Entry articles.

Common Questions About Capacity Planning

The option to enable Capacity Planning is not available. Why?

The capacity planning feature has recently completed development and is now in the process of being rolled out to users. If you are unable to access this feature, please contact Mango Support and they can work to make this available for you.

We have existing projects, but they are not showing in Capacity Planning. How can we add them?

Only projects with budgets and an engagement assigned will appear in the Capacity Planning window. A utility is available to help assign existing projects via General Settings.

1. On the main taskbar, click (Settings).
2. Click General Settings.
3. Click the Utilities tab.
   
4. In the Utility Options field, select “Assign Engagements to Projects.”
5. Select an engagement type.
6. Select one or more projects.
7. Click ✓ Save.

See It in Action

Learn More

The following knowledge base articles contain additional information relating to capacity planning:

• Project Management Overview
• Project Management Settings
• Project Entry
• Budgeting for Client Engagements
• Client View