Capacity
Know each person's real capacity.
Capacity is worked out per person, per month, from their work pattern, the public holidays where they live, their leave, and their start and end dates. One calculation feeds every view.
Most resource tools colour a cell when someone's overbooked. AlignX works out each person's capacity, month by month, and refuses a firm booking that goes over it, so a confirmed plan never commits more time than people have.
You have a resource plan. You don't know if it's real.
People, skills, leave and bookings sit in different spreadsheets, so overcommitment shows up when the work starts, not when it's agreed.
Do we actually have the people for this?
The plan counts projects, not the other work and leave already sitting on the same people.
Who has the skills, and when are they free?
Someone knows, but finding out means asking around and checking three calendars.
What happens if we move this project?
Every reshuffle is rebuilt by hand, and nobody sees what it breaks until it breaks.
So commitments get made on hope and fixed in delivery.
How a request becomes a plan you can keep
Seven connected records, from the people a piece of work needs to the hours they actually worked.
- RequestThe people the work needs, by role and skill, confirmed or still in the pipeline.
- SkillEach skill at a level from aware to expert, on people, roles and requests.
- ResourceEach person's work pattern, location and dates, which set what they can give.
- LeaveTime off and public holidays, taken out of capacity automatically.
- AllocationThe booking itself: proposed or confirmed, tentative or firm, accepted by the person.
- ScenarioAn alternative plan, compared with the live one, then promoted.
- TimeHours worked and approved, against what was planned.
Put the work and the people in the same picture.
Project, resource and line managers work from the same capacity numbers, so a booking means the same thing to all three.
Allocation
Firm overbookings are refused, not flagged.
A firm booking that takes someone past their capacity is refused, with the rule that stopped it named and logged. Tentative bookings still go through, so you can plan ahead.
Skills
Find the right person, not just a free one.
Skills are held at four levels on people, roles and requests. Search by skill, level, role and location, and see each person's free capacity month by month.
Scenarios
Try the reshuffle before you make it.
Build an alternative plan, compare it with the live one month by month, and promote it once it's agreed.
Demand and utilisation
See what's coming, and what actually happened.
Confirmed demand and the win-weighted pipeline sit apart, so forecast work never looks committed. Time entries show hours worked against plan and against each role's utilisation target.
Every booking checked against the person behind it.
Commitments you can keep
An honest pipeline
Forecast demand is visible without being counted as committed.
Work you can staff
Capacity is checked before a firm booking is made, not discovered in delivery.
Changes tested first
A new plan is compared with the current one before anyone's work moves.
A resource plan shouldn't just show who's busy. It should stop promises nobody can keep.
Start with the people you already plan
You don't need a new operating model to start.
- Bring in your peopleTheir roles, work patterns and skills, moved across rather than retyped.
- Plan one quarterPut a real quarter's bookings in and see where capacity runs out.
- Test one changeModel the next reshuffle as a scenario and promote it once it's agreed.
Built inside your Microsoft 365. Your data. Your controls. Your people.
Questions resource managers ask
From their work pattern, the public holidays where they're based, leave that reduces capacity, and their start and end dates. The same calculation drives the heatmap, search, reports and the booking check.