Building Procurements, Needs and Schedules

A procurement is a named list of what one part of the show needs, such as "Stage and Audio" or "Green Rooms". Each line in it is a need: a resource type and a quantity, plus whatever detail the order will depend on. This page covers building procurements and their needs on the Procurements tab, under Resourcing, Procurement in the event sidebar.

Create a Procurement

Select a procurement in the list to open it. Its Resources section lists every need, with Add resource to add more and, under the arrow beside it, Add resource group.

Add a Need

Open a need to fill in the rest:

• Owner is the department responsible for filling it. It starts as the resource type's default owner and can be changed or left Unassigned. The organization's Procurements workspace filters by it.
• Attributes are the values the order depends on, such as size or color. Once a need is on an order, its attribute values can no longer change.
• Rate card picks one of the resource type's own rate cards to price the need.
• Rule sets, on scheduled types, turn scheduled hours into states such as overtime.
• Schedule blocks, on scheduled types, say when the need is on site. Each block has a block type, a start and end, and optionally an area, an activity and a collaborator. On a scheduled need the area and collaborator are set per block, not on the need.

When a need is already on an order that was sent to the vendor, changing its quantity or schedule creates a new revision of that order so the vendor can be told what changed.

Group Needs

Groups organize needs inside a procurement, for example by stage or by day. Use Add resource group, then set a need's Group. Each group's menu has Add resource, Rename, Move up, Move down and Delete group. Deleting a group keeps its needs and moves them to Ungrouped.

Schedule Needs on the Scheduler

The Procurements tab has two views: Overview, a table, and Scheduler, a timeline of every need's schedule blocks. On the Scheduler:

• Drag across a need's row to add a block. Only needs with a scheduled resource type take blocks.
• Drag a block to move it, including onto another need, and drag its edge to change its length.
• Hold Alt (Option on a Mac) while dragging to duplicate a block.
• Select several blocks to Duplicate or Delete them together.
• Right-click a need or a block for its actions, such as Edit block, Duplicate block and Add schedule block.

Clone, Unlink and Copy a Schedule

These actions are on a need's menu in the table and on its right-click menu in the Scheduler.

Clone resource creates a copy of a need with the same type, quantity, attribute values, group, rate card and owner. The clone starts with no schedule blocks, no area or collaborator, and no linked requests, so you can schedule it on its own. A need and its clones form a clone group: they sit together and share a color on the Scheduler, and changing the resource type of one changes them all. Unlink from clone group takes a need out of its group.

Copy schedule to... adds a copy of every schedule block on one need to another need you pick. Blocks already on the target stay, and requests linked to the copied blocks are not linked on the copies.

Change a Need's Resource Type

Open the need and select Change type to switch it to another resource type while keeping its schedule and history. The new type must be the same kind, asset or crew. Attribute values the new type also uses carry over, a rate card the new type does not own is cleared, and the owner becomes the new type's default owner. The change is refused while the need, or any of its clones, has a reservation, an order line or a received fulfillment item, so release or remove those first. Switching a need with linked requests to a scheduled type is also refused until those requests are moved onto schedule blocks.

Composite Needs

Adding a composite resource type adds the composite and one need for each of its components, each with the composite's quantity times the component's quantity. The composite's quantity must be a whole number of at least 1, and each component's quantity follows it.

A composite has no schedule of its own. Use Set schedule on the composite to give all of its components one schedule, which replaces any schedule a component already has, then adjust a single component if it differs. Components are cloned, grouped and removed through their composite, and deleting the composite removes its components.

Delete Needs and Procurements

Delete resource removes a need and takes it off any order it was on. Delete procurement removes the procurement, all of its needs, and their order lines. Neither can be undone.