What is Harvest Forecast?
Harvest Forecast is a robust team planning and scheduling tool designed to help managers and teams efficiently manage their time, resources, and project workflows. It is an integral part of the Harvest suite of products, which also includes time tracking and invoicing features.
Key Features and Functionality
Project Scheduling
Harvest Forecast allows users to create and manage project schedules with ease. It offers two primary views: the Projects view and the Team view. The Projects view displays a calendar of who is working on what project and when, enabling users to zoom in or out to see daily, weekly, or monthly schedules. The Team view presents a color-coded heat map of each team member’s workload, availability, overbookings, and time off.
Time Tracking Integration
Harvest Forecast integrates seamlessly with Harvest, a time tracking and invoicing tool. This integration enables users to import projects, people, and clients from Harvest, allowing for a comprehensive view of project health by comparing estimated hours against actual hours tracked. This feature helps in analyzing project progress, budget status, and team performance.
Resource Allocation and Capacity Planning
The tool facilitates resource allocation by providing insights into each team member’s capacity and scheduled hours. It helps in balancing workloads and identifying potential overbookings or underutilizations. Users can view team members’ hours per week capacity and scheduled hours, ensuring efficient resource allocation.
Drag and Drop Interface
Harvest Forecast features a user-friendly drag and drop interface that simplifies the process of creating, editing, and reassigning tasks. This interface allows for easy adjustments to the schedule, including recurring assignments, shifting timelines, copying assignments, and reassigning tasks between team members.
Availability Management and Conflict Detection
The tool helps in managing team availability and detecting conflicts. The Team view heat map highlights overbookings, time off, and availability issues, enabling managers to adjust schedules accordingly to avoid conflicts.
Customizable Views and Real-Time Updates
Users can customize their views to focus on specific aspects of the project or team schedule. The tool provides real-time updates, ensuring that all stakeholders have the most current information. This includes customizable views for daily, weekly, or monthly schedules and the ability to switch between different timeframes as needed.
Reporting and Analytics
Harvest Forecast offers robust reporting and analytics features. Users can analyze project health, compare estimates versus actuals, and view tracked hours against scheduled hours. The tool also provides graphs and charts to visualize project progress and team performance.
Budget Tracking and Client Management
The integration with Harvest allows for effective budget tracking, where remaining hourly budgets from Harvest projects are displayed alongside future scheduled hours. This helps in managing project budgets and ensuring that teams stay within allocated hours. Client management features are also available, enabling users to link clients and projects seamlessly.
Mobile Access and Calendar Sync
Harvest Forecast is accessible on mobile devices, ensuring that managers and team members can stay updated on the go. It also supports calendar sync, allowing users to integrate their schedules with other calendar applications.
User Permissions and Notifications
The tool includes user permission settings, allowing administrators to control access levels for different team members. Additionally, it provides notification features to keep everyone informed about schedule changes and updates.
In summary, Harvest Forecast is a powerful scheduling and resource management tool that helps teams streamline their workflows, manage projects efficiently, and ensure balanced workloads. Its integration with Harvest enhances its capabilities by providing a comprehensive view of time tracking, budgeting, and project health.