Overview
In Parallax, assigning a Role to a worker is their primary job function.
We recommend using role names that correspond to how they might be staffed to projects to ensure assigning roles and allocations to your projects is intuitive. A primary role must be assigned to a Person in Parallax but you can assign other roles to People within a project if needed or in the event an individual does more than one job function.
Roles are assigned to a department. Departments must be added first in Parallax in order to create roles. Roles will include the cost rates and a billable capacity target. (see below).
Note: Assigning Multiple Roles to an individual:
In the event that you assign someone to a primary role but assign that person to a project in a secondary role/different department how it displays in Insights report can be different.
Utilization Reports will look at the individuals overall utilization regardless of role.
Other: If the report is looking at individuals all hours assigned regardless of role will show for the primary department/role. However, if the report is looking at projects, the report will break down some of those hours based on the role/department assigned.
This article covers creating and managing project roles within Parallax.
What you will find in Roles | Check here for the layout of the page and what everything does. |
Helpful Definitions |
We'll cover some important definitions of what some of the terminology. |
What you can do in Roles |
Some key actions you'll perform on the Roles page and how to perform them. |
What you will find in Roles
You'll find the following different options under Settings > Roles:
- Status - Filter by Active or Archived Roles
- Search - Search by Role Name
- Add Role - Add a New Role
- Set Defaults - Set the Default Cost Rate, Billable Capacity and Target Utilization for any People that have No Role.
- Role Header - Click on the columns within this Header to sort alphabetically by things like the Role or Department.
- Role List - Here is where you will see the list of each individual Role by Department, Cost Rate, Billable Capacity and Target Utilization.
- Edit/Archive Menu - Click here to open a menu with options to either Edit or Archive the Role
- Download/Upload CSV - allows you to export and input data for updating to Parallax
Helpful definitions
Cost Rates
This is the cost associated with People who execute work on projects. These are usually based on salaries and other expenses (vacation, benefits, etc.) then divided by the total working hours in a given year. Typically, companies calculate cost rates at the role level to obfuscate salary differences between People in the same role.
Billable Capacity
The Billable Capacity is the percentage of your company's scheduled hours that you're planning out on a weekly basis to be billable hours.
Target Utilization
Target Utilization is a target that percentage of your company's scheduled hours that you expect the Person to hit over time.
What you can do in Roles
Add New Role:
- Click Add Role button
- Enter Role Name, Department, Default Cost Rate, Capacity, etc.
- Click Save
Edit Role:
- Click on the three vertical dots next to the Role you would like to Edit
- Select "Edit"
- Update Role Name, Department, Default Cost Rate, Capacity, etc.
- Click Save
Archive Role:
- Click on the three vertical dots next to the Role you would like to Archive
- Click Archive
- Click Confirm
Move an archived role to active:
- Change the Status filter to Archived
- Click on the three vertical dots on the right hand side of the Roles you would like to reactivate
- Click Make Active
- View the Role now located under the Active Status
Set Default Cost Rate and/or Billable Capacity:
- Update dollar amount under Default Cost Rate or percentage under Billable Capacity
- Click "Update"
Change Role on Person
- Go to Settings > People
- Locate Settings > People profile record and open in Edit mode
- Update the role on the Person record and click Save
- Note: The Role change will need to be changed on each project the Person is assigned to as Parallax will not automate the change since an Person may be assigned to more than one role within Parallax.