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Resource Management connects the demand you expect with the people and working time available to meet it. This guide takes a planner from existing source data and workforce configuration to a reviewed schedule.

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Before you start

Confirm the workspace and reporting timezone. You need schedule-management access, workforce-roster access for membership changes, prediction access to run forecasts, and the applicable publication permission. Have the following available:
  • The work scope and observed history you want to forecast.
  • Operating hours, holidays, and closures.
  • People, effective employment assignments where required, and dated group membership.
  • Service targets and explicit staffing assumptions.
If configuration is missing, open Admin Center → Workspace setup → Workforce setup. Review the discovered evidence and proposed setup before applying its supported changes. An imported queue or agent record alone does not establish a complete, current planning setup.

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1. Review the planning scope

Open Workforce → Planning → Forecast groups. Confirm the exact work being forecast, its timezone, service targets, forecast configuration, and effective version. Open Scheduling groups and check the people, operating calendar, and demand configuration. Keep team reporting, forecast scope, and scheduling membership distinct. For a new setup, resolve missing evidence or configuration before treating the group as ready for operational use.

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2. Obtain completed demand evidence

For a forecast group configured to use predictions, select Run forecast. Follow Open forecast to inspect progress and the completed run. Review the metric, history window, interval, forecast horizon, and data coverage. A queued run is still processing. Missing history needs investigation before it becomes a staffing assumption. A group using authored manual demand follows its configured manual inputs instead. See the glossary for the distinction between demand and a forecast.

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3. Review staffing requirements

Inspect the scheduling group’s demand and requirements for the planning dates. Check service assumptions and residual unplanned shrinkage. Use an explicit residual loss assumption after accounting for scheduled meals, breaks, and other nonproductive time. Review net demand and gross requirements at matching intervals. If requirements report that prediction evidence is not ready, finish or select the relevant forecast before retrying. Staffing calculation does not start a separate long forecast inside the request.

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4. Prepare a draft schedule

Open Workforce → Schedules, select the group and period, and create a draft. Use Generate shifts when generation is available. Inspect the proposed shifts, rule results, and remaining deficits before applying the proposal. Review each person’s eligibility and work-rule results, then place or check breaks and other activities. Generation uses a bounded heuristic over staffing requirements. The proposal can leave gaps. Its presence summary does not establish that activity placement has achieved productive coverage.

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5. Review and publish

Check the saved draft, dates, timezone, people, activities, and unresolved warnings. The publication dialog distinguishes Ready to publish, Publish with acknowledgment, and Resolve before publishing. A permitted publication makes the schedule available to employees. Follow the returned state if an approval is required. Verify the final saved publication rather than relying on a clicked button. After publication, use Intraday and Staffing calendar to compare the plan with observed delivery.

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If the workflow stops

Applications and external agents can use the paired Workforce REST and MCP operations. They use the same configuration, staffing, draft, and publication rules.