Staff Management overview
The Staff Management module of DT Practice enables you to manage your firm’s staff through the following functions:
- Scheduling— Manage staff workload by identifying staff members who are overbooked or underbooked; reassign tasks to available staff members; make the best use of your staff’s skill sets
- Target hours— Set targets for billable and total hours; compare actual staff hours to targets; determine whether your firm is on track to hit its financial targets throughout the year
- Benefits— Track staff benefits such as vacation and sick time, comp time, and firm holidays
note
Staff Management is a separately licensed module of DT Practice. The features described in this topic are available only if your firm is licensed for Staff Management.
You can manage all of these functions on the
Manage Staff
screen using the relevant tabs.Setup
Before you can use the staff management features in DT Practice, you must perform various setup tasks like setting up staff skill sets, staff target hours, and staff benefits.
Manage Staff screen
A crucial component of the Staff Management module is its set of scheduling features, which enable you to manage your firm’s workflow by facilitating the process of assigning work to your staff. Further benefits include the ability to monitor staff progress toward established targets, and the creation of a work queue from which qualified staff can easily select items when they complete other tasks.
The scheduling features are available if your firm is licensed for the Staff Management module, and are most useful if your firm is also licensed for the Project Management module. You can administer your staff members’ schedules using the Manage Staff screen.
To open the
Manage Staff
screen, choose Actions > Manage Staff.Assignments tab
Use the Assignments tab to assign and loosely schedule work for staff, and to indicate in which order you want your staff to work on assigned schedule items. This tab shows you which schedule items are already assigned to staff members and how many hours each staff person is assigned over a particular time frame.
Schedules tab
Use the Schedules tab to view staff schedules, and to assign and schedule items for staff members based on their qualifications and availability. This tab allows you to view and schedule assigned work, find more potential work items for staff, identify urgent items for selected staff members, and reschedule work from one staff member to another.
Schedule Items tab
Use the Schedule Items tab to look for schedule items that are unassigned, not fully scheduled, or flagged as Urgent, and schedule the items for staff based on their availability and qualifications.
Benefits tab
Use the Benefits tab to view benefit balances for all staff. Select a staff member in the top pane to view details of their benefits earned and used in the bottom pane.
You can filter the list of staff, and choose to view details for all entries, the current benefit year, or the benefit year to date.
note
- You must activate benefits in Setup > Staff > Benefits tab before they will appear in this tab. If necessary, you can select theEdit multiple Stafflink in the Staff screen and choose the Change Staff Benefits option to add benefits for several staff members at once.
- The Remaining Accrual column shows the amount of the benefit that will be accrued over the remainder of the benefit year.
- The To Use column shows the amount of the benefit that must be used to reduce the current balance to the level that can be carried over to the next year.
Targets tab
Use the Targets tab to monitor your staff’s progress toward the targets set for them. Select a staff member in the top pane to display target details for that staff member in the bottom pane.
You can choose a time period, filter the staff list, and limit the display to staff who are under their target work or billable hours. You can also control the level of detail displayed in the bottom pane.