Overview of Universal Resource Scheduling in Dynamics 365

Article
02/15/2024

Universal Resource Scheduling is a Dynamics 365 solution that allows organizations to assign resources to jobs and tasks. It helps assign the best resources to jobs and tasks based on availability, skills, promised time, business units, geographies, and more. Admins enable scheduling for entities in Dynamics 365 applications, including custom entities.

Dynamics 365 Field Service: Schedule and assign work orders to the closest field technicians in the area.
Dynamics 365 Customer Service: Book cases to customer service reps in the right department and time zone.
Dynamics 365 Project Operations: Staff projects with consultants who have availability and the appropriate skill set.

Caution

Administrators of apps listed above, which have a dependency on the Universal Resource Scheduling, have access to all default entities of the Universal Resource Scheduling solution. If a user creates a trial for one of these applications, they get admin permissions for the trial, which gives them access to these entities.

Prerequisites

Before you can use Universal Resource Scheduling, make sure you have:

Dynamics 365 Field Service, Project Operations, or Customer Service.
User credentials with the Universal Resource Scheduling security role, in order to manage the solution once it has been deployed.

Enable scheduling for another entity

You can also enable scheduling for another entity, including custom entities. Once enabled, the system creates a resource requirement record related to the entity. This way, when you create a resource requirement, the system automatically checks which entity the resource requirement is for.

For more information, see Enable an entity for scheduling in Universal Resource Scheduling.

Schedule something

Step 1: Create a resource requirement

In the Dynamics 365 application, select a record of an entity that has scheduling enabled.
On the record, open the related Resource Requirement list and select New.
Enter the required information and Save the record.

A plugin checks the relationships and automatically sets the booking setup metadata.

Step 2: Schedule the booking requirement

From the main menu, go to Resource Scheduling > Schedule Board.
From the Booking Requirement list, select an unscheduled booking and drag the item to an available resource/time slot on the schedule board.

Or select Book on an entity record that has scheduling enabled, then use the schedule assistant to book the requirement.

Next steps

Configure the schedule board tab settings in Universal Resource Scheduling