With Placeholders, you can add users without access to Productive to Resourcing. This means that you can schedule people who are not yet a part of your organization, or you just want to plan ahead and see if you should look for new teammates.
Assign a name and a cost rate with the capacity to a Placeholder, so you can see how their assignments will impact your budgets. Edit and manage them accordingly.
Add a Placeholder in Settings
Navigate to Settings > Resourcing to create your placeholder.
Tip: start typing Resourcing while in the Settings for fastest results.
Create a placeholder by adding their name or role, defining their cost rate, and assigning a holiday calendar.
The indicator at the bottom will show you how many resourcing placeholders you used and have left in your pricing plan.
Once the placeholder is set up, you can add them to project services and deals, just like any other employee.
Note that you can identify the placeholders by a dotted line around them, distinguishing them from regular user bookings.
Add a Placeholder to a Project
After you've set up your placeholder, you can assign it to a project by clicking on the button + Add booking while in Resourcing > Projects or Resourcing > People.
Then you choose the project and the service you wish to book this Placeholder against. After you entered all the data, click on the Create booking button.
Note: If you wish to add a Placeholder to a project, you can only do that from the Resourcing tab, and not from the Project management tab. Also, tasks cannot be assigned to Placeholders.
Analyze Placeholders in Reports
Analyze placeholders in reports like the Capacity & Availability report to assess resource utilization and determine hiring needs.
Edit and Manage Placeholders
Settings
To edit a Placeholder, go to Settings > Resourcing and select the Placeholder.
There you can change the color scheme of the placeholder, rename it, and change the cost rate or the working hours (capacity).
Resourcing
In Resourcing, you can manage placeholders by selecting the Settings (⚙️) button and choosing "Manage placeholders".
This will take you to Settings > Resourcing > Placeholders.
You can also modify placeholders by clicking on the three-vertical-dots icon next to them. Here, you can:
Reassign all bookings to another user or placeholder.
Duplicate the placeholder (you'll need to manually add custom fields, holiday calendar, and the placeholder name as they might differ).
Edit the placeholder, which opens the pop-out editing window from Settings > Resourcing.
Placeholders and Custom Fields
Since a placeholder serves as a substitute for a person in Productive, you can assign them custom fields, just like you would for other team members. Here's how to add custom fields to a placeholder:
Navigate to Settings > Resourcing and click on the Placeholder you want to modify.
Beneath the holiday calendar, you'll find a list of available custom fields that you can assign to it.
Then select the desired field from the dropdown menu, which you previously defined in Settings > Custom fields > People.
