Resource sheet

Before you can assign anyone to a task in Microsoft Project, they have to exist in the Resource Sheet. It is a plain table, and most people fill it in quickly and move on. That is a mistake. The resource type, maximum units and calendar you enter here decide how every later assignment behaves, and a wrong type cannot be fixed later without losing the assignments that use it. For an owner, the Resource Sheet is also where you decide what the owner's master schedule is, and is not, going to track.

Learning outcomes

• Choose between work, material and cost resources and set the right type the first time.
• Fill in the Resource Sheet Entry table, including Max. Units, Group, Initials and Base Calendar.
• Set part-time, multi-person and time-limited availability correctly.
• Decide which resources an owner's master schedule should carry, and which it should leave to the contractor.

The lesson

Three kinds of resource

Microsoft Project has three resource types, set in the Type field [1][2]:

• Work resources are people and equipment. They have calendars and maximum units, and their assignments carry hours of work. Work is the default type [2].
• Material resources are consumables, such as steel, concrete or soil [2]. They carry a Material label, the unit of measure, such as tons, boxes or cu. m [1][3]. They have no calendar and no maximum units; their assignments are quantities or consumption rates [4].
• Cost resources are amounts that do not depend on work or duration, such as travel or fees [3]. They have no units and cannot have calendars [3][4]. You enter the amount on each assignment.

Choose carefully. Changing a resource's type after it is assigned to tasks erases its resource and assignment information, except baseline cost values [2]. In practice that means deleting and redoing every assignment that uses it.

Opening the sheet

Choose View > Resource Sheet, in the Resource Views group [1]. If the columns look unfamiliar, apply the Entry table: View > Tables > Entry [3]. Each row is one resource. You can type straight into the grid, or right-click a resource and choose Information to open the Resource Information dialog, which holds the settings that do not fit in a column [1].

Resources can also come from outside the file. Resource > Add Resources offers Active Directory and the Outlook address book, and in Project Professional with Project Server, Build Team from Enterprise [1]. Enterprise resources can be assigned but their rates and availability cannot be changed from the project [1]. Most owner master schedules use local resources typed into the sheet, which is what this lesson covers.

The Entry table, column by column

• Resource Name. A role or a person. For the owner's schedule, use roles for consultants and vendors; their staff will change.
• Type and Material. Work, Material or Cost; the Material column holds the unit label for material resources [1][3].
• Initials. A short code that can stand in for the name in narrow columns and bar text.
• Group. Free text for sorting, filtering and grouping, such as Owner, Consultant or Vendor [1].
• Max. Units. How much of the resource is available to the project as a whole [1][4]. More on this below.
• Std. Rate, Ovt. Rate, Cost/Use and Accrue At. Hourly and overtime rates, a per-use charge, and when cost is recognized: Prorated (the default), Start or End [3]. Rates and accrual are the subject of Lesson 19.
• Base Calendar. The calendar the resource's own calendar is built on. More on this below.
• Code. Any code you want to carry, such as a cost code or vendor number.

Max. Units: how much of the resource exists

Max. Units caps a work resource's availability across all its tasks. 100% is one person full time; under 100% is part-time; over 100% describes a group, such as 300% for three carpenters under one name [1][4]. You can enter percentages or decimals, so 0.5 and 50% mean the same thing [1].

Units are counted against the resource's calendar. On an 8-hour day, a resource at 75% is overallocated when its assignments exceed 6 hours in a day [4]. If a resource's calendar has a 4-hour Friday, 100% on Friday is 4 hours [4]. So Max. Units and the calendar work together. Get one wrong and every overallocation flag in Lesson 18 is wrong with it.

Availability that changes over time goes in the Resource Information dialog, on the General tab, in the Resource Availability table: a list of date ranges, each with its own units. Use it for a vendor crew that only exists for the life of its contract, or a staff member who goes part-time partway through the job.

Calendars and generic resources

Every work resource gets its own calendar, based on the calendar named in Base Calendar. Leave it on the project calendar you built in Lesson 4 unless the resource really works different hours, then record exceptions such as vacations with Change Working Time in Resource Information. Cost resources cannot have calendars [3].

In Project Professional you can mark a resource as Generic on the General tab of Resource Information [1]. A generic resource is a skill or role, such as "carpenter", rather than a named person [1]. It is the natural choice for consultant and vendor roles in an owner's schedule. The same tab holds the Budget check box for budget resources, the subject of Lesson 20 [1].

Screenshot to come

Northgate worked example

Northgate Distribution Centre (fictional) is a 12,000 m² tilt-up warehouse in Vaughan, Ontario, for Northgate Logistics Inc. (fictional). Halvorsen Builders Ltd. (fictional) keeps its own schedule in Oracle Primavera P6, and that schedule carries Halvorsen's crews. The owner's master schedule, NDC_OwnerMaster_2027-01-11.mpp in Microsoft Project desktop, is a different tool for a different job (see the Northgate fact sheet).

What the owner loads, and what it does not

The owner's scheduler sets one rule before typing anything: the owner's file carries the owner's own people, the owner's consultants and the owner's separate contracts. It does not carry Halvorsen's trades. Duplicating the contractor's crews in the owner's file creates a second resource plan the owner does not control and cannot keep current. Halvorsen's resource loading is reviewed in its P6 schedule.

The resulting Resource Sheet has nine resources (Figure 2). All are illustrative and are proposed additions to the Northgate fact sheet. Standard rates are left at zero for now; Lesson 19 adds illustrative rates.

View the data

Resource Name	Type	Material label	Initials	Group	Max. Units	Generic
Owner's project manager	Work		OPM	Owner	100%	No
Owner's representative	Work		OREP	Owner	100%	No
Owner's scheduler	Work		OSCH	Owner	50%	No
Ridgeline contract administrator	Work		RCA	Consultant	100%	No
Commissioning agent	Work		CXA	Consultant	100%	Yes
Northgate facilities staff	Work		FAC	Owner	200%	Yes
Racking installer	Work		RKI	Racking	600%	Yes
Pallet racking	Material	bay	RACK	Racking	n/a	No
Permit and inspection fees	Cost		FEES	Owner	n/a	No

Why these numbers

Most of the owner's people are 100%. Two are not, and each tells a story the schedule should keep (Figure 3).

• Owner's scheduler at 50%. The scheduler also supports another Northgate project, so half their time is available here. Any week the owner's file asks for more than 4 hours a day, Project will flag it.
• Facilities staff at 200%. Two members of Northgate's facilities team will be trained during commissioning and turnover. One generic resource at 200% is simpler than two named ones when it does not matter who attends.
• Racking installer at 600%. The racking vendor's largest crew is six installers. The owner uses that as the maximum, then sets the Resource Availability table so RKI is only available from M10, Mon Jan 17, 2028, to M11, Fri Mar 31, 2028. Any racking work scheduled outside the vendor's window, or with more than six installers, shows as an overallocation.
• Material and cost resources. Pallet racking is counted in bays, the unit the vendor prices and delivers in. Permit and inspection fees are a cost resource because the fee does not depend on how long a task takes.

View the data

Resource	Max. Units	Full-time equivalents
Owner's project manager (OPM)	100%	1.0
Owner's representative (OREP)	100%	1.0
Owner's scheduler (OSCH)	50%	0.5
Ridgeline contract administrator (RCA)	100%	1.0
Commissioning agent (CXA)	100%	1.0
Northgate facilities staff (FAC)	200%	2.0
Racking installer (RKI)	600%	6.0

Screenshot to come

Owner's move

• Decide the scope of the owner's resources first. Owner staff, owner's consultants and owner's separate contracts. Leave the contractor's crews in the contractor's schedule.
• Use roles and generic resources for outside parties. "Commissioning agent" survives a staff change at the firm; a named person does not.
• Make Max. Units honest. Part-time people at their real share; vendor crews at their real maximum; time-limited resources with a Resource Availability window.
• Use Group consistently. Owner, Consultant and each separate contract. It makes the resource views and reports in later lessons readable.
• Lock the type before the first assignment. Review the Type column once, then start assigning.

Common mistakes

1. Changing a resource's type after it is assigned. Project erases the resource's assignment information [2]. Fix the type before assigning.
2. Every resource at 100%. Part-time staff and crews then show no overallocation when they should, or false ones when they should not.
3. Copying the contractor's crews into the owner's file. Two resource plans for the same work, only one of them maintained.
4. Using a work resource for fees. A fee is not hours. Make it a cost resource, so it does not scale with duration.
5. Ignoring Base Calendar. A resource on the wrong base calendar works Ontario statutory holidays on paper.

Quick quiz

1. What is the default resource type for a new resource?

   1. Material
   2. Cost
   3. Work
   4. Generic

2. A resource called "Carpenters" has Max. Units of 300%. This means:

   1. One carpenter working triple shifts
   2. Three full-time carpenters under one name
   3. A carpenter at 30% availability
   4. An error; the maximum is 100%

3. Which resource type cannot have a calendar or units?

   1. Work
   2. Cost
   3. Generic work
   4. Budget work

4. Where do you set a resource's availability for a specific date range?

   1. Resource Information, General tab, Resource Availability table
   2. Task Information, Advanced tab
   3. File > Options > Schedule
   4. Project Information

5. Why does Northgate's owner's master schedule not include Halvorsen's crews?

   1. Project cannot model construction crews
   2. The crews are already resource-loaded in the contractor's P6 schedule, which the owner reviews
   3. CCDC 2-2020 forbids it
   4. Crews must be cost resources

Show answers and explanations

1. C. Work is the default resource type [2].
2. B. Max. Units above 100% represents a group, such as three full-time carpenters [1][4].
3. B. Cost resources have no units and cannot have calendars [3][4].
4. A. The Resource Availability table on the General tab holds units for date ranges.
5. B. The owner reviews Halvorsen's resource loading in the contractor's schedule; duplicating it creates a second, unmaintained plan.

Key terms

Work resource

A person or piece of equipment that spends working time on tasks.

Material resource

A consumable measured in a unit given by its material label.

Cost resource

A fixed amount, such as a fee, entered per assignment, with no units or calendar.

Max. Units

The most of a work resource available to the project at once, such as 50% or 300%.

Generic resource

A role or skill rather than a named person (Project Professional).

Base Calendar

The calendar a resource's own calendar is built from.

References

1. Microsoft. Add resources to your project. Microsoft Support.
2. Microsoft. Type fields. Microsoft Support.
3. Microsoft. Enter costs for resources. Microsoft Support.
4. Microsoft. Learn more about resource units. Microsoft Support.

Verified on November 6, 2026.

Next lesson in this trackAssigning resources