Resource Leveling

Tagline: Turn overloaded resource plans into executable schedules.

Shared people and equipment cannot do two jobs at the same time. ProjectLibre Resource Leveling identifies overallocations, previews the schedule changes required across projects, and lets you resolve conflicts using project priorities and task priorities before committing the changes.

A CPM schedule can be logically correct and still impossible if the same resource is assigned to overlapping work. Leveling resolves that by moving lower-priority work to periods when required resources are available. The goal is a more realistic schedule that reflects the capacity of people, teams, and equipment—not merely “making a chart turn green.”

What can change: Task start and finish dates may move; if capacity is constrained, project finish dates may move. ProjectLibre preserves the schedule logic while inserting the delays needed to make the resource plan feasible.

Who it’s for: Project and portfolio managers using ProjectLibre Cloud for CPM scheduling and portfolio resource management who need a realistic view of capacity before committing dates.

See also: Resources · Resource Gantt capacity · Resource Graph / Peak Units · Assigning Resources to Tasks · Risk Analysis (Monte Carlo)

Before leveling, diagnose overload on the enterprise Resource Gantt and Peak Units / Resource Graph (see Resources → Diagnose overallocation).

Watch: Resource Leveling (~5:44).

What Resource Leveling is

Resource leveling makes the schedule respect real capacity. Product capabilities:

• Resolve overallocations — Find periods where resource demand exceeds available capacity and remove the conflict.

• Level across projects — Shared resources can be leveled across multiple projects rather than optimized in isolation.

• Protect priority work — Project priorities and task priorities tell the leveling engine which work should be favored.

• Stay in control — Preview the proposed delays first, then apply, clear, or undo leveling as needed.

When to use

• When demand exceeds capacity (overallocation)—the schedule asks a resource to perform more work than is available.

• When shared people or equipment conflict across projects.

• Before committing schedule changes, so you can preview impact first.

• Optionally before Monte Carlo / risk analysis, so the deterministic schedule reflects realistic capacity. Leveling and Monte Carlo are separate analyses; ProjectLibre does not re-level resources inside every Monte Carlo iteration.

The video reframes planning from “Can this project finish by this date?” to “Can all these projects finish with the people we have … at that time?”

Overallocation and capacity views

Overallocation means demand exceeds capacity. In the video demo, a database engineer assigned to two overlapping tasks is effectively allocated at 200%—possible from a dependency view, impossible from a resource view (“one person cannot perform two jobs simultaneously”).

• Resource histogram — Bottom-of-screen capacity chart. Before leveling: demand above the 100% capacity line / red overallocated bars. After leveling: within capacity (video: green ~100%).

• Peak Units view — Used with the resource list. Legend labels: Overallocated, Fully Allocated, Allocated. A Leveling button is visible in the bottom-left resource pane; it was not used in the video demo—behavior beyond visibility is not documented here.

• Resource graph (video wording) — Same family of capacity visualization as the histogram.

How to Open Level Resources

Primary demo path:

1. Spot overallocation as red bars in the resource histogram at the bottom of the screen (for example, 200% allocation).

2. Click a red overallocated bar.

3. Hover tooltip example: Overallocated 8/16/2026 -> 8/21/2026 - level this zone.

4. Opens the side dialog titled Level resources (subtitle pattern: date range · N resource(s), for example 1 resource).

How to level (workflow)

Workflow — Preview, prioritize, level, and review:

1. Build or import schedules — Create projects in ProjectLibre or import existing schedules.

2. Share resources — Use project and portfolio resource pools so the same people or equipment can be seen across work. (Assign resources first—see Assigning Resources.)

3. Find overallocations — Use the resource histogram and Peak Units view to see where demand exceeds capacity.

4. Preview leveling — See the proposed task delays across affected projects before changing anything.

5. Adjust priorities — Use project and task priorities to protect the work that matters most, then preview again.

6. Apply and review — Level the resources, inspect the new schedule, and clear or undo if further adjustment is needed.

7. Spot overallocation (red histogram bars / for example 200%).

8. Optional: Save Baselines on the toolbar → dialog Save Baseline (Baseline dropdown, Entire project, Clear Baseline link, Cancel, Save Baseline) so you can compare what changes.

9. Click the red overallocated histogram bar → Level resources dialog.

10. Preview → state Preview — N delayed listing affected tasks; Gantt can show the proposed move without permanently applying.

11. Level → state Applied — N delayed; capacity graph moves to within capacity (green ~100%).

12. The lower-priority overlapping task is delayed; a blue circular delay indicator appears on the Gantt bar.

Level resources dialog labels: Preview, Level; preview/applied delay lists shaped like Task (Project) +X.Xd.

Priorities — protect priority work

1. Resource conflict appears — Two or more tasks demand the same resource beyond capacity.

2. Project priority matters — Higher-priority projects can be favored across the portfolio.

3. Task priority matters — Within the schedule, task priority signals which activity should move first.

4. Schedule logic still governs — Dependencies, calendars, timing, and resource availability still constrain what can move.

Practical benefit: If preview moves the wrong task, do not accept it—adjust priorities, preview again, iterate.

Preview and reading impact

Preview shows which tasks would be delayed and which project each task belongs to—before anything must change.

Preview examples:

• Import Project / Document — +20.0 day delay.

• Widen Road Project / Site Preparation — +2.0 day delay.

• Engineering Project / Await Owner’s Selection — competing for the same shared resource.

Before / after:

Before	After
Overlapping tasks on the same resource; red overallocation (for example 200%)	Lower-priority task delayed; demand within capacity (green ~100%)
Histogram / graph above capacity	Profile within capacity; Gantt dates rescheduled

Benefits: Overallocated · Within capacity · Gantt impact · Reversible.

Clear / undo cross-project leveling

1. Undo Leveling is available after applying leveling. You can also use Clear leveling / undo controls when available. This works across the portfolio as well as within one project.
2. Or click the blue circular delay indicator on the Gantt bar → Leveling delays dialog (shows task name, delay for example + 7d, Close, Remove leveling).

Watch the walkthrough

Watch: Resource Leveling (~5:44) — ProjectLibre project management software.

Covers red histogram overallocation, optional Save Baseline, Preview vs Level, Priority column examples (900 / 300), Undo Leveling / Remove leveling, and portfolio histogram visualization of cross-project load.