Resources are a key component of cost tracking and cost recovery for events.

Logging resource utilisation against requests allows reporting of commitments and costs for that resource or across an entire event. Resources are typically physical equipment (such as bulldozers) however there are other types of resources (such as human resources) that can be accounted for.

There are 3 different types of Resources:

• Equipment - physical equipment such as bulldozers, chainsaws
• Service - a service provided generally by a person, team or organisation such as Tree Crew
• Consumable - resources that get used up such as water, sandbags

Resources can be automatically placed into the "Global Resources" event or other global resource events, meaning you don't need to add them to individual events, as you needed to prior to version 4.13. The resources will be available in all events.

If a global resource is used in a record, it will be copied into the event to assist with tracking usage and costs. 

When you create a resource via the setting menu, it will have an option set by default to copy the resource into the "Global Resources" event.

You can edit any event to add a resource, if you don't have the resource needed in the Global Resources Event.

On this page

Viewing All Resources

Co-ordinators and System Administrators can view all of the available resources in the system. This is different to viewing which resources are part of an event. See Event Management for viewing an event's resources.

Step By Step Instructions

1. Go to the Settings menu and choose Resources. The Resources Datagrid will be displayed. This shows all resources currently in the system. 
2. You can filter resources by using the counters and search interface
3. Click on the Title of a resource to view further details.
4. Click New Resource to add a new resource record
5. Consider if the resource should be in the "Global Resources" event, if not, uncheck the option

Adding/Removing Resources from an Event

Only Co-ordinators can add or remove resources to an event.  Resources are a key component of cost tracking for events and resources can be assigned to Requests.

Step By Step Instructions

1. To add or remove a resource to your event, you firstly need to view the event record. To do this, click on the name of the event in the Event Selector at the top-right of screen.
2. Next, click on the Resources link in the left hand menu. This will display a table of available resources for the selected event.
   • The "Resource" column displays the organisation and the resource name
   • The "In Use?" column displays whether the resource is being used in any of the events in the system
   • The "Cumulative Qty" column displays the unit of measure for the resource. This defaults to 1 unit.
   • The "Cumulative Cost" column displays the cost of the resource. This defaults to $1.
3. Click on the Edit button
4. Check or uncheck the resource's checkboxes to add or remove them from the event.
5. Optionally add a comment about your resource change to appear on the Activity Log
6. Click the Update button to save your changes

The resources have now been added to your current event and they can now be assigned to items.

Editing a Resource

Co-ordinators and System Administrators can edit existing resources.

Step By Step Instructions

1. Go to the Settings menu and choose Resources. The Resources Datagrid will be displayed. This shows all resources currently in the system.
2. Click on the title of the Resource you wish to edit.  A read-only view of the resource will be displayed.
3. Click on the green Edit Resource button
4. Update the necessary information. See the section on this page called Resource Form Fields for description of each field.
5. If you see a resource marked as an "Ad Hoc" resource, this means it has been created from a request, which will have $1 as its unit rate, with an intention be be single use only
6. Click the Save button to save your changes.

Adding a Resource

Co-ordinators and System Administrators can add new resources. When a new resource is added, it is then available to be added to any Event.

There are two ways to add a resource into the system:

1. When administering the system, and
2. When creating a new request (known as "ad-hoc resources")

Adding a resource via the resource datagrid

1. Click Settings then Resources to load the Resources Datagrid
2. Click New Resource to add a new resource
3. Fill in the resource form as per the Resource Form Fields section below.
4. Click Save to finish

Adding an Ad Hoc resource within a request

Modules that support resources can support the addition of ad-hoc resources.

In brief:

1. If you cant find a predefined resource, you can quickly create a basic Ad Hoc resource, if you are under time pressure. 
2. When selecting a resource inside the item record (e.g. a request), enter a new name rather than selecting an existing resource, and a new resource will be created.
3. The resource units will be "dollars", and the unit rate is $1 so the quantity is restricted to only entering in dollar amounts.
4. The new resource is created when the item record is saved. 

See the section on Adding Resources to a Request for full details.

Linking Contacts to Resources

Resources can maintain links to contact records.

There are two contacts for a resource:

1. the Organisation, and
2. the Primary Contact.

The organisation is the system record responsible for applying system security. The Primary Contact can be linked to any contact record within any global event within the system.

Linking a contact

To link a contact,

1. Edit the resource,
2. Search for a contact to link, and
3. Save the resource record.

Appearance on requests

When a contact record is linked, the linked contact will appear when the resource is selected in requests and other registers.

Changing the unit rate for used resources

When a resource is used in Crisisworks, it calculates the individual cost in a record by multiplying the Qty x Unit Price. If you then change the unit price of a resource it will effect all of the individual costs for each record using that resource. For example, an Ad Hoc resource for a wheelbarrow is created which has a unit price of $1, if a qty of 50 is entered the total is $50 for this record. The wheelbarrow is automatically added to the resources system and to the current event, so someone else can now add the same wheelbarrow resource to another request. If you then change the unit price of the wheelbarrow to $50 in the resources system admin area, the individual usage cost will change to $2,500 which is Qty of 50 x $50 each. (see 2nd image below). If you want to keep this change, you will need to edit the linked requests and change the Quantities to reflect the new change. You can use the links from this screen to edit the request directly here.

The third image below shows the updated resource summary screen, where the cost per request is still $50 and where the resource has been changed from an Ad Hoc to a global resource, so it can be added to other future events.

Deleting a Resource

Co-ordinators and Administrators can delete a Resource from the system. 

Step By Step Instructions

1. Go to the Settings menu and choose Resources. The Resources Datagrid will be displayed. This shows all resources currently in the system.
   
2. Click on the title of the resource you wish to edit.  A read-only view of the resource will be displayed.
3. Click on the green Edit Resource button
4. Click the red Delete button at the bottom of the page. A message will appear asking if you are sure you want to delete the item. Click OK to confirm

Resource Form Fields

The following fields apply to resource records.