Nested workback schedules and live utilization across 500+ staff
A global entertainment marketing group replaced four project management tools with a single Airtable solution that manages multi-level workback schedules, tracks real-time resource assignments for 500+ editors and producers, and calculates daily capacity by combining full-day and partial-day absences across seven studio divisions.
The challenge
Across seven studio divisions, the group was scheduling production resources in four disconnected tools: Monday.com, Wrike, Float, and TeamGantt. Job sheets were maintained in Excel, time-off was tracked separately from project assignments, and managers had no way to see granular utilization across divisions without manually assembling data.
The absence of half-day time-off tracking was a recurring gap. When a team member was out for half a day, that capacity was either counted as fully available or fully blocked, skewing staffing decisions for high-volume campaign periods and complicating workback date calculations.
What they built
The group built a unified scheduling and resource management solution in Airtable. Multi-level workback schedules cascade from phases through tasks to individual resource assignments, all linked to a shared personnel base that syncs across divisions. Asset type templates and technical spec sheets are attached at the task level so teams always have the right context.
Time-off records distinguish full-day from partial-day absences, and those values roll into daily capacity calculations automatically. Regional holiday exclusion rules apply to the correct divisions without manual override. Microsoft Teams notifications fire on status changes, giving managers real-time visibility without requiring them to open the base.
The outcome
Managers across all seven studio divisions now see live utilization for 500+ staff without switching between tools. Staffing decisions for complex campaigns can be made with accurate daily capacity numbers rather than approximations based on incomplete time-off data.
The retirement of Monday.com, Wrike, Float, and TeamGantt eliminated the license overhead and context switching that slowed production teams. Workback schedules that previously required manual date tracking now calculate automatically from linked task and time-off records.
Inside the solution
Nested workback scheduling and resource utilization management
Resource and Capacity Planning
Operations
- Multi-level workback scheduling
- Real-time resource utilization and capacity planning
- Full-day and partial-day time-off tracking with regional holiday exclusion
- Asset type templates and technical spec attachment at task level
- Cross-base personnel sync from global division tables
- Automated Microsoft Teams notifications on status changes
- Tool sprawl across Monday.com, Wrike, Float, and TeamGantt
- Manual time-off flows with no granular half-day tracking
- Fragmented Excel job sheets requiring constant manual updates
- No cross-division utilization view for staffing decisions
- Context switching between scheduling and resource detail views
- Four project management tools consolidated into a single platform
- Accurate daily capacity calculation combining full-day and partial-day absences
- Live utilization views eliminate manual data assembly for managers
- Regional holiday exclusion applied automatically per division
- Reduced license costs from tool consolidation
- Operations
- Production
- Web and Engineering
- Resource Management
- Microsoft Teams
- Okta SSO with SCIM
- Microsoft SL ERP
- Outlook
- Cross-base personnel sync
Hierarchical workback scheduling and resource utilization management
Run multi-level workback schedules and live resource utilization for every studio division in one base: campaigns cascade into phases, tasks and dated resource bookings, while full-day and partial-day absences plus regional holiday exclusions roll straight into each person's daily capacity. Automations draft a resource booking for every new task, escalate blocked tasks to their phase, flip roster status on approved leave and email a Monday utilization digest, and AI fields write the utilization snapshot, workback risk brief, task handoff note and capacity impact note for you.
How the solution delivers live capacity visibility
Link personnel records across all divisions
Calculate capacity from combined time-off records
Surface utilization and fire notifications in real time
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Time-off records include a field for partial-day entries. The capacity calculation formula reads both full-day and partial-day values and combines them into a single daily capacity figure, so staffing decisions reflect actual availability rather than a binary available or blocked state.
Holiday exclusion rules are configured per division in the base. When a date falls on a regional holiday for a given division, the capacity calculation automatically excludes that day for affected staff without requiring managers to make manual adjustments.
Yes. Multi-level workback schedules can include resource assignments from any division. Cross-base personnel sync ensures that each assignment draws from the current personnel record regardless of which division the team member belongs to.
The solution replaced Monday.com, Wrike, Float, and TeamGantt. Consolidating into a single platform eliminated the license overhead and the manual data reconciliation that came with maintaining parallel records across four tools.
Airtable automations trigger Microsoft Teams notifications when task status changes. Managers receive updates in their existing messaging tool and only need to open the base when they want to take action or review detailed utilization data.