Project roles allow you to assign a person a different role within a specific project, without changing their primary role in Float.

This provides:

Flexibility when responsibilities vary by project
Accurate bill rates by role
Clearer reporting of work performed
More precise capacity tracking.

Understanding roles

There are two types of roles at Float:

People role - A person’s primary assigned role:
- It is set in the People page.
- It represents their default position (e.g., Designer, Developer, Producer).
- It determines their default bill rate (if applicable).
Project role - The role a person performs on a specific project:
- It can be different from their primary role.
- It can apply a different default bill rate.
- It can vary by project or even by project phase.

📝 Note: Assigning a project role does not change the person’s primary role.

Assigning a project role

You can assign or update a project role when adding or editing a person on a project.

In the project side panel, go to the Team section and locate the person you want to update.

📝 Note: You can also use the action menu next to a person in the Project view to change role.
Click on the action menu next to their name, then select Change role.
Choose the new project role from the dropdown. If the role has a default bill rate, it will be shown alongside the role name.
If the new role’s bill rate differs from the person’s current rate, you’ll be prompted to either:
- Keep the existing bill rate, or
- Apply the default bill rate for the newly selected role.
  The person's cost rate will remain unchanged.
Click on Change role to confirm.
In the Project view and Project plan, a project role indicator will appear next to each person to show the role they are performing on that project.

The Schedule continues to display the person’s primary people role:

📝 Note: Scheduled and logged allocations in the selected project and its phases will be automatically reassigned to the new role.

Different roles by phase

Project roles can also vary by project phase. Instead of assigning a single role across the entire project, you can choose to:

Use the same project role for all phases, or
Assign different roles for each phase of the project

This is useful for projects where responsibilities change over time. For example, the same person might act as a Writer during scripting, a Director during pre-production, and a Video Editor during post-production.

When changing a person's role, select the Different by phase.
By default, the same project role is applied across all phases.
Choose the appropriate role for each project phase as needed.
If any of the selected roles have different bill rates, you’ll be prompted to either:
- Keep the existing bill rate, or
- Apply the default bill rate for the selected role.

Reporting with project roles

People report

In the People report, the Roles tab includes a dedicated section for project roles.
The Roles tab is split into two sections:

People roles - shows data grouped by each person’s primary people role.
Project roles - shows data grouped by the roles people are performing on projects.

Under Project roles:

Each role represents a role performed on one or more projects
Expanding a role shows the people assigned to that role on projects
Scheduled, billable, non-billable, time off, and overtime hours are reported against the role performed
Project roles can apply a different bill rate, but do not affect a person’s cost rate

Single Project Report

In the Single project report, the Team tab includes a Role column that shows the role each person is performing on the project.

For each person on the project:

The Role column reflects the role performed on that project.
If a person performs different roles across phases, those roles are shown for each phase.

Capacity and project roles

When a person performs a different role on a project, Float adjusts capacity reporting to reflect how that time is actually used.

Hours scheduled under a project role are subtracted from the person’s primary people role capacity
Those same hours are reported as capacity under the role performed on the project

This means the capacity shown for a project role matches the number of hours scheduled for that role, while the person’s primary people role capacity is reduced accordingly.