Plan work processes and resource use

We need a resourcing plan for the next quarter that matches our headcount and billable targets. Take the week-by-week capacity sheet and assign tasks to the three senior analysts and two junior technicians, prioritize billable client work over internal projects, and send the draft to Fiona in planning and to Leo the ops manager for approval by Friday 16:00 — verify totals balance to available hours first.

Before I circulate the resource plan to operations, make it easy to approve: show the billable utilization percentage for each person up top, flag weeks where total assigned hours exceed available capacity, make the critical path of client deliverables findable, and add a one-line risk note where we rely on a single person.

I built a week-by-week plan with tasks for three senior analysts and two juniors, but the week of June 12–18 is 25 hours over capacity because a client asked to accelerate deliverables. I cannot tell whether reassigning one senior will create a bottleneck elsewhere or whether the client will accept a slight delay. Should I propose moving a junior into the work with overtime, ask the client for a one-week extension, or negotiate scope down? Which choice minimizes delivery risk and keeps utilization reasonable?

Every quarter I spend the last 72 hours before sign-off juggling people to fix overbooked weeks, chasing approvals from Fiona and Leo. It costs credibility and causes rushed handoffs. What habit or small change in how I build the first draft would stop this firefight and give approvals a clean first pass?