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Headcount Planning

A headcount plan is a saved roster of the people you plan to pay: one row per position with its salary, benefits load, start date and GL account. DayZero projects the fully loaded cost month by month, so the 12-month people forecast stops living in a spreadsheet. Plans hold pay, so only owners and admins can open them, and they need the CFO Advisory Suite add-on. Open them from Headcount.

Key capabilities

  • Plans with a name, fiscal year and a Draft, Active, Approved or Closed status
  • One row per position: title, department, annual salary, benefits %, start date, optional end date, GL account, status and the person on the People roster who fills it
  • Projection: a column per month, a row per position, a totals row and an active headcount row, over 12, 18 or 24 months from any start month, across fiscal years
  • Export the projection to CSV or Excel
  • Push to budget: the plan's cost lands in a draft budget, one line per GL account, after a preview
  • Duplicate a plan to start next year's from this year's

How it works

flowchart TD
  plan["Create plan"] --> rows["Add positions (salary, benefits %, dates, account)"]
  rows --> proj["Projection: cost per position per month"]
  proj --> export["Export CSV / Excel"]
  proj --> push["Push to budget: one line per account"]

Each position's yearly cost is its salary times its benefits load (salary + 30% by default). Each month gets a twelfth of that, with the leftover cents spread so twelve months add up to the yearly cost exactly. A position counts for a whole month from the month it starts through the month it ends, and costs nothing outside those months. Cancelled positions are left out of every total.

How to use it

  1. Open Headcount and click New plan. Give it a name and fiscal year.
  2. Open the plan and click Add position for each role. Pick the GL account the cost belongs to (for example Salaries and Wages) so the plan can go into a budget.
  3. Switch to Projection to see the months. Change the start month or the horizon (12, 18 or 24 months) to look across a year end.
  4. Click Export for a CSV or Excel copy.
  5. Click Push to budget, pick a draft budget or let DayZero create one for the plan's fiscal year, check the preview, and confirm.

Pro tips

  • Set a GL account on every position: positions without one are listed in the push preview and left out of the budget.
  • When someone joins, mark the position Filled and link them from People, so the plan and actual payroll can be compared later without counting them twice.
  • Pushing again replaces the month amounts on the budget lines for those accounts; other budget lines are not touched.
  • Ask Regent "model our FY2027 hiring plan" to see the plan's effect on burn and runway.