How to build a headcount plan
For most companies, people are the largest expense, and hiring is the decision that most changes runway. A good headcount plan answers two questions at once: who are we hiring and when, and what does it do to cash?
1. Start from the people you employ
Begin with current employees: department, title, location, start date, salary or hourly rate. Typing this in by hand goes stale within a month, so connect payroll instead; Timshal imports employees, compensation and employer costs from payroll systems including ADP, Paychex, UKG, QuickBooks Workforce and Gusto.
2. Add planned hires
Each planned hire needs a role, department, start date and salary. Keep them as members of the same employee dimension as current staff, so a hire is planned, approved and finally employed in one place.
3. Use fully loaded cost
Salary understates what an employee costs. Add employer payroll taxes, benefits and other per-person costs such as software and equipment. Payroll data that includes employer taxes and contributions gives you the real figure for current staff; apply the same loading to planned hires.
4. Roll up by department
Department, location and employment type become dimensions, so the plan totals itself at every level. A hiring manager sees their team; the CFO sees the company; nobody maintains a separate summary tab.
5. Connect it to cash and runway
Link payroll into your operating expense forecast and cash forecast. Then moving one start date from June to September shows its effect on runway immediately, which is the conversation the leadership team actually needs to have.