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Headcount by team
Finance
Workforce planning software with headcount, open roles and pay in 1 plan.
We build the headcount plan on the same cost centres the payroll posts to, with 1 approval route for every change. The price is fixed after we have read the current plan.
Workforce planning software holds the establishment, the open roles, the cost of each position and the approval behind every change. Constancia, an EPM consultancy, builds it for multi-entity groups where people cost is the largest line and a budget date is fixed.
- Reads
- The headcount workbook, the payroll extract it is reconciled to and the approval emails around every new role.
- Produces
- 1 plan with 1 count of people, 1 pay assumption per grade and country, and 1 named approver per change.
- Then
- The build at a fixed price, with the plan reconciled to payroll before the first budget round on it.
Workforce planning software from us holds 6 parts of the headcount plan, and the count of people comes first.
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- 01
The establishment
Every filled position, its grade, its cost centre and its start date loads from the HR system and reconciles to payroll.
- 02
The open roles
Each vacancy carries a planned start date and a cost, so the plan shows people cost month by month.
- 03
The pay assumptions
Salary, employer's national insurance, pension and bonus are set once per grade and country, with a named owner for each rate.
- 04
The approvals
A new role, a regrade or a transfer travels 1 route to a named approver, and the plan records the decision.
- 05
The transfers and leavers
A move between entities or a leaver posts in both places at once, so the group count stays whole.
- 06
The link to the financial plan
People cost flows into the budget and the forecast by cost centre, on the same entities the ledger uses.
The headcount plan breaks in a spreadsheet before any other plan, because it has the most editors.
Where your group employs 1,200 people across 9 entities, HR, finance and 9 managing directors probably all edit the same headcount workbook. Finance, payroll and HR each hold a different count of those 1,200 people, and each count has a reason.
A regional director approves a role by email in March, the workbook picks it up in May and the forecast shows the cost from July. Constancia has completed 58 implementations over 35 years, and the headcount reconciliation is the first thing a workforce survey with us runs.
We build the plan on the cost centres payroll posts to, load the establishment from HR and give every change 1 approver.
Workforce planning software earns its place once 4 facts hold for the headcount.
- 01
3 counts of people
Finance, HR and payroll each report a different headcount, and the month starts by reconciling them.
- 02
Approvals by email
A new role is agreed in an inbox, and the plan learns about it when the first payslip runs.
- 03
Pay assumptions in 9 tabs
Each entity keeps its own salary, pension and employer's tax rates, and a group change is 9 edits.
- 04
A budget date and a headcount freeze
The board wants the people cost line by a date, and a freeze or a restructure is being priced against it.
Abacum (FP&A software) holds the headcount plan for a finance team whose payroll and HR data can load into it in weeks. OneStream (EPM software) holds it for a group that wants people cost inside the same model as the consolidation.
The headcount plan gives 3 different answers to the same question in 3 different homes.
The question is how many people the group employs this month, and payroll's answer is the one the plan reconciles to.
| A spreadsheet | A platform nobody owns | A platform with named owners | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The headcount count | 3 counts in 3 workbooks, reconciled by hand on the first Monday. | 1 count on the platform, reloaded from HR by whoever remembers. | 1 count, reconciled to payroll each month by the model, with the differences listed by name. |
| The approvals | An email chain, and the plan finds out after the offer letter. | An approval step on the platform that managers route around by emailing HR. | 1 route, 1 named approver per cost centre, and the plan records the decision and its date. |
| The pay assumptions | A rate typed into each entity's tab, and 9 tabs to change for a pension rise. | Rates on the platform that nobody has reviewed since the build. | 1 rate per grade and country, owned by a named person in reward, changed in 1 place. |
| The vacancy cost | Open roles costed at a round number from the start of the year. | Open roles costed by grade, with start dates nobody updates. | Open roles costed by grade and start date, and the recruiter owns the date. |
| The link to the budget | People cost pasted into the budget workbook as 1 line per entity. | People cost flowing to the plan on a mapping built at go-live. | People cost flowing by cost centre to the budget and the forecast on the ledger's structure. |
The headcount plan feeds the budget, the scenario branches and the Abacum build.
FP&A consulting
The planning model the people cost line flows into, on the ledger's structure.
Read about FP&A consultingScenario planning
A hiring freeze or a restructure branched from the headcount plan as a case.
Read about scenario planningAbacum implementation
How we load HR and payroll into Abacum and reconcile the count before go-live.
Read about the implementation
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