Don’t make the process more complicated than it needs to beA while ago I saw a discussion on Proformative.com centered around the topic of headcount forecasting and people looking for advice on implementing a super-powerful model (in Excel, of course) to allow their finance and HR departments to forecast the need for employees in various areas of the business and when those employees would be needed.HR needs this information in order to plan their recruiting efforts when to advertise for open positions, when to schedule interviews and several other activities that must be planned in advance in order to successfully hire the most qualified persons for all open positions.Finance, on the other hand, needs this forecast in order to budget payroll and payroll related expenses. This template for a budget indicates estimated versus actual costs for individual items and automatically calculates the difference.Event budgeting templates itemize expenses, including costs for the venue, refreshments, entertainment and more, so you know where each penny goes. For general use, try a wheel budget template. One of the more visual budgeting templates, the budget wheel is a fun way to see where your money goes.Every Excel budget template incorporates spreadsheet functionality, graphs, and customizable styles. Download a free budget template so you’ll always know your current financial standing. Test Summary Report Template In Excel Download Recap voipersracing.
This has been covered here in this blog in much greater detail Replace Excel with a Dedicated Planning, Budgeting and Analysis Solution and Forecasting a Balance Sheet in a Spreadsheet World.Forecasting headcount is no different. Many organizations, even SMBs (Small and Medium size Business) have already come to the realization that use of spreadsheets for budget work is a bad idea. Another requirement, hardly ever present in most companies, is the periodic audit of the model plus the need for a set of internal controls, designed to mitigate potential risks to the model resulting from formula errors, broken links, and other assumption related errors.This is no different than using spreadsheets to build other pieces of the corporate plan and various budgets, but may actually be even more challenging due to the dependency of the headcount on other areas of the plan, such as revenues, inventory requirements, etc.For example, in a manufacturing environment where the direct labor force represents a large percentage of the total headcount, the number of production employees is directly dependent on sales budgets, or more accurately the making of inventory in the budget periods driving sales revenue, since making of inventory is the activity that requires the labor force.Is there a reasonable approach to forecasting headcount?The only reasonable approach is to abandon the use of spreadsheets for all kinds of forecasts that are incorporated into corporate budgets. In addition to the many global assumptions and a myriad of formulas, functions, and links, the model must be capable of expanding as needed and be sufficiently documented so any reasonably skilled Excel user can take over and continue to maintain it.
Headcount Spreadsheet Drivers Applicable To
Struggling to scale and maintain a set of unwieldy spreadsheets and with limited output, usefulness will become a thing of the past. Of course, the entire corporate budget should be prepared using this software solution, and there is not a single formula or link that must be provided by the users since all business logic and accounting rules are already built-in and ready to use Business Logic and Accounting Rules Built into the Budget.With such compelling reasons to abandon spreadsheets in favor of a dedicated solution in the preparation of a corporate headcount forecast and all other budget elements, the whole process can be moved into an environment specifically designed for this purpose. If required, inventory production can be made dependent on sales forecasts, allowing you to have a forecast of production FTEs in each period of your budget.A popular SMB software solution, Budget Maestro from Centage Corporation can accommodate all these needs and will allow even a small organization to forecast its employee headcount requirements with tight dependency on inventory production needs or any other drivers applicable to its business.