The Workforce Planner in RunSmart helps you plan your team and payroll expenses with confidence. Depending on your setup, you can either:
Let RunSmart build your workforce forecast automatically using your QuickBooks Payroll data, or
Create a staffing plan manually by adding employees, roles, and costs yourself.
Both approaches let you see how staffing decisions affect your monthly payroll and stay aligned with your overall financial forecasts.
Two Ways to Plan Your Workforce
Manual Planning – Add employees yourself and create your own staffing forecast.
Auto-Forecasting – If you use QuickBooks Payroll, RunSmart will create a staffing forecast for you automatically.
Manual Planning (Create a Staffing Plan from Scratch)
If you don’t use QuickBooks Payroll—or if you’d rather enter data yourself—you can build a workforce plan step by step.
What You Can Do
See forecasts as a guide – A “From Forecast” line shows projected payroll costs from your Profit & Loss statement for each month. This gives you a target reference but you don’t need to match it exactly.
Add employees and costs – Enter details like job title, pay type, benefits, start/end dates, and reporting structure.
View variances easily – Differences between your staffing plan and forecast are shown in green (positive) or red (negative).
Auto-Forecasting (When Connected to QuickBooks Payroll)
If you use QuickBooks Payroll, RunSmart can automatically create a workforce forecast for you—saving hours of manual work.
How It Works
RunSmart doesn’t rely on simple percentage increases. It studies how your payroll has changed and fluctuated with sales over time—capturing the real patterns in your business—to build a smarter, more reliable projection for the future:
Understands your history – RunSmart looks at how payroll costs have scaled with sales in your actual business data.
Role-by-role insights – It identifies how different roles (like sales, admin, or production staff) have expanded as revenue has grown.
Projects forward – Using those patterns, it forecasts headcount needs and payroll costs by role for each month.
Delivers a tailored plan – The result is a forecast that reflects how your business really operates, not a one-size-fits-all guess.
💡 Why this matters: Instead of wondering “How many people will I need if sales grow?” you get a data-driven staffing plan built on your own history. It’s like having a financial analyst doing the math for you—instantly.
Your Options
Modify Auto-Forecast – Fine-tune the forecast RunSmart creates.
Create a Custom Forecast – Start from scratch with your own staffing plan (this turns off the auto-forecast for that scenario).
Helpful Features (Available in Both Modes)
No matter which planning method you use, these features make the Workforce Planner more powerful:
QuickBooks Import – If you use QuickBooks Payroll, employee details like job title, pay rate, and hire date are imported automatically. You can fill in any missing info manually.
Transfer Modifications – Replace the auto-generated payroll forecast with your own manual plan. RunSmart will ask you to confirm before any changes are applied.
Org Chart Visualizer – View your team structure in an interactive chart, showing reporting lines and how your organization evolves over time.
Why Use Workforce Planner?
The Workforce Planner helps you:
Stay aligned with forecasts – Keep payroll and headcount in sync with your financial plan.
Plan with confidence – Understand the cost impact of hiring decisions before you make them.
Save time – Import data directly from QuickBooks Payroll.
Visualize your team – See your reporting structure clearly with the Org Chart Visualizer.