RunSmart Workforce Planner: Headcount, Payroll, Org Chart, and Financial Forecasting

The Workforce Planner in RunSmart helps you build a detailed staffing and payroll plan and connect those workforce decisions directly to your forecasted financial statements.

You can use the Workforce Planner to:

You can create and modify your workforce plan based on the employees, roles, compensation, and staffing assumptions you expect for the business.

For each employee, you can enter or manage information such as:

These assumptions determine when an employee appears in the workforce forecast and how much the employee is expected to cost over time.

The employee's Start Month and End Month determine when the employee's costs are included in the workforce plan.

For example, if an employee starts in March and ends in November, RunSmart includes the employee's workforce costs from March through November.

If no End Month is entered, the employee remains included through the applicable forecast period.

Future changes to compensation, benefits, or other workforce assumptions are reflected in the employee's forecasted cost according to the information entered in the Workforce Planner.

Each employee's forecasted workforce cost must be assigned to one or more forecastable expense line items from the project's Profit & Loss statement.

This is controlled through the Expense Category field.

Expense Categories may include Cost of Goods Sold and Operating Expense accounts from your P&L.

RunSmart displays the account hierarchy where applicable so you can select the appropriate account or subaccount.

For example:

Using the most appropriate expense line helps RunSmart transfer workforce costs accurately into your financial forecast.

The Split Cost? field determines whether an employee's forecasted cost should be assigned to one Expense Category or divided among multiple Expense Categories.

Select one Expense Category.

RunSmart assigns 100% of that employee's applicable workforce cost to the selected expense line.

For example:

Employee monthly workforce cost: $10,000

Expense Category:

COGS > Direct Labor

Allocation:

100%

RunSmart assigns the full $10,000 to Direct Labor.

You can select multiple Expense Categories and enter the percentage of the employee's cost that should be allocated to each one.

For example:

Employee monthly workforce cost: $10,000

RunSmart calculates:

All Expense Category allocations for an employee must total exactly 100%.

RunSmart displays the current allocation total as percentages are entered or changed.

If the allocations do not total 100%, the employee cannot be saved.

Negative percentages, percentages greater than 100%, and duplicate Expense Categories are not allowed.

When you assign an employee to an Expense Category, RunSmart also needs to know how that workforce cost should interact with the amount already included in the financial forecast.

This prevents employee costs from being counted twice.

The Forecast Treatment field provides three choices:

Choose Add to Existing Forecast when the current forecast for the selected expense line does not already include the employee compensation you are assigning to it.

RunSmart adds the Workforce Planner amount on top of the existing forecast.

For example:

Existing Marketing forecast: $20,000

Workforce Planner allocation to Marketing: $3,000

Updated Marketing forecast:

$23,000

This is appropriate when the existing expense forecast represents other costs and the employee cost needs to be added separately.

Choose Replace Existing Forecast when the selected P&L expense line is used entirely for employee costs already represented by the Workforce Planner.

Examples may include:

For example:

Existing Payroll forecast: $50,000

Workforce Planner allocation: $62,000

Updated Payroll forecast:

$62,000

RunSmart does not add $62,000 to the existing $50,000 because doing so would count the employee expense twice.

Instead, the Workforce Planner amount becomes the active forecast amount for that expense line.

RunSmart does not determine whether an expense is employee-only based on the account name. You choose the appropriate Forecast Treatment based on how the expense is used in your accounting records.

Choose Contains Employee and Non-Employee Costs when the selected P&L expense line combines employee compensation with other expenses.

For example, a single COGS line may include:

In this situation, RunSmart cannot safely determine how much of the existing forecast represents employee costs.

Adding the Workforce Planner amount could count employee costs twice, while replacing the entire forecast could remove valid non-employee expenses.

Because of this, RunSmart does not automatically modify that expense line when Workforce Planner costs are transferred to the forecast.

You can either:

For example, if your QuickBooks Chart of Accounts includes:

COGS > Direct Labor

instead of only:

COGS

the Direct Labor subaccount may allow employee costs to be handled separately from materials, freight, and other COGS expenses.

If appropriate for your accounting setup, creating a separate labor-related subaccount in QuickBooks can make Workforce Planner transfers easier to manage accurately.

Your existing Profit & Loss forecast may already contain some employee expenses.

Without knowing how a selected expense line is structured, RunSmart could accidentally count the same employee cost twice.

Forecast Treatment tells RunSmart whether it should:

RunSmart retains your Forecast Treatment selections so you do not need to make the same selection every time you modify the forecast. You can change the treatment later if needed.

When your workforce plan is ready, select Modify Forecast from the Workforce Planner.

RunSmart calculates the monthly workforce costs for each employee based on the employee's:

RunSmart then groups the workforce costs assigned to each P&L Expense Category for each forecast month.

For example, if multiple employees have costs allocated to COGS > Direct Labor, RunSmart combines those applicable employee allocations before modifying that P&L line.

If an employee's $10,000 monthly workforce cost is allocated:

RunSmart calculates:

Each amount is then handled according to the Forecast Treatment selected for that expense line.

For example:

COGS > Direct Labor could use Replace Existing Forecast

while:

Marketing could use Add to Existing Forecast.

The treatment does not need to be the same for every Expense Category assigned to an employee.

If an Expense Category is marked Contains Employee and Non-Employee Costs, RunSmart does not automatically transfer the Workforce Planner amount into that P&L line.

This prevents RunSmart from:

Your workforce allocation remains saved in the Workforce Planner, but the affected P&L line must be handled manually or reassigned to an Expense Category that can be transferred safely.

RunSmart cannot apply the Workforce Planner to the financial forecast if an applicable employee has an incomplete or invalid Expense Category allocation.

Before using Modify Forecast:

This helps ensure workforce costs are transferred to the correct financial statement lines.

You can continue changing the Workforce Planner after transferring it to the financial forecast.

For example, you might:

After making the changes, select Modify Forecast again.

RunSmart uses the latest Workforce Planner calculations and replaces the previous Workforce Planner contribution.

It does not add the new workforce amount on top of the workforce amount previously transferred.

For example:

Original Marketing forecast: $20,000

First Workforce Planner allocation: $3,000

Modified Marketing forecast: $23,000

Later Workforce Planner allocation: $4,000

Updated Marketing forecast:

$24,000

RunSmart does not calculate $23,000 + $4,000 = $27,000.

This prevents repeated Workforce Planner modifications from double counting employee costs.

If an employee was previously allocated to one Expense Category and you later change the allocation, RunSmart removes the previous Workforce Planner contribution when you reapply the workforce plan.

For example, if an employee moves from:

Marketing

to:

COGS > Direct Labor

RunSmart removes that employee's Workforce Planner allocation from Marketing and applies the latest amount to Direct Labor.

The same principle applies when allocation percentages change.

If an Expense Category previously received Workforce Planner costs but no longer receives any after you modify the plan:

RunSmart removes the previous Workforce Planner contribution and returns the line to its underlying financial forecast.

RunSmart restores the underlying forecast that existed before the Workforce Planner amount replaced it.

This allows Workforce Planner changes to be reversed without permanently overwriting the original forecast.

No.

RunSmart keeps Workforce Planner modifications separate from the underlying scenario forecast.

This allows RunSmart to:

The Workforce Planner modifies the active financial forecast without permanently destroying the underlying forecast calculation.

A QuickBooks refresh will cause the underlying financial forecast to be recalculated based on the latest accounting data.

RunSmart retains the Workforce Planner entries, allocations, and planning assumptions, but you must select Modify Forecast again to reapply the Workforce Planner modifications to the newly calculated forecast.

Your Workforce Planner plan itself is not deleted.

If you make forecast changes elsewhere in RunSmart, such as through the Profit & Loss forecast, Sales Forecast, or other scenario assumptions, previously applied Workforce Planner modifications remain applied.

You do not need to reapply the Workforce Planner simply because another forecast assumption changed.

A QuickBooks refresh is different because it refreshes the underlying accounting data and recalculates the base forecast.

After Workforce Planner modifications are applied to the P&L, RunSmart recalculates the applicable financial forecast.

Depending on the workforce changes, this can affect:

This allows hiring, compensation, staffing, and payroll decisions to be reflected throughout the broader financial forecast.

The Workforce Planner can display the payroll or workforce expense already represented in the financial forecast as a reference while you build your staffing plan.

This helps you see how your planned workforce costs compare with the existing forecast before applying your modifications.

Your Workforce Planner does not need to match the existing forecast.

The purpose is to allow you to create the staffing plan you believe best represents the future of the business and then incorporate those assumptions into the financial forecast.

If you use QuickBooks Payroll, RunSmart can use available employee and payroll information to help reduce manual setup.

Depending on the information available from QuickBooks, you may still need to complete employee-level planning information manually.

RunSmart identifies employee records that require additional information before they can be fully used in the Workforce Planner.

A yellow Review indicator identifies records that need attention.

A green QB indicator identifies employee information was pulled from QuickBooks Payroll.

You can also build and manage your staffing plan manually.

Manual planning gives you direct control over:

This can be used whether or not you use QuickBooks Payroll.

The Org Chart Visualizer gives you an interactive view of your organization's reporting structure based on the employee and Reports To information entered in the Workforce Planner.

Instead of viewing employees only as individual rows in the workforce table, the Org Chart Visualizer helps you understand how those employees and roles fit together across the organization.

You can use the Org Chart Visualizer to see:

For example, if a planned employee is assigned to report to the VP of Sales, that employee can be reflected underneath the VP of Sales in the organizational structure.

The Org Chart Visualizer uses the workforce information already entered in RunSmart, including employee names, positions, and reporting relationships. Keeping the Reports To field complete helps RunSmart display a more accurate organizational structure.

This can be especially useful when planning future hiring because it allows you to evaluate not only the cost of adding employees, but also where those employees fit within the organization.

The Workforce Planner connects staffing decisions to financial planning.

Instead of planning employees separately from your financial forecast, you can model workforce assumptions and determine where those employee costs should appear in the P&L.

This helps you:

The Workforce Planner allows you to build a detailed staffing and payroll plan and connect that plan directly to your financial forecast.

For each employee, you can define compensation, timing, benefits, and where the employee's costs should appear on the Profit & Loss statement.

Expense Category allocations determine where workforce costs go.

Forecast Treatment determines how those costs interact with the existing forecast:

When your workforce plan is complete, select Modify Forecast to apply eligible workforce costs to the P&L and recalculate the broader financial forecast.