Committed work
Signed projects with remaining estimated hours. The most reliable input, because somebody has already agreed to pay for it.
Workforce planning
Workforce forecasting
Capacity tells you what this month looks like. Forecasting tells you about the month where the work you are winning now will land — which is the only month you can still do anything about.
Where this lives. Admin area → Planning → Forecast. It reads the attendance, leave, holiday and project records already in your account, so there is nothing to import and nothing extra for your team to maintain.
The two lines that matter
A workforce forecast is one chart: demand over time against supply over time. Everything else is detail.
| Month | Committed demand | Pipeline (weighted) | Available capacity | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 1,240 h | 0 h | 1,310 h | +70 h |
| February | 1,180 h | 160 h | 1,280 h | −60 h |
| March | 960 h | 420 h | 1,190 h | −190 h |
| April | 610 h | 680 h | 1,310 h | +20 h |
March is the decision, and you can see it in January. That is the entire point. A gap discovered in March is overtime and a missed deadline; the same gap seen ten weeks earlier is a hire, a subcontractor, or a conversation with the client about phasing.
Where the demand number comes from
Weighted pipeline
Opportunities you have not closed, discounted by probability. A 50% chance of 400 hours is 200 hours of planning demand, not zero and not 400.
Recurring retainers
The steady baseline. Usually the most predictable line and the one most often under-counted, because retainers quietly consume more than contracted.
Historical actuals
What this kind of work really took the last three times, rather than what the estimate said. This is where tracked hours change the quality of the forecast.
Internal work
The website, the hiring, the process improvements. Real hours that forecasts routinely omit and then get surprised by.
Support and rework
Delivered projects keep consuming time. A forecast that assumes finished means finished will be wrong every quarter.
Why historical actuals are the whole game
Every services business has the same conversation: the estimate said 80 hours, it took 140, and nobody updated anything. The next estimate for the same kind of work says 80 again.
A forecast built on estimates inherits that error and compounds it across every project in the plan. A forecast built on what the work actually took is simply more correct, and it gets more correct every month as more history accumulates.
That history already exists in Employee Desk: hours tracked against projects and tasks, with completion percentages, going back as far as you have been using it. It is the reason this is worth building here rather than in a standalone planning tool that would have to ask you to type the numbers in.
What a forecast should show you about itself
A forecast that hides its assumptions is a guess with a chart around it.
- Which inputs drive it. How much of March is committed versus pipeline, so you know how solid the number is.
- The confidence weighting used, and the ability to change it. Your pipeline probabilities are better than any default.
- What changed since last month, because a forecast that moved 300 hours deserves an explanation.
- The hiring lead time against the gap, since a shortfall you cannot staff in time is a different decision from one you can.
Forecasting questions
What is workforce forecasting?
Projecting the hours and roles your committed and likely work will need over the coming months, and comparing that against the capacity you will actually have. Where the two lines cross is the point you either hire, subcontract or say no.
How accurate can a forecast be?
Only as accurate as its inputs, and it should show you its assumptions rather than hide them. Forecasting from historical actuals — what this kind of project really took last three times — is considerably better than forecasting from estimates, which is why the tracked-hours history matters.
Does it forecast revenue?
It forecasts hours and the cost of delivering them. Revenue depends on your rates and contracts, which live in your accounting system. Cost of delivery is covered on the cost planning page.
How far ahead is useful?
One quarter is reliable, two is useful, beyond that you are forecasting the pipeline rather than the work. Match the horizon to your hiring lead time: if it takes ten weeks to hire a developer, you need a forecast that reaches further than ten weeks.
Screenshot
Forecast
Committed and probability-weighted pipeline demand against real capacity, month by month, with the first month that runs short called out.
Screenshot
What-if scenarios
Model a decision before making it: hires, exits, winning or losing a deal, extra demand. The comparison shows capacity added, demand changed and what it costs.
See your own forecast
Start a 7-day trial, add a few weeks of allocations, and the forecast shows the first month your team runs short.
- 7-day trial
- No credit card
- Cancel anytime