How to use the Staff Planner
Purpose
Plan and forecast salaries, related costs, and FTE for a given year and company
in XLReporting. You can optionally budget per Tracking 1; if no Tracking
1 is selected, the plan applies to the entire company.
Context
The Staff Planner is a zero-based forecast model in Essentials → Forecast.
It lets you enter employees or positions, spread costs over months by employment period, and
include on-costs such as taxes, social security, and pension. After selecting a
Job title, you can choose an Employment type; this sets the applicable
percentages for salary-related costs. You can review the applied percentages via the
Info button.
Steps
- Open Essentials → Planning and select the Staff Planner.
- In the selector next to Run, choose the Year and
Company. Optionally select Tracking 1 to budget for a
specific tracking dimension. If you leave it empty, your plan covers the whole company.
- Click Run to load the latest version of your staff budget.
- Enter Employee name and Job title per row. (You can enter
individual names or the number of positions per job title.)
- After Job title, select Employment (depending on your
configuration). The corresponding salary cost percentages will be applied
automatically. Click Info to view these percentages.
- Enter Salary (monthly, for full-time) and adjust FTE if
needed.
- Enter Start date and, if applicable, End date. Costs are
spread evenly over the months within this period.
- Click More to add taxes, social security, pension (calculated on
top of gross salary) and any travel or other costs as monthly amounts.
- Use the ☰ menu to insert, copy, move, or delete rows.
- Review Total Costs, employee count, FTEs, and charts. When finished, click
Save to store your budget. The forecast is immediately included in all reports.
Examples
- Company-only plan: Select Year = 2026, Company = NL01, leave Tracking
1 empty. Enter “Sales Rep (2 positions)”, Employment = Full-time, Salary =
3,000, FTE = 1.00, Start = 2026-01-01. Costs are spread over 12 months.
- Tracking 1 plan: Select Year = 2026, Company = NL01, Tracking 1 =
“Project A”. Enter “Analyst”, Employment = Part-time, Salary = 4,000, FTE = 0.60,
Start = 2026-03-01, End = 2026-12-31. Click Info to confirm the applied percentages
for on-costs.
Common mistakes & tips
- No Tracking 1 selected: The plan applies to the entire company.
Select Tracking 1 if you need project- or department-level budgets.
- Employment not chosen: If you skip Employment, the intended
percentages for salary-related costs may not be applied correctly. Select
Employment after Job title and use Info to verify.
- Dates outside year: End dates beyond the year are allowed; only in-year
months are costed.
- Use positions for efficiency: For many hires, enter positions per job title
instead of individual names.
- Check before saving: Validate Total Costs, headcount, and FTEs
before clicking Save.