Set up headcount planning

Use this checklist to get ready to plan hires, moves and restructures in Flowstate. Your HR or people data owner and your Finance lead do most of it, with a Flowstate admin setting roles.

Before you start

• Set up sign-in and invite your team
• Set up your organisation basics
• Load your people and teams
• Optional: Set up your projects

1. Load your people, teams and planned hires

What: Get your employees, contractors, vacancies and teams into Flowstate, with salaries, rates and managers. Who: HR or people data owner. Where: Load your people and teams. Done when: Resourcing → People and teams → Teams shows your team hierarchy, and each team's Headcount looks right.

If your HR data is in spreadsheets, the spreadsheet import is the usual way to start. It writes straight to live data, so use it for the first load, and plan later changes, such as a reorganisation, in a scenario.

2. Check what people cost

What: Confirm that the monthly cost Flowstate shows for a sample team matches your payroll. Who: Finance lead. Where: Finance → Forecast, with Group by set to Teams and the period set to Monthly. See The forecast. Done when: Your Finance lead agrees the monthly cost of at least one team in each country you employ people in.

If a figure looks wrong, check for:

• a pay currency with no exchange rate, which is counted as if it were your reporting currency;
• a person with no resource type, who carries no overhead;
• an employee with no salary, who costs nothing.

See How costs are calculated.

3. Decide who can see pay and cost

What: Give each planner a role that shows the costs they need, and hides pay from people who shouldn't see it. Who: Flowstate admin, agreed with your Finance lead. Where: Settings → Users & Access → Roles. See Give each person the right role. Done when: Planners see costs on Finance → Forecast, and people who shouldn't see salaries don't.

Of the built-in roles, Financial Manager sees costs and individual salaries, and Line Manager sees costs for their own teams. Team Manager and Config Admin don't see costs. People who can't see costs see FTE only on the forecast. To build your own role, see Roles and permissions.

4. Decide who reviews and merges scenarios

What: Agree who can plan changes in scenarios, and who can apply them to live data. Who: Finance lead and Engineering lead, then a Flowstate admin sets the roles. Where: Settings → Users & Access → Roles. How scenarios work: Live data and scenarios. Done when: The people who will approve changes can merge scenarios, and your planners can create and edit them.

Of the built-in roles, Administrator, Config Admin and Financial Manager can approve and merge scenarios. Team Manager and Line Manager can create and edit them. Team Member can create scenarios but not change the data in them.

People who can merge scenarios can also merge a draft without a review, so only give that to the people who own your live data.

You're set up when

• The Teams tab shows your hierarchy, managers and headcount.
• Finance → Forecast, grouped by Teams, shows monthly costs your Finance lead agrees with.
• A planner can create a scenario, add a vacancy in it, and see the vacancy under Change Summary on the scenario's Overview, without it appearing in live data.
• When that scenario is submitted, the reviewer gets Review scenario: followed by its name in their Inbox.

Next: day-to-day guides

• Employees: pay changes, leavers and each person's details.
• Contractors: rates, rate changes and how contractors are costed.
• Vacancies: planned hires, their statuses, and filling them.
• Teams: the hierarchy, managers and archiving.
• Scenarios: model a change, submit it for review and merge it.
• Compare scenarios: see what each option does to headcount and cost.
• The forecast: read and export planned cost.
• Analytics: headcount and cost over time.