Headcount planning is deciding which seats the business needs, when, and what each will cost before the offer goes out. For a small employer it is a short list, and the discipline is the cost line: a seat costs more than the wage. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' employer costs release, cited below, put total employer compensation costs for private industry workers at $46.60 per hour worked in March 2026, of which wages and salaries averaged $32.60 and benefits $14.01. The true cost of an employee calculator on this site prints the loaded cost of a seat from your own figures, free and without an account; the paid product keeps the plan with the hires it produces.
The seats the work needs
Start from the work, not the org chart: what has to be done that nobody has time for, what is being done by the wrong person, what a customer is waiting on. Each becomes a seat with a start month. A plan that starts from titles hires titles.
The loaded cost per seat
Wage, then the employer's payroll taxes, then benefits, then the equipment, software and space, over the hours the seat actually works. The BLS release cited below is the national shape; the calculator on this site prints your figure. A plan priced on wage alone is under by the whole benefits column.
Timing and the cash
When each seat starts, how long it takes to be productive, and what the payroll looks like month by month. The turnover rate calculator on this site is the other half: a plan that adds three seats while losing two has planned one.
Keeping the plan with the hires
Each planned seat becomes an offer, a contract, an onboarding checklist and a review date. HeadcountDesk Pro keeps the plan and the documents it produces per employee; the free tools print each. From the vendors' own pricing pages, cited below: Homebase lists its Essentials plan at $30 per location per month billed monthly or $24 billed annually, with unlimited employees, and a Basic plan at $0 for one location with up to 10 employees; BambooHR starts at $10 per employee per month for Core and $17 for Pro; Deputy's Core plan is $6.50 per user per month. HeadcountDesk Pro is $24 per month per location.
Questions people ask about headcount planning
How far ahead should a small business plan headcount?
Far enough to cover the cash: a year, revised each quarter.
What is the biggest planning mistake?
Pricing the seat at the wage. The BLS figures cited below show the benefit column is not small.
Is the calculator free?
Yes, without an account.