Headcount Planner
The Headcount Planner lets you forecast the financial impact of your team — current employees, planned hires, and contractors — and see exactly how headcount decisions affect your P&L and cash flow.
Everything you enter in the Headcount Planner feeds directly into your Financial Model and Cash Flow Forecast, so your projections always reflect your actual staffing plans.
Accessing the Headcount Planner
Click Headcount Planner in the left navigation menu. At the top, you'll see a chart of your historical and projected headcount expenses. Use the date range selectors in the top right to adjust the time period displayed.
What you can manage
Scrolling below the chart gives you four key areas to configure:
1. Payroll Settings
Set the foundational rules for how payroll is calculated across your team:
Pay period — how frequently payroll runs (e.g. bi-weekly, monthly)
Default pay raise — an annual raise % applied automatically to all employees
Payroll expense account — which account in your P&L payroll posts to
Titles — create job titles that can be reused across headcount entries
Payroll tax rate — the employer payroll tax rate applied to wages
2. Benefits
Add benefits packages that apply to your team. Benefits can be entered as a fixed monthly dollar amount or as a percentage of base pay. Common examples include health insurance, dental, and 401K employer contributions. Once created, benefits can be assigned to specific job titles or individual employees.
3. Payroll Integration
Available on the Ultimate Plan, this connects Clockwork to 25+ payroll providers via Finch — so your actual payroll data flows directly into your headcount forecast. Access this from Settings → Connected Data → Payroll Integration.
4. Adding Headcount
Click + Add Headcount to add employees or contractors to your plan:
Select an existing job title or create a new one.
Enter the employee's start date (and end date if applicable).
Enter their salary or hourly rate.
Assign any applicable benefits.
Save — the new headcount will immediately update your Financial Model forecast.
You can add headcount incrementally to model future hires on top of your existing team, or replace your entire headcount plan from scratch.
Note: Adding headcount incrementally layers new payroll expenses on top of your existing salaries and payroll tax expenses in the forecast.
How headcount flows into your forecast
All salaries, benefits, and payroll taxes entered in the Headcount Planner automatically appear in the relevant expense accounts in your Financial Model. This means changes to your headcount plan are reflected in your P&L forecast and cash flow projections in real time — no manual updates needed.
Need help? Reach out to our support chat in the bottom right of your screen any time.