Resource Capacity Planning Tool and Software for PMOs
Enter your roles, the FTE available for each, and the initiatives you have approved. The workspace builds a twelve month capacity plan by role and flags every month where demand runs past the people you have. No timesheets, no implementation project.
Plans from $24.50 a month billed yearly, or $49 monthly. The demo opens on signup with a worked portfolio, the capacity plan and one stage gate pack.
A resource capacity planning tool compares the effort your approved projects will need against the people you actually have, month by month, and shows the gap. The Portfolio Hub workspace plans at role level rather than by named person: you give each role its available FTE, each initiative its FTE demand and its start and end dates, and the tool spreads that demand across every month the initiative runs. The output is a twelve month grid of demand, capacity and shortfall per role, plus a funding line that stops the ranked portfolio where capacity runs out.
Why a portfolio with spare capacity still cannot be staffed
Seven approved initiatives across three roles, with 11.0 FTE available in total. Below is the first six months of the plan exactly as the tool computes it. Read the totals row first, then the roles.
| Role | Line | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | Mar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering (6.0 FTE) | Demand | 3.5 | 3.5 | 5.5 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 3.5 |
| Gap | 2.5 | 2.5 | 0.5 | -1.0 | -1.0 | 2.5 | |
| Data (3.0 FTE) | Demand | 2.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Gap | 0.5 | -0.5 | -0.5 | -0.5 | 2.0 | 2.0 | |
| Change and BA (2.0 FTE) | Demand | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Gap | 1.0 | 1.0 | -0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |
| All roles (11.0 FTE) | Total gap | 4.0 | 3.0 | -0.5 | -1.0 | 1.5 | 5.0 |
The totals row says this portfolio is comfortable in four months out of six. That row is the number most steering decks carry, and it is close to meaningless. February shows 1.5 FTE spare across the portfolio while Engineering is 1.0 FTE short, because Data has freed up 2.0 FTE that no engineering task can use. Capacity does not pool across roles, so a positive total tells you nothing about whether the work can be done.
The per-role rows say something you can act on. Engineering is short in January and February only, driven by the ERP module and the billing migration overlapping the tail of the portal rebuild. That is a two month problem with four obvious answers: move the billing migration start by two months, bring in contract capacity for the overlap, cut scope on one of the three, or accept the slip and say so at the gate. All four are decisions a sponsor can make. None of them is visible in the totals row.
What the tool counts, and what it deliberately does not
Demand comes from initiatives at the approved and in-delivery stages only. Anything still in intake or business case is excluded, because counting work that has not been funded turns the plan into a wish list and makes every month look impossible. Closed and stopped initiatives drop out on the day their stage changes.
Each initiative contributes its full FTE figure in every month between its start and end date. That is a flat spread, not a curve. Real effort ramps up and tapers off, so a flat spread slightly overstates the first and last month of each initiative and understates the middle. For portfolio decisions that error is small and it is symmetric across the portfolio, which is why almost every capacity model at this level uses it.
Capacity is whatever FTE you enter for the role, and it is your job to make that number net. The gap is capacity minus demand, computed per role per month, and a negative gap is the only thing worth escalating.
| Input | Where it comes from | Effect on the plan |
|---|---|---|
| Role and FTE available | Entered once per role | The supply line the gap is measured against |
| Initiative stage | Set on the initiative | Only approved and in delivery generate demand |
| FTE demand | Entered per initiative | Added to its role in every month it runs |
| Start and end date | Entered per initiative | Decides which months it lands in |
| Assigned role | Chosen per initiative | Decides whose capacity it consumes |
| Leave, support, run work | Deducted by you before entering FTE | Not modeled separately, so a gross number inflates capacity |
The capacity plan sits next to the decision it informs
Twelve month plan by role
Demand, available FTE and the gap for every role in every month, recomputed the moment a date or an FTE figure changes.
Worst month per role
Each role carries its deepest shortfall across the horizon, so the roles that need a hiring or contracting decision sort themselves to the top.
The funding line
The ranked portfolio walked against total capacity, showing which initiatives can be staffed in priority order and where the cut falls.
Weighted scoring model
Strategic fit, value, urgency, confidence and risk scored 0 to 100, so the order the capacity is spent in is defensible.
Stage gate packs
An Excel pack per initiative carrying its score, its benefit and cost figures and the capacity it needs, built from the live record.
Portfolio export
The register and the plan to Excel or CSV on every plan, for the steering pack, the finance model, or a move to another system.
From a list of roles to a staffed portfolio in four steps
- Enter your delivery roles and their net FTE. Engineering, Data, Change and BA, whatever your portfolio actually draws on. Deduct leave, support rotas and run work first, so the supply number is the FTE genuinely available for projects.
- Load the approved initiatives. Name, stage, the role that does most of the work, the FTE it needs, and start and end dates. Dates are what put the demand in the right months, so estimate them rather than leaving them blank.
- Read the plan by role, not by total. Find the months with a negative gap, and the role that owns each one. The worst month figure tells you which role to deal with first.
- Close each gap and record which lever you used. Move a start date, add capacity, cut scope, or push the initiative below the funding line. Rerun the plan and take the result to the gate.
Spreadsheet, workspace, or a resource management platform
Most PMOs plan capacity in a spreadsheet until the dates start moving, then get quoted a platform that plans by named person and hour. The three options solve genuinely different problems, and the wrong one is expensive in both directions.
| Capability | Capacity spreadsheet | Portfolio Hub workspace | Resource management platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planning unit | Role or person, whichever the builder chose | Role, with FTE per month | Named person, by skill and hour |
| Effect of a date change | Month columns rebuilt by hand | Plan recomputes on save | Recomputes, and cascades to assignments |
| Where actuals come from | Nowhere, it is a forecast only | Nowhere, it is a forecast only | Timesheets |
| Link to prioritization | Usually a different file | Same record as the score and the funding line | Yes, with scenario modeling |
| Version anyone can point to | Whichever copy was emailed last | One live plan per account | One system of record |
| Time to a first usable plan | A day, if the sheet already exists | Under an hour | Three to twelve months of implementation |
| Right fit | Under 10 initiatives, 2 or 3 roles | 10 to a few hundred initiatives, no timesheets | Hundreds of projects, billable utilization, ERP integration |
If you bill clients by the hour, or you need utilization reported per person against captured time, you need a platform, and the comparison of PPM software and tools in the handbook is where to start. If you need to know which role runs out in which month before the next funding round, that is this, and it is a Thursday afternoon of data entry.
Questions people ask about resource capacity planning tools
What is a resource capacity planning tool?
A resource capacity planning tool compares the effort your approved projects will need against the people you actually have, month by month, and shows the gap. The Portfolio Hub workspace does it by role: you enter the FTE available for each role, the workspace spreads each initiative's FTE demand across the months it runs, and reports demand, capacity and the shortfall for every month of the next twelve.
How do you calculate resource capacity in project management?
Capacity is the FTE available for a role after leave, support duties and non-project work are deducted. Demand is the FTE each active initiative needs, counted in every month between its start and end date. Subtract demand from capacity per role per month. A negative number is a shortfall in that role in that month, which is the only form the answer can usefully take.
What is the difference between resource planning and capacity planning?
Resource planning assigns named people to specific work in the near term, usually weeks out. Capacity planning works at the role level over months or quarters and asks whether enough of a skill exists at all. A PMO deciding what to approve next quarter needs capacity planning; a delivery lead staffing a sprint needs resource planning. Confusing the two produces plans that are precise and useless.
Can you do resource capacity planning in Excel?
Yes, and for a handful of roles it is the right answer. The free capacity planning template on this site is built for exactly that. Spreadsheets break down when dates move, because every date change means rebuilding the month columns by hand, and when the file is copied per quarter, so nobody can say which version the last funding decision used.
How far ahead should a capacity plan look?
Twelve months is the usual horizon for a portfolio, because it matches the budget cycle and most initiatives are shorter than that. Anything beyond twelve months rests on start dates nobody has committed to. The first quarter should be firm enough to staff, the second and third indicative, and the fourth a shape rather than a number.
What is the best resource capacity planning software for a small PMO?
For a PMO running roughly 10 to 200 initiatives without timesheets, the useful product is one that plans at role level, takes dates and FTE directly, and needs no implementation project. Enterprise platforms plan by named person and hour, which is more accurate and takes months to roll out. Match the tool to the decision you have to make, not to the vendor with the longest feature list.
Pick the plan that matches the size of the portfolio
Starter
$24.50/mo
Billed $294 a year, or $49 monthly
- 20 initiatives
- 8 delivery roles
- 5 stage gate packs a month
Team
$74.50/mo
Billed $894 a year, or $149 monthly
- 100 initiatives
- 40 delivery roles
- 40 stage gate packs a month
Portfolio Office
$199.50/mo
Billed $2,394 a year, or $399 monthly
- Unlimited initiatives
- Unlimited delivery roles
- Unlimited stage gate packs
Know which role runs out, and in which month
Create your account, enter three roles and the initiatives you have already approved, and read the twelve month plan.