Headcount Planning and Cost Template
Every role costed against its own wage bases, premium tier and start month, because one blended rate over-costs the senior hires and under-costs the junior ones.
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| Req | Role | Salary | St | Tier | In-year wages | Real load | Rate | Flat est. | Error |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Staff engineer | 218,000 | Feb | family | 199,833 | 37,332 | 18.68% | 36,079 | under 1,253 |
| 02 | Account executive | 132,000 | Mar | employee | 110,000 | 19,012 | 17.28% | 19,860 | over 848 |
| 03 | Senior engineer | 176,000 | Apr | employee | 132,000 | 20,420 | 15.47% | 23,832 | over 3,412 |
| 04 | Product designer | 148,000 | May | family | 98,667 | 22,367 | 22.67% | 17,814 | under 4,553 |
| 05 | Support specialist | 68,000 | Jul | employee | 34,000 | 7,350 | 21.62% | 6,138 | under 1,212 |
| 06 | Implementation lead | 96,000 | Oct | employee | 24,000 | 3,627 | 15.11% | 4,333 | over 706 |
| Total | 838,000 | 598,500 | 110,108 | 18.40% | 108,055 | 2,053 |
Three roles over-costed by 4,965.22, three under-costed by 7,018.23. The agreeing total conceals 9,930.44 of offsetting mispricing, and REQ-03 and REQ-04 rank the wrong way round because of it.
Every headcount template costs a hire as salary over twelve times a fully loaded multiplier, and the better ones tell you to derive that multiplier from your own payroll rather than guess at 1.3x. That is better advice and it still misprices every role, because employer payroll taxes are capped per employee per calendar year. Social security stops at 184,500.00 for 2026 and FUTA at the first 7,000.00 paid to each employee. Only medicare runs on every dollar, and medical premium is a flat sum per enrolled head.
So a senior hire's real load rate is lower than a junior hire's, and no single percentage can be both. Aldergrove Systems, twelve staff in Seattle, hiring six people in 2026. Their own register produced a blended load of 18.05 percent, which priced the plan at 706,555.22 against a real 708,608.22. Those agree to 0.29 percent, and the agreement is the problem: three roles were over-costed by 4,965.22 and three under-costed by 7,018.23.
The gross error across six lines was 11,983.45, so an agreeing total concealed 9,930.44 of offsetting mispricing. Two roles competing for one approval slot ranked the wrong way round, because a product designer on family cover carries a higher load rate than a support hire at half the salary. Nobody approves a plan total. They approve roles, by comparing two of them, which is the comparison a blended rate corrupts. Then the trigger to reforecast is a separate question.
What is in the pack
Fully-Loaded Cost sheet
One row per requisition, six components built up separately against their own wage bases and eligibility waits, and the variance against your blended rate stated in words rather than as a minus sign.
Payroll Burden Baseline sheet
Your own last full year rebuilt per head, producing the blended rate and the per-head spread around it. Aldergrove's twelve staff ran 8.44 percent to 24.52 percent on the same plan in the same state.
Role Register sheet
The six fields that drive cost, captured before anything is costed: salary, start month rather than start quarter, assumed medical tier, match participation, backfill or net new, and the approver.
Start-Date Phasing sheet
Twelve months, each role as its own column, with the employer tax percentage that falls through the year as the wage bases run out. The phased column, not the annual run rate, is what an annual budget bridges on. Feeds a cash forecast that a reforecast trigger can actually be tested against.
Attrition Assumptions sheet
Departure and backfill per named seat, with the wage-base reset each replacement carries, because a new employee starts every base at zero and the plan pays some of them twice.
Headcount Policy Note
What fully loaded means here, what is excluded and why, the six fields a requisition has to carry, the approval thresholds, and the five events that force a recost.
Load Rate Method
Each component, its base, its waiting period, and where its rate is read from. Two of the six are company-specific and on a notice in your own file rather than in any benchmark.
Hiring Plan Review
The memo for whoever signs off headcount, naming at most three findings largest first and the role comparisons a blended rate was getting backwards. Once approved, each role's monthly cost is the number a manager carries into next cycle's budget request, not a guess.
Attrition and Backfill Note
Why replacing someone costs more employer tax than keeping them, component by component, and how to net a vacancy's wage saving against the tax it adds before calling a freeze a saving.
How it works
- 1
Take the files, or open the pack
Download the blank Word and CSV files with no account and no signup, or open the same pack in River and hand it your payroll register and the roles you plan to hire.
- 2
Derive your blend, then set it aside
Rebuild the register per head to get the rate your payroll actually carries. It checks a plan total. It never costs a role, and the spread it exposes is why.
- 3
Cost each role against its own bases
Six components per head, month by month, each stopping at its own wage base and starting after its own eligibility wait. Tier and start month move a role further than its level does.
- 4
Find the rankings that invert
The output is not the plan total, which will look fine. It is the pairs of roles whose cost ranking flips between the two methods, plus what a capital request does to the same budget.
Frequently asked questions
Is this free?
The download is, with no account and no email. Every document and sheet named above comes down complete, filled in for the sample company so the structure is visible. Editing with AI creates a free account, which is what lets the agent read your payroll register and cost the plan for you.
What format are the downloaded files?
Word documents and CSV sheets. The four documents arrive as .docx with their headings and tables intact, and the five sheets as .csv. Nothing needs converting: they open in Word, Pages, Google Docs, Excel, Numbers and Sheets as they are.
Why not just use a fully loaded multiplier?
Because it is an average of per-head rates, so it reproduces a total and cannot reproduce any member of it. Aldergrove's twelve staff ran 8.44 to 24.52 percent. Use the blend to check your plan total, then cost each role on its own.
Would two multipliers, one senior and one junior, fix it?
No, because seniority is not the main driver. A product designer at 148,000.00 on family cover carried a higher load rate than a support hire at 68,000.00, since premium is a fixed sum per head. Tier and start month both move a role further than its level does.
Does it work outside Washington?
Yes. The federal components are identical everywhere and the mechanism is the same in every state: a state unemployment rate and a taxable wage base, both on your own annual notice. Only the two numbers change, and the pack asks for them by name.
Why does a backfill cost more than the person who left?
Because a replacement's wage bases start at zero. FUTA applies to the first 7,000.00 paid to each employee, and the successor employer exception covers acquiring a business, not replacing a person. Aldergrove's two 2026 backfills add 3,280.70 on identical wages.
What if I do not have last year's register?
You can still cost every role, because that arithmetic needs only statutory rates plus your own state rate notice and carrier invoice. What you lose is the check on the plan total, so one input error stays invisible. Get the register when you can.
Cost the plan you are about to approve
Send last year's payroll register and the roles you plan to hire. The per-role variance is what changes a decision.
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