Twelve Seats Planned, Nine People in Them
Every budget season someone agrees how many people each role should have, and by March nobody can say whether the organization is on that plan. Since 14 October the headcount plan sits beside the people it describes, and the gap between them is a number.
In one paragraph
Put next year’s establishment into the headcount plan position by position, with a monthly cost per head. The plan then shows, for each seat, how many are filled, how many are being recruited, the variance and the money — and a seat with nobody recruiting for it becomes a vacancy in one click instead of a line in a board pack.
A Nairobi SACCO’s board approves next year’s budget in November: twelve loan officers, four tellers, two credit analysts, one driver. The approved numbers live in a spreadsheet in the finance manager’s inbox. The people live in the HR system. Between them sits a question nobody can answer quickly in May: are we under the plan, over it, or on it — and what is the difference costing?
Where the plan lives
Open Human Resources → Positions, and from the Related menu choose Headcount plan. The plan is kept per year, and this year and next are offered. Each line is a position — optionally for one department, when the same role sits in several — with a planned headcount and a monthly budgeted cost per head. That is the whole input. Everything else on the page is read from records you already keep.
| Column | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Planned | The number on the plan line |
| Filled | Employees in the position who are active, on probation or suspended |
| In recruitment | Unfilled openings on draft, open and on-hold vacancies for the position |
| Variance | Filled against planned, shown as under, over or on plan |
| Budget / month | Planned headcount × cost per head |
| Actual / month | Each person’s monthly basic, allowances and benefits from their active contract |
The definitions are deliberately narrow. A suspended officer still occupies the seat and is still paid, so they count as filled. A vacancy on hold still holds the opening, so it counts as in recruitment. A vacancy that has been filled or closed does not. The page groups lines by department and gives each a status: On plan, under, over, or Not in plan for positions people hold that have no plan line at all.
The SACCO’s loan officers
Loan Officer, Credit department, next year
With one opening already advertised, two seats have no recruitment behind them.
Because two seats have nothing in recruitment behind them, the line carries a Requisition 2 button, and the totals at the top count the seats still to requisition across the whole plan. HR clicks it and a new vacancy opens already filled in with the position, the department and the number of openings, ready to be reviewed and published. It needs the permission to manage recruitment, so the plan can be read widely without letting everyone who reads it open vacancies.
A seat under plan is a vacancy nobody has opened yet. The button closes that gap the day it appears.
Two things the page counts for you
The SACCO has two drivers. Nobody put Driver in the plan, so the page lists the position as Not in plan, with its people and their cost, rather than hiding them from the totals. The right response is usually to add a plan line and decide what the number should be; the wrong one is to leave a cost that the plan does not explain.
Actual cost is worked in your base currency only. The SACCO’s IT consultant is on a contract paid in US dollars, so he is counted as filled but not costed, and the page says how many people are in that position. Someone with no active contract is treated the same way. A total that silently left them out would be smaller and wrong; one that converted at a rate nobody chose would be larger and wrong. The count is the honest middle.
Who sees what
Viewing the plan needs the permission to view employees. Changing it needs the permission to manage the headcount plan. The mobile app shows the plan read-only, which is usually what a director wants in a meeting.
The plan is only as good as the positions under it. If roles are still free text on employee records, start with the position structure and assign people to positions before the plan can count them. For the departments those positions sit in, a department is a name and a description explains what a department carries today.
Three questions for your next budget meeting
Which positions are under plan with nothing in recruitment?
Answer from the plan
Read Variance against In recruitment.
Why it matters
These are seats paid for in the budget and nobody is filling them.
Which roles have people but no plan line?
Answer from the plan
The Not in plan rows.
Why it matters
Cost the budget never approved, usually small and always awkward.
How many people are not costed?
Answer from the plan
The count on the page.
Why it matters
Actual cost is understated by exactly those people.
A plan that knows when
The plan holds a yearly headcount and a monthly cost per head. Two refinements matter to organizations that hire through the year or answer to a board.
A start month per seat
Seats phased in — two loan officers from July — so the budget for January does not count people the board approved for the second half.
A signed-off version
The plan as approved kept as a version, with later changes compared against it, so the board’s number and today’s number are both on record.
Tell us how your establishment is approved and we will return a written scope and cost.
Scope workforce planningWhat AWRA OpsHub does today
- A headcount plan per year with a line per position, optionally per department, holding a planned headcount and a monthly budgeted cost per head.
- Filled, In recruitment, Variance, Budget / month and Actual / month, grouped by department, with On plan, under, over and Not in plan statuses.
- Actual cost from active contracts in the base currency, with people who cannot be costed counted on the page.
- A Requisition button on a line with seats still to fill, beyond those already in recruitment, that opens a pre-filled vacancy for them.
- Separate permissions for viewing and changing the plan, and a read-only plan in the mobile app.
More we can add to your workspace
- A start month for each planned seat, phasing the budget through the year.
- A signed-off plan version kept alongside later changes for comparison.
Where we point you to a specialist
- How many people a role should have is a management decision. The plan records the number you agree and measures against it; it never proposes one.
Set up the headcount plan
The help docs walk through the plan lines, what each column counts and how requisitions are raised.
Headcount plan guideFrequently asked questions
What counts as filled in the headcount plan?
Employees in the position who are active, on probation or suspended.
What counts as in recruitment?
Unfilled openings on vacancies for the position that are draft, open or on hold.
How is actual cost calculated?
From each person’s monthly basic salary plus allowances and benefits on their active contract, in your base currency. People without an active contract in that currency are counted but not costed, and the page shows how many.
Can I raise a vacancy from the plan?
Yes. A line with seats that are neither filled nor already in recruitment has a Requisition button that opens a new vacancy filled in with the position, department and number of openings. It needs the permission to manage recruitment.
Is the headcount plan in the mobile app?
Yes, read-only.
