Hiring Budget Planner
Plans the total cost of hiring by role including recruiting fees, onboarding, ramp-up productivity loss, and first-year compensation. Builds a quarterly hiring plan with cash flow impact so finance can budget accurately.
HR - Hiring Budget Planner.xlsx
Excel (.xlsx) — No macros — Works in Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice
What This Spreadsheet Solves
- Hiring requests lack cost estimates beyond salary
- Recruiting fees, onboarding, and ramp-up costs are invisible
- No quarterly view of hiring-related cash outflows
- Cannot compare cost of hiring vs. contracting
- Finance is surprised by the true cost of approved headcount
Who This Is For
- HR directors planning annual hiring budgets
- Talent acquisition leads forecasting recruiting spend
- Finance partners approving headcount requests
- Hiring managers building business cases for new roles
Inputs
- textRole Title
- $Annual Salary
- %Recruiting Fee Percentage
- $Onboarding Cost
- #Ramp-Up Period (Months)
- dateTarget Start Date
Outputs
- Total first-year cost per hire
- Recruiting fee per role
- Productivity loss during ramp-up
- Quarterly cash flow impact
- Total hiring budget across all roles
- Cost comparison: hire vs. contract
How Calculations Work
First-year cost per hire sums salary (prorated from start date), benefits, recruiting fee (salary times fee percentage), onboarding cost, and estimated productivity loss during ramp-up. Productivity loss is calculated as ramp-up months times monthly salary times a ramp efficiency factor. The quarterly plan distributes costs by start date across Q1-Q4.
Example Use Case
Scenario: A company plans to hire a senior developer ($120,000 salary, 20% recruiting fee, $3,000 onboarding, 3-month ramp, April start) and a marketing coordinator ($55,000, 15% fee, $1,500 onboarding, 2-month ramp, June start).
Result: Developer first-year cost: $165,250 (includes $24,000 recruiting fee, $15,000 ramp loss). Coordinator: $69,354. Q2 cash impact: $58,000. Total hiring budget: $234,604.
What You Get — 5 Sheets
Technical Details
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ramp-up productivity loss?
New hires are not fully productive immediately. The model estimates lost output as a percentage of salary during the ramp period. The default ramp efficiency factor is 50% (half productivity).
How do I estimate onboarding cost?
Include training materials, equipment, IT setup, mentor time, and any third-party onboarding services.
Can I plan for backfills vs. new roles?
Yes. Add a column on INPUT to tag the hire type. The OUTPUT sheet can filter by new role vs. backfill.
What if I use an internal recruiter instead of an agency?
Set the recruiting fee to 0 and add the recruiter's allocated cost to the onboarding cost field, or track internal recruiting cost separately.
How does the hire-vs-contract comparison work?
The LOGIC sheet compares the first-year hire cost against an equivalent contractor rate (hourly rate times hours). Enter the contractor rate in CONFIG.
Download Hiring Budget Planner
Ready to use immediately. Enter your data in the INPUT sheet, see results in OUTPUT.