An overview of these resource management tools, along with screenshots, feature information and pricing, is presented below.
The main features of resource planning in 2024
What does resource planning mean?
An important step in project management is resource planning. This is the process and methods used to allocate an organization’s resources to projects or tasks according to resource availability. It involves listing tasks, estimating their duration, identifying their constraints, setting deadlines, identifying the demand for resources, forecasting their future availability, identifying potential resources and using the software to effectively match resources to tasks or jobs.
What are the features of resource planning?
In general, resource planning involves a set of resource scheduling software that offers allocate, plan and aggregate resources. While most people think of a Gantt chart, resource managers and project managers use calendars, schedules and bar charts with aggregated data to plan resources.
Resource planning software also helps identify resource, organize and manage your projects and your agency’s resources, be they people, rooms or phone lines. They can be used to forecast resource requirements and develop resource plans. They can also include tools for estimating and planning, scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation and document storage, depending on the sophistication of the resource management software.
Resource project management tools, also known as resource organization software, resource management software, resource planning tools or project resource software, all have the same objective: the efficient planning of resources so that they can be used optimally.
Resource scheduling tool often has a lot of overlap with other business functions, which is a problem. Software for resource management, time tracking, project communication, expenses, warehousing and professional services automation (PSA) can all be grouped together. That’s fine, but things can get complicated if you have to integrate or replace multiples tools with one consolidated.
What are the benefits of resource planning ?
Some key benefits of resource planning software offers :
- Understand your teams’ available capacity and current utilizationm
- Deploy your available resources more efficiently and effectively.
- Improve communication by allocating tasks to your teams through calendar synchronization
Resource planning systems that may have worked for a small agency often struggle to adapt as studios and agencies grow. While Excel and Google Docs are free resource planning tools, using them in a team quickly runs into problems. Resource planning software can help you work faster, smarter and assign people to projects, enabling you to plan projects more effectively; investing in the right resource organization software ensures quickly pay off.
What do resources mean and how to choose resource?
An organization’s resources can include everything that contributes to the finished product, including people (human resources and skills), financial resources, inventory, equipment and supplies, premises (offices and meeting rooms), IT resources, production and natural resources, etc.
The best resource scheduling software is quickly compared and evaluated.
We’ll also explain what resource planning software is and how it can help you better manage, allocate and plan your team and resources. We’ll also provide a summary of their features so you could compare resource tools and find the right resource tools with one consolidated resource for your team and project.
Comparison of many different resource management software by criteria
We have evaluated each resource organization software according to the following criteria so that they can appear on this list of resource management software:
- How well designed is the user interface (UI)? Does it offer clear displays and simple navigation?
- Ease of use: Is it simple to use? Are training and tutorials available? Does the company offer good technical support for users?
- Features and functionalities:What are the main features and functionalities of resource management software, and how powerful is it? In other words, I looked for:
- Automation: one of the main reasons to use resource organization software are the automatic scheduling functions. At the very least, this means that when they’re moved, your tasks will automatically adjust according to the dependencies you’ve defined. Customized workflows with automation can also be included to help streamline repetitive processes.
- Real-time planning: the best resource tools let you track progress, see resource utilization and make adjustments in real time.
- Alerts: a good resource planner lets you customize the type of notifications and alerts each user receives (by e-mail, desktop, etc.), ensuring that alerts on resource use and workload are passed on to the right people.
- Integrations: Is it easy to interact with other tools? Are functions pre-integrated?
- Price: How appropriate is the price for its features, capabilities and use case? Are prices transparent, clear and flexible?
Trust our resource management overview of the 10 best resource management software reviews in 2024
The resource management tools mentioned above are discussed in this review, followed by a list of other resource software solutions available to check out.
1. Teambook
This resource scheduling tool lets you juggle planning, scheduling and time tracking. Teambook helps you manage your projects more effectively.
Teambook features
- Plan and allocate your human resources visually: Get an overview of your consultants’ workloads and quickly identify available talent.
- Management and time tracking spent on projects, increase employee utilization and boost your organization’s profitability.
- Analyze your medium-term capabilities: Become a planning superhero by abandoning forecasting.
- Benefit from a Swiss system, a guarantee of quality, precision and security, as your data is not stored abroad.
- Save money compared to competitors because pricing is based on the number of projects rather than users
- Facilitate onboarding, as the software functionality is going simple, intuitive and fast.
- Work in most languages (French, German, Italian, Spanish and, of course, English) with efficient, multilingual customer service.
Limits
- Resource management tool focused solely on human resources.
- Limited number of integration options (but Zappier can handle every conceivable integration!)
Price
- Free for up to 10 planned projects
- From $45 to $90 per month for annual packages
Integrations
- Slack
- Zapier
- Calendars: Google, Outlook, IOS
- Hubspot
- Quickbooks
- …
2. Runn
Runn is a real-time resource, demand and capacity planning tool, with integrated time tracking and powerful forecasting capabilities. Very close to Teambook, it’s great resource management software needs to provide an overview of all projects and people to instantly spot overbooking and identify resourcing patterns.
Runn features
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- Easy to create resource project phases and assignments.
- You can drag and drop assets, and switch between monthly, quarterly and half-yearly views for short- and long-term planning.
- Planning provisional projects also lets you see how your resource plans may change if the work is confirmed.
- Easy identification of overbooked/unavailable employees
- Expected budget overruns
Limits
- No offline or mobile time tracking.
- Limited number of integrations
- Available in English only
Price
- Free trial + free version available
- From $10 /person managed/month
Integrations
- Harvest
- WorkflowMax
- Clockify
With Runn’s API, you can create your own integration to send data through your favorite tools.
3. Resource Guru
Resource Guru is a dedicated resource management software that aims to make user-friendly resource with quick planning tools. This project management software is also a friend close to Teambook in functionality.
Resource Guru offers features
- Resource management and collaboration between teams are integrated to make resource reservation simpler, with conflict management, vacation management and a waiting list to avoid overbooking and resource shortages.
- Helps project managers to book simultaneously, without stepping on each other’s toes.
- Availability bar for capacity planning.
- Attractive, flexible user interface.
- Daily e-mails summarizing resources.
Limits
- Unable to sort resources by experience level.
- No copying and pasting of resource tasks
- Available in English only
Price
- Free 30-day trial
- From $3/user/month
Integrations
- Outlook, Calendly and Google calendar.
- Thousands of other applications are available via Zapier.
4. Float
Float is another American solution, similar to Teambook, which lets you manage your employees’ daily tasks, workloads and projects. All your resources, their capacities and costs are displayed in a single interface.
Float features
- Real-time task management and updating – Create and assign tasks in seconds. You can also use the integrated shortcuts and editing tools to make quick changes.
- Create project schedules and assign resources – Include phases and milestones in your projects. Plus, combine tasks with group projects, modify schedules and assign resources to specific team members.
- Automated team management platform – By scheduling vacations, creating customized working hours and adding public holidays, make sure your team is kept on track. It can also be synchronized with your existing calendar tools. This feature can be used to replace all your online appointments.
- Real-time reporting – These reports help you manage resource utilization, monitor project budgets and forecast team capacity. Enable time tracking in pre-filled timesheets and compare your team’s actual working hours.
Limits
- Float doesn’t allow you to go into detail about the specific tasks assigned to each resource.
- Available in English only
Price
- Resource planning only ($6 per month) : Resource planning, capacity reports, unlimited projects.
- Resource planning + time tracking ($10 per month) : includes resource planning, time tracking, comparison of your estimates with actuals, time recording with their mobile app.
Integrations
- Jira
- Teamwork
- Asana
- Trello
- WorkflowMax
- Quickbooks
- Slack
- Calendars and Outlook
5. ClickUp
ClickUp is a platform that lets you organize all your work in one place. To help you track existing resources and allocate more, it simplifies asset and project management in a single dashboard.
What’s more, it helps you plan resources, allocate them, manage performance and even manage a project portfolio. In real time, the team works together to manage the project and communicate on documents.
ClickUp features
- Communication: Add comments and notes or tag team members on any task or board. What’s more, you can assign tasks, chat in real time, take screenshots, save your screen and share attachments with your team members.
- Task management tools : manage teams, organize tasks, set reminders and monitor changes.
- Time off management – Create schedules, a capacity management calendar and track the time needed for a particular task.
- Create customized views – View data and work items from a variety of angles to better understand and track them. Choose from a workflow chart, task list, spreadsheet, calendar, calendar view, mind map, table view, dashboard box view or Gantt view.
- Customizable interface – Resource software is customizable, allowing you to adjust your workspace, work status, colors, themes and more.
Limits
- The platform can seem complex and unintuitive
- Platform can be slow and is only available in English.
Price
- Free (free plan forever, no credit card required) : 100 MB storage, unlimited tasks, unlimited members.
- Unlimited ($5 per member per month) : includes free option, plus: unlimited storage, unlimited lists, tables, calendar views, unlimited dashboards, custom fields, etc.
What’s more, they offer a total satisfaction guarantee. Within 30 days of purchase, you can request a refund.
Integrations
- HubSpot,
- Vimeo, MailChimp,
- Google Drive,
- Gmail, Google Sheets, etc.
6. Monday.com
Monday.com is cloud-based resource management solution that lets you manage your team’s time and projects from anywhere. It lets you manage all your company’s contacts, projects and workflow in one place, allowing you to focus on what’s important.
Adapting the interface to your goals and preferences is one of the platform’s key selling points. As soon as you register on the platform, you’ll be invited to choose a model.
Monday.com features
- Quick setup – Use hundreds of customizable templates to get started quickly or create your own interface.
- Visualize team work – Use a map, calendar, project timeline and resource tracking, Gantt view, Kanban view, etc. to track workload.
- Streamline teamwork – Get an overview of your team’s work capabilities and make appropriate changes to project schedules or ownership, wherever you are. A single dashboard organizes all your jobs, projects and teams.
Limits
- Gantt charts blocked on the intermediate level plan.
- Very complex for small teams.
- Relatively complex price heading.
Price
Monday.com offers five distinct pricing options:
- Individual (free) – Up to two seats, over 200 models and more than 20 column types.
- Basic ($8 per month) – Includes an individual subscription and unlimited viewers, articles and 5 GB files.
- Medium ($10/month) – Includes basic functions plus additional features include resource tracking, timeline and Gantt views, calendar view, guest access, automation with 250 actions per month, etc.
- Pro ($16 monthly) – Includes standard subscription with additional features such as private tables, graphical view, time tracking, automation with 25,000 actions per month, etc.
- Enterprise (on quotation) – Includes additional benefits such as advanced reporting and analysis, personalized welcome, multiple authorization levels, etc.
Integrations
Monday.com offers over 40 integrations with applications such as Dropbox, GitHub, Salesforce, Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Drive, Slack, Excel, Jira, Trello and more.
7. Forecast
A resource scheduling and management software called Forecasting.app helps you manage and track projects, type of resource, timesheets and invoicing. It lets you view and track only time, tasks and projects.
Forecast.app lets you quickly get an overview of your team’s workload and the capacity of selecting the right resources. This happens in real time.
The dashboard is designed so that you always know which team member is working on which project. What’s more, it lets you assign specific working hours and monitor the time spent by each member completing specific tasks.
Forecast features
- Searchable database – The searchable database helps you identify which team members have the required skills and are most likely to be available for any unassigned tasks.
- Allocate resources appropriately: supervise projects and teams and ensure that everyone receives work according to their abilities. Streamline your daily tasks and plan your deadlines.
- Real-time performance analysis – Get a complete operational and financial view of your portfolio and create a growth strategy for the company. What’s more, analyze individual results in real time.
Limits
- project visualization can become a little too complex for larger organizations and larger teams.
- Available in English only.
Price
Three payment options are available for Forecasting.app :
- Lite – offers AI-powered work automation, management of resources, project management platform, team collaboration, time management and simple integrations at €27 per seat/month.
- Pro (€46 per seat/month) – Includes everything included in Lite plus reports on financial portfolio, fee management, project budgets, expense management and pro integrations.
- Plus (customized plan) – Everything included in Pro + project baseline, time locking and approvals, audit logging, data migration and system integration, plus integrations.
Each paid plan includes a 14-day free trial period.
Integrations
Numerous integrations are possible, depending on the business sector. Discover all their integrations here.
8. Smartsheet
Resource Management platform by Smartsheet, project and resource management software, helps teams make decisions on what resource we have, team capacity, budget forecasts, team utilization and resource needs based on upcoming schedule.
Smartsheet features
- Dynamic reporting
- Smartsheet enables users to visualize complex data in a format that is easy to understand and organize, helping them to identify project trends in core resource and plan accordingly for the future.
- Users can also create project reports by filtering project data, get an overview of historical data and see forecasts of team utilization, real-time vs. planned reports, budget tracking, expense reports and projects in progress.
- Combines time tracking, resource allocation and project management
- Ability to predict resource use
- Skills database facilitates efficient resource allocation
- Intuitive for efficient resource management and time allocation
Limits
- Selecting resource configuration takes time
- Untransparent pricing
- Available in English only
Price
- Freemium version available
- From $7/user/month
Integrations
- Slack,
- Brandfolder,
- Workplace,
- Microsoft Teams
- Facebook Ads.
What’s more, it has a flexible API that you can use to create custom integrations with the tools you use, and automation through Zapier where you can connect to over 1,000 applications.
9. Hub Planner
Hub Planner is a resource management system package with a comprehensive suite of planning, time recording and reporting functions. The main feature that caught my eye was the simple, easy-to-use planner, which enables planning and visualization of projects and resources. Users can drag-and-drop to plan projects and schedule resources. The resource planning tool also offers a multi-function menu, powerful filtering and a dynamic team capacity bar. I particularly appreciate Hub Planner’s multiple display modes, which allow both overviews and granular views of projects.
Hub Planner features
- Hub Planner features a powerful reporting engine with over 70 pre-formatted templates.
- Hub Planner also features a number of online workflows for timesheets, leave management, and a resource request and approval option.
- The unassigned work function is ideal for upstream pipeline planning and forecasting, and users can create custom fields at resource or project level. Users can also customize schedule notifications and reminders.
- Powerful, precise built-in reports
- Excellent capacity planning and forecasting
- Search filter for available resources by skills and location
- Easy switching between user and group
Limits
- Need to click on the modal window to obtain more details on event/project bookings
- Editing custom fields requires manual entry or the help of Hub Planner support.
- Available in English only
Price
- Free 30-day trial
- From $7/user/month (billed annually)
Integrations
Online integrations with Basecamp, Slack, iCal, REst API and Zapier are available.
10. Kantata
Kantata is a comprehensive resource tool that links all major planning, execution, project accounting and analysis systems into a single operating environment. It includes project management, accounting, resource management, business intelligence and collaboration modules for service teams and agencies.
Kantata features
- The resource management module provides real-time utilization and margins at project and even task level.
- Kantata really does offer a complete management and resource suite that even includes accounting tools such as project costing, budget management and invoicing.
- Easy capacity management
- Distinction between flexible and firm allocation
- Good reporting functionality for resource data
- Resource allocation is fully integrated into the master plan
Limits
- Custom reports can be difficult to create without training
- Advanced functions are only available in the Premier and Enterprise editions of the application, which can quickly become costly.
Price
- Free demonstration
- Price on request
Integrations
Integrations include predefined integrations with tools such as Expensify, G Suite, Netsuite, Jira, Hubspot, Xero, Salesforce, Slack, Concur, Qualtrics, Dynamics 365 and Quickbooks. They also offer an integration platform called M-Bridge to help you create your own integrations.
11 Saviom
Saviom is a resource management software that helps you make real-time decisions based on business intelligence. It helps you plan, schedule, forecast, maximize utilization, reduce project costs and much more.
The Gantt chart helps you anticipate scheduling conflicts and mismanaged resources, while BI dashboards provide real-time insight into company operations. What’s more, you benefit from enterprise-wide visibility into how resources are allocated for projects and even non-project activities.
What’s more, Gantt’s graphic-style resource planner lets you visualize things in multiple dimensions. You can see and track how resource managers, line managers, project managers and others operate.
Saviom features
- Capacity planning enables you to forecast and measure future demand in relation to the supply of your resources. This enables you to avoid bottlenecks and detect resource conflicts immediately.
- Improve project delivery – To improve project delivery, benchmark and regularly monitor the company’s key performance indicators.
- Resource forecasting – Get information on costs, revenues, profit margins and more.
- Plan the use of resources (both strategic and billable) in advance. What’s more, you can identify the differences between actual and planned resource utilization.
Limits
- There’s a learning curve, as the resource planning tool is packed with features.
- Ideal for medium-sized and large companies
- Prices are available on request only
Price
Saviom offers three different pricing plans, each based on quotation. Plus, for all paid plans, they provide free support and a free trial. You’ll receive a call from their representative who will help you with the entire installation once you’ve signed up.
Integrations
Many integrations are available, discover on their website here.
Conclusion
One of the most difficult tasks in any OVERmeasure project management phase is the resource management processes, but with the right resource planning tools, this can become much easier.
Discover the best resource management tools mentioned above, SaaS-based and have almost the same functionality. SMEs can test these resource software features and what software are going to be the best fit for your needs before making a purchasing decision.
