Workforce Planning

👥 Workforce Planning – Wages & Payroll Taxes

PlanGuru offers flexible ways to budget and forecast payroll, allowing users to model everything from high-level wage growth to detailed, employee-by-employee payroll and tax calculations.

📸 [Insert Screenshot: Payroll setup in PlanGuru with employee assumptions]

1️⃣ Overview

You can approach payroll forecasting in several ways:

High-Level Approach: Apply a Growth Rate projection method to forecast wage increases (e.g., 3–5% annual growth).
Driver-Based Approach: Create custom Assumptions & KPIs logic, such as Headcount × Average Salary or Hours × Rate.
Detailed Employee-Level Approach: Model payroll for individual employees, including automatic payroll tax calculations that factor in wage limits.

This tutorial covers the detailed employee-level method.

2️⃣ Define Payroll Taxes in Company Settings

Before building payroll logic, define your payroll taxes at the company level.

From the home screen, click the ⚙️ Settings icon.
Select Edit Company → Edit Payroll Taxes.
Click Add Tax.
Enter:
- Tax Name (e.g., FICA, Medicare, FUTA).
- Jurisdiction (Federal or State).
- Rate (e.g., 6.2% for FICA).
- Wage Limit (e.g., $160,200).
Click Save to add it to the tax table.

📸 [Insert Screenshot: Payroll Tax setup table]

Repeat for all applicable federal and state taxes.

💡 You can create blended rates (e.g., “Federal Taxes”) or add individual state rates depending on complexity.

3️⃣ Build Employee Payroll Logic in Assumptions

From your model, click Assumptions & KPIs → Add New Tab.
- Example: Name the tab Employee Payroll.
Add your first line:
- Description: Employee 1 – Salary
- Projection Method: Manual Entry → Allocate Annual Amounts
- Enter the annual salary and let PlanGuru spread it evenly by month.

📸 [Insert Screenshot: Employee salary entry grid]

4️⃣ Apply Payroll Tax Calculations

Add another line beneath the salary line → name it Employee 1 – FICA Tax.
Change the Line Type to Payroll.
Under Projection Method, select Payroll Tax.
Choose:
- Tax Type: Federal or State
- Specific Tax: FICA, Medicare, etc.
- Base Line: The salary line you created earlier.

PlanGuru automatically applies the correct percentage to salary amounts and stops when the wage limit is reached.

📸 [Insert Screenshot: Payroll Tax projection window with FICA selected]

Repeat these steps for all applicable taxes (Medicare, State Unemployment, etc.).

5️⃣ Combine & Total

If multiple taxes (e.g., FICA + Medicare) feed into a single account:

Add a formula line that sums those amounts.
This total can then be linked to the Wage & Tax expense accounts on the Income Statement.

📸 [Insert Screenshot: Payroll totals formula example]

6️⃣ Duplicate Logic for Additional Employees

Once one employee’s logic is complete, you can copy and replicate it:

Option 1 – Copy & Paste Logic

Highlight all employee lines.
Right-click → Copy Logic.
Paste below and rename each line.

Option 2 – Smart Grouping (Recommended)

Ensure all line descriptions share a common prefix (e.g., “Employee 1 – ...”).
Highlight all related lines.
Right-click → Add Group.
Choose how many duplicates you’d like (e.g., 10 employees).
Rename each employee.

Smart Groups automatically create total lines for wages and taxes, which can then be mapped directly to Income Statement accounts.

📸 [Insert Screenshot: Smart Group setup for employee payroll]

7️⃣ Linking to the Income Statement

Link Salary totals to the Wages expense line.
Link Tax totals to Payroll Tax expense lines.
Ensure totals reflect all employee groups for accurate consolidated reporting.

📸 [Insert Screenshot: Linking assumption lines to Income Statement accounts]