When your business starts to experience high growth, headcount management can become unruly. 

You might be using spreadsheets to create headcount plans and org charts and spending too much time reconciling multiple sources of truth into a holistic view of your workforce.  And despite all that work, you might still be lacking visibility into what roles have been planned, opened, and filled. 

That’s when you’ll know it’s time to look into a headcount planning and management solution, an org chart software, or an HR analytics solution. Which one is best for your needs? There are a few applications on the market that combine elements of all three. This article will help you compare Trace Headcount and ChartHop.

Trace Headcount and ChartHop are both designed to be used by multiple teams: finance, HR, talent, and hiring managers. However, they each focus on a different primary user:

• Trace Headcount is focused on finance foremost. In addition to providing org chart design, the solution helps finance collaborate with teams on headcount plans, requests, and analytics.
• ChartHop is focused on HR use cases. In addition to org design, the solution offers features such as performance management.

Trace solves headcount planning and management from finance’s perspective. As such, it will differ greatly from ChartHop when it comes to how headcount plans are communicated to finance, approved by finance, analyzed, and regularly re-forecasted. 

 This guide will help you assess the differences between ChartHop and Trace in four main areas:

• Creating bottom-up headcount plans
• Folding in off-cycle changes and requests
• Integrating and reconciling multiple data sources into a master source of truth
• Sharing org charts and headcount insights

Creating plans: How does headcount planning work in ChartHop? 

Typically, budget owners and hiring managers receive headcount targets–or top-down budgets–from finance during annual planning. That’s when they look at their teams, think about what new hires they need and reorganization they want to do, and come up with their proposed headcount plan. This “bottom-up plan” needs to fit within the overall guidance provided by finance. It can start in an org chart, but at some point needs to be submitted to finance. Finance needs to approve the bottom-up plan.

This planning process is crucial for prioritizing hiring needs for the most important areas, forecasting fully loaded expenses and monthly P&L impact, triggering and timing the recruiting process, and making sure headcount ratios are in order.

Questions to ask 

• Does ChartHop allow hiring managers to see the budget impact of their headcount decisions?
• Does ChartHop help hiring managers understand the fully loaded costs of payroll and other related expenses?
• Does ChartHop empower hiring managers to see the impact of making tradeoffs? For example, are they able to see the impact of hiring one senior director in place of two junior associates? 
• With ChartHop, how do headcount plans get transmitted to finance and approved? 

How creating headcount plans works in Trace

Trace Headcount allows finance to import or input budgets so that you can set guidelines for headcount, expressed either in heads or dollars. As hiring managers build their hiring plans, they can be aware of the fully loaded costs of their decisions, including payroll and related expense management and assumptions for taxes, benefits, bonuses, and commissions. Empowered with this information, it’s easier for hiring managers to see the impact of their decisions–for example what happens if we move the start date of one hire, or replace a senior role with two junior ones. Hiring managers submit their plans directly to finance with the click of a submit button. 

Folding in off-cycle requests: How do headcount requests and changes work in ChartHop? 

The reality is that headcount is a moving target: it changes. Hiring managers will need to move start dates, make ad hoc hire requests, adjust to new growth or innovation goals, promote people, and back-fill roles. These off-cycle changes can make it difficult for everyone to get visibility into how hiring is tracking against plans. They’re also an administrative nightmare, often handled in unstructured channels like Slack and email, with finance being left to be the keeper of the truth. Hiring managers need to be mindful of the impact of their changes on their overall headcount targets. They also need finance and other approvers to be quick in communicating back to them whether their requests are approved or rejected. 

Questions to ask 

• After hiring plans are approved in bulk, what happens with ad-hoc requests? 
• How does ChartHop make sure the right information is collected for each headcount request or change?
• How does ChartHop communicate headcount requests or changes to finance and other reviewers?
• Does ChartHop automate the approval workflows for headcount requests?  
• Does ChartHop automatically connect headcount requests with targets that were already approved by finance?
• Does ChartHop provide hiring managers with self-service answers to the status of their headcount requests?

How headcount requests work in Trace

Trace has structured workflows for requests and approvals, vs. chat-based approval in ChartHop. Hiring managers make their headcount requests directly in Trace, using an input form. The input form includes fields to ensure that the right information is collected with each request. It can be tailored to include custom fields, and to make fields required or optional. All headcount requests are listed in the hiring manager’s Trace dashboard, and are automatically put into a review workflow that loops in finance and other stakeholders. At any time, hiring managers, budget owners, and finance can see how new requests impact the budget targets. They can also see the status of their workflows in progress. 

Integration and reconciliation: How does ChartHop match planned roles to hired roles?

It’s finance’s job to know how many seats are committed: including those that are planned, opened, and active. Typically, this means finance has to do the work of reconciling three sources of truth: a spreadsheet or planning system for planned roles; an Applicant Tracking System for open roles; and the HRIS for active employees. A headcount management solution should relieve finance of that reconciliation work by automatically consolidating multiple sources of truth into one. (For more on how a headcount management solution helps unify systems and processes, see “How Progressive Teams Manage Headcount.”)

Questions to ask 

• Does ChartHop show your top-down headcount targets?
• Does ChartHop give you a baseline of your historical headcount costs?
• Does it match approved position requests with opened  job requisitions in your ATS? Does it automatically communicate approval status to recruiting? 
• Does ChartHop reconcile opened and hired roles with the original planned role?

How headcount reconciliation and integration works in Trace

Trace allows you to import or input your top-down headcount targets, integrates with your ERP to pull back historical cost data, and maps ERP and HR datasets. Once a headcount plan is in place, or an ad hoc request is approved, Trace syncs with your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and matches approved positions with job requisitions. When the talent team fills a requisition, the new employee is sent an offer, and they are onboarded to the HRIS system. All employee records sync back to the headcount management system, completing the lifecycle from a planned to a filled position.

Sharing insights: Does ChartHop give you a single source of headcount analytics?

Finance, HR, and Talent all need to deliver meaningful insights on headcount and its impact. Check if ChartHop can provide you with a single source of headcount truth, so that you can answer questions like:

• How do our headcount plans compare to our finance budget targets?
• How accurate are our headcount plans compared to what we actually spent?
• Are we falling behind on our recruiting targets? Where are the gaps?
• Are we appropriately staffed to deliver on our hiring plans?
• Do my hiring managers have visibility into their teams, targets, and plans?
• What’s truly committed vs. expendable?

How headcount analytics work in Trace

‍Trace headcount analytics allow you to compare budget with actual headcount, across any dimension—such as manager, scenario, or location–and see how accurate your plans were. Forecasts are fully loaded with payroll, benefits, and more. Finance and recruiting can see how hiring targets are pacing to plan, what requests are coming down the pike, and which positions to prioritize for recruiting. Hiring managers have access to their budget targets and hiring plans, and can view their teams in three ways–as an org chart, list, or timeline. All views include active, planned and open roles. Trace continuously reconciles planned with executed headcount so that you can reforecast at any time and gain an instant understanding of your true total committed headcount. 

Implementation: Does ChartHop include white-glove implementation and expert support?

Make sure to ask how much support you’ll receive with ChartHop’s packages for onboarding and beyond. Trace implementation services are hands-on and included for every customer. Make sure to ask how much support you’ll receive with ChartHop’s packages. Trace Headcount offers all features to all employees, and pricing is based on total company headcount, so that everyone is encouraged to use the solution–which in turn makes it more valuable for all. 

Find out if Trace Headcount is right for you. 

We can help you understand the differences between Trace Headcount and ChartHop.  Contact sales to schedule a meeting today. 

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