10 Best Resource Booking Software To Enhance Project Efficiency In 2024
10 Best Resource Booking Software Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 25 tools reviewed.
There are so many different resource booking tools that making a shortlist of the best can be tricky. You want to prevent double bookings, eliminate scheduling conflicts, and ensure that resources are used effectively - and need the right tool to do it. I've got you covered! In this post I use my personal experience scheduling hundreds of projects, using many different booking platforms with large teams, and complex projects, to share my picks of the best resource booking software.
What is resource booking software?
Resource booking software is a specialized tool designed to facilitate the reservation and allocation of various resources within an organization. This software allows users to book and schedule resources such as meeting rooms, equipment, and personnel, ensuring efficient utilization and preventing conflicts.
Resource booking software is crucial for optimizing the allocation of resources throughout the project lifecycle. Project managers can use this software to schedule and reserve essential resources, such as meeting spaces for team collaboration, equipment for project tasks, or even personnel for specific project phases.
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ClickUp
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.7 -
Wrike
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.2 -
Hub Planner
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.2
Overviews Of The 10 Best Resource Booking Software
You can use the simple overviews of each tool below to understand how each one stands out from the other.
Resource Guru offers resource management for teams seeking a system that’s simple yet fast and powerful.
Why I picked Resource Guru: This platform offers drag-and-drop scheduling and waiting lists for in-demand resources. On top of that, booking your resources is great because you can use filters that they have built into the tool. These let you find resources based on their skills, department, location, or whatever custom field you have configured.
Daily schedule emails and personal dashboards ensure that everyone is in the loop at all times. And the leave management features help you track vacations, sick days, parental leave, and other absences.
Resource Guru Standout Features and Integrations
Features include planning, resource allocation optimization, content & document controls, project management, and remote collaboration.
Integrations include Basecamp, Google Calendar, Google Sheets, Gmail, Jira, Maintenance Care, Outlook, Slack, Teamwork, and Wrike.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Clear, big-picture view
- Quality reporting
- Useful email updates
Cons:
- No dark theme
- Limited search features
Scoro is a comprehensive work management software designed to consolidate various business processes, from project management to financial oversight and resource management.
Why I picked Scoro: Its intuitive resource booking system allows users to schedule and allocate resources effectively. Scoro’s utilization reports help to forecast workloads and identify potential resource shortages in advance, enabling proactive decision-making.
Scoro's resource booking features include a dynamic calendar view that allows users to see the availability of resources at a glance. The system’s drag-and-drop interface simplifies the scheduling process, making it easy to adjust bookings as needed. Furthermore, Scoro’s resource management capabilities integrate with project timelines and budgets, providing a comprehensive overview of project progress and resource allocation.
Scoro Standout Features and Integrations
Features include project management, time tracking, invoicing, financial management, quoting and budgeting, sales and CRM, task management, collaboration tools, customizable dashboards, and detailed reporting.
Integrations include Google Calendar, Microsoft Exchange, Xero, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, Exact Online, Expensify, Stripe, Jira, HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Drive, Dropbox, Okta, Azure AD, and Zapier.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Real-time tracking of projects and team progress
- Comprehensive features for business management
- Allows for customizable fields and workflows
Cons:
- The mobile app lacks some functionalities compared to the web version
- Some users find the platform complex when customizing it
Wrike is an all-in-one platform for managing projects, organizing work, enhancing collaboration and accelerating execution across your entire organization.
Why I picked Wrike: Wrike streamlines resource management to maximize productivity. It allows you to see your team’s workload and quickly reallocate tasks to prevent burnout. It empowers teams to collaborate, manage projects, drive strategic initiatives, and achieve goals.
You can focus priorities and adapt workflows, using Wrike as your central hub. It’s easy to outline targets for your team, and increase visibility across teams and departments with fully-customizable dashboards.
Wrike Standout Features and Integrations
Features include workspaces, anticipated resource demand, custom fields, dynamic request forms, templates, time tracking, blueprints, and AI work integration.
Integrations include Dropbox, GitHub, Google Drive, Google Sheets, Jira, Microsoft Sharepoint, Miro, Salesforce , Slack, and Zoom.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Powerful scheduling
- Helpful dashboards
- Flexible project management
Cons:
- Limited recurring task functionality
- RM features only available on Business Plan and above
Kantata is a professional services cloud software that caters to businesses in a wide range of industries, helping them manage projects and other operational functions seamlessly.
Why I picked Kantata: The platform offers a suite of tools for resource forecasting, capacity planning, and scheduling, which supports real-time decision-making for staffing and project delivery. With everything in a centralized space, you can easily assign resources to projects and monitor performance to help you understand overall progress.
Kantata also includes a skills inventory to align project demands with available talent and identify skill gaps. This feature helps ensure you have the right personnel for any given task. It can also help you identify opportunities for employee development.
Kantata Standout Features and Integrations
Features include resource forecasting, scheduling, skills inventory, timekeeping, utilization tracking, expense tracking, functionalities for managing internal and external talent networks, and more.
Integrations include Salesforce, Slack, Sage, NetSuite, QuickBooks, HubSpot, BambooHR, Jira, Expensify, and more.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Skills inventory to align talent with projects
- Resource forecasting and planning
- Detailed reporting capabilities
Cons:
- Can be challenging to see who is responsible for a task if multiple people are assigned to it
- Potential learning curve for new users
Hub Planner is a versatile, scalable resource management solution designed to optimize capacity planning and team scheduling.
Why I picked Hub Planner: Hub Planner allows you to view the availability and utilization of resources, schedule team members on various projects, and create accurate timesheets.
You can measure the actual time worked against the forecasted time, to get detailed insights into your teams’ performance. Using your dashboard, you can drill down to track individual resources and dig deep into project performance.
Hub Planner Standout Features and Integrations
Features include resource scheduling, project planning, timesheets, approvals, reporting, analytics, and a mobile interface.
Integrations are available through the Hub Planner API or via Zapier.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Ability to add notes to ongoing work
- Bird’s eye view of resource utilization
- Excellent capacity planning
Cons:
- Reports may be hard to customize
- No notifications for timesheet approvals
Float is a resource capacity and work scheduling tool that helps you make the most effective use of the resources at your disposal.
Why I picked Float: Using Float, you can centralize all your people and projects into one live timeline, then assign work and resources according to the available capacity.
Timesheets are prefilled with scheduled tasks so team members can log their hours easily, while managers can compare estimated versus actual time. You can sync events with your preferred calendar, import tasks from your project management system, and send hours to your billing software.
Float Standout Features and Integrations
Features include Gantt views, capacity planning, due dates, forecasting, corrections, templates, and reporting.
Integrations include Asana, Google Calendar, Jira, Outlook Calendar, Slack, Teamwork, Trello, WorkflowMax, and Zapier.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Single, comprehensive dashboard
- Automatic reporting
- Powerful team manager
Cons:
- Limited customization options
- No self-hosted solution
Birdview PSA is a resource management, planning, and scheduling software with resource management features that will help you with your capacity planning.
Why I picked BirdviewPSA: This tool has everything you need to support your projects through its resource planning center. It allows you to access 3 main views. The first one is planning. This view gives you the option to book resources in advance and ensure your capacity meets the demands. Birdview PSA displays your team's skills and other useful information that will help you make informed decisions.
Then, you have the workflow view. This view shows current projects and resource allocations in real time. The system will automatically color-code for you those resources that are over or under-allocated and allow you to address conflicts with a simple drag-and-drop.
The last view is simulation. In this view you can assess the viability of working on a new project, run scenarios to inform your resource hiring, and create project drafts for a quick start. The simulator also allows you to alter resource allocation percentages and modify team members in case someone becomes over-allocated after you run the sim.
Birdview PSA Standout Features & Integrations
Features include 250+ ready-to-use dashboards and reports for business intelligence, including templates for executive summaries, project scorecards, demand projections, and expected vs actual budgets. It also has many features outside of resource management and can help you with project financials through time tracking and accounting integrations that will help you invoice clients.
Integrations include 2000+ pre-built connectors, including MS Teams, Jira, Adobe, Hubspot, Salesforce, Slack, Zoom, Olark, TimeCamp, Xero, and Invision. Additionally, you can connect to 5000+ apps using Zapier and Workato. Both of these need you to have a paid plan with them.
Ganttic is a resource planning tool that creates a visual workflow of all your resources, tasks, and projects.
Why I picked Ganttic: Using Ganttic, you can quickly drag and drop new work into your schedule, then adjust quickly when conflicts arise. You can get a new perspective on your data and develop a clear action plan for your team.
The flexible design makes it easy to rotate your Gantt chart and see plans from the perspective of tasks or resources. You can also use the high-level overview or separate points of view, to understand how your plans work together.
Ganttic Standout Features and Integrations
Features include Gantt chart views, resource management, customizable project templates, drag-and-drop scheduling, collaboration tools, time tracking, multiple project views, reporting, analytics, an API, and a mobile app.
Integrations include Google Calendar, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Outlook, and OneLogin. Other integrations are available via Zapier.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Makes it easy to see bottlenecks
- Numerous color options
- Great for planning multiple projects
Cons:
- Tutorials could be improved
- Outdated UI
Elapseit is a workforce management platform that helps you with resource planning, time tracking and project management.
Why I picked Elapseit: Elapseit is a holistic tool that allows you to review projects, allocate people depending on their role, and approve vacations based on the timeline of your projects. Every task can be managed via approval workflows and email notifications.
You can facilitate document sharing, send invoices, keep smart timesheets, and work in multiple languages. Task management options such as Kanban boards and Gantt charts give a clear overview of activity and progress.
Elapseit Standout Features and Integrations
Features include timesheets, planning, forecasting, collaboration, task management,
resourcing dashboards, leave management, project pulse, team capacity management, and birds eye views.
Integrations include a native integration with Xero. Other integrations with thousands of additional apps are available via Zapier.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Multiple access levels
- Excellent visual planner
- Informative dashboards
Cons:
- No mobile app
- Limited customization options for reporting
Dayshape is an AI-powered planning and project scheduling platform that helps you maintain an optimal workforce and ensure it supports your business objectives.
Why I picked Dayshape: The tool has three levels of AI resource scheduling automation. You can be the one in control by selecting resources based on their skill, location, or availability, or you can let AI choose the best resources and ask you for confirmation.
The AI-powered software gives you all the information you need to achieve the most efficient capacity planning. You can set performance parameters, quickly identify the best people for each project, and activate to bring poor-performing engagements to your attention.
Dayshape Standout Features and Integrations
Features include resource management, resource scheduling, engagement financials, governance & quality controls, reporting, milestones, management information, and people first planning.
Integrations include Salesforce, SAP Cloud Platform, and Workday. The company also offers an integration service so the software can work with your systems and preferred method of data extraction.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Sync with your resource/skills database
- Powerful time tracking
- AI-powered resource management
Cons:
- Significant learning curve
- Few native integrations
The 10 Best Resource Booking Software Comparison Chart
Here is a table where you can compare the tools we just covered in the overviews.
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Resource Guru | From $4.16/user/month (billed annually) | Website |
| Scoro | From $26/user/month (min 5 seats) | Website |
| Wrike | From $9.80/user/month (min of 2 seats) | Website |
| Kantata | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Hub Planner | From $7/user/month (billed annually) | Website |
| Float | No price details | Website |
| Birdview | From $27/user/month (billed annually) | Website |
| Ganttic | From $25 month/20 resources/unlimited users | Website |
| elapseit | From $14/user/month | Website |
| Dayshape | Pricing upon request | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Options
Here are a few more options that didn’t make the best resource booking software list.
How I Picked the Best Resource Booking Software
To build this top 10 list, I evaluated and compared a wide range of resource booking tools with positive user ratings. After determining my long list of top choices, I further honed my list by weighing factors that make resource management software good for booking resources. Finally, I drew on my years of digital project management experience to define the criteria used for the evaluation.
Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best software for this article:
Resource display
I’m looking for resource booking software that’s easy to use and understand. A good tool will have an intuitive user interface, logical navigation, and color indicators to make data easy to understand.
Time tracking
I look for tools that offer you the full range of features needed for resource booking. Therefore, I see if the tools have integrated time tracking. This makes the information automatically reflected in reports and utilization statistics. Many resources such as staff members, equipment, and meeting rooms may need to be scheduled. Time tracking ensures that such resources are used optimally.
Time-off management
Where employees or freelancers are involved in a project, it’s important to track the time they spend on the job, but also on vacation or absent. Time-off management helps you schedule resources accordingly.
Software Integrations
The best resource booking software will integrate with the most popular software systems teams use every day. This maximizes efficiency and keeps everyone well organized.
Pricing
Any SaaS software tool should offer a strong return on investment. The system should be affordable for organizations of all sizes on a per-user basis.
Resource Booking Software FAQs
Here are a few popular questions other people ask about this topic.
What is resource booking?
Resource booking refers to reserving or scheduling a particular resource, such as a meeting room, equipment, or personnel, for a specific time or duration. It is commonly used in project management organizations and businesses to ensure resources are efficiently allocated across projects.
What are the key features of resource booking software?
Good resource scheduling software includes a wide range of features, such as:
- Resource scheduling: assigning and allocating resources, such as personnel, equipment, and facilities, to specific tasks or projects over a defined period of time.
- Reporting: providing detailed information and analytics that allow managers to assess the effectiveness of their resource planning.
- Project forecasting: predicting the resources needed for a specific project and assessing their likely availability.
- Capacity management: ensuring resources are allocated to projects in a fair and efficient way, so they are used to optimal advantage.
- Timesheets: Tracking the time team members spend working on projects, so their time can be billed or managed accordingly.
How does the software handle conflicts or double-bookings?
Resource booking software typically alerts users of conflicts and avoids project conflicts by following customizable rules. For tools where they have implemented colored indicators, you will see a red or amber shading on resources that have a scheduling conflict. Other times, the software will immediately display a warning message after encountering a possible double booking or scheduling conflict.
What’s Next?
That brings us to the conclusion of my deep dive into the world of the best resource booking software. But we have much more to offer you, you may like to check out our step-by-step guide to resource allocation or our ultimate guide to project resource management plans. With the help of the best resource booking software, you can improve efficiency, save money, and get projects completed on time—and on budget.
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