10 Best Resource Planning Software Tools In 2023

monday.com is a flexible work management platform designed to help teams communicate and collaborate on any project at scale.

It provides a bird’s eye view of ongoing projects, timelines, due dates, and available resources and has a simple interface that facilitates proper resource allocation and management. It offers resource planning tools that empower teams to initiate realistic resource planning timelines as well as project ownership assignments and management within minutes.

monday.com provides users with different visualizations to represent important data. This allows individual team members to work on their task assignments according to their preferences. For example, the workload view allows project managers to quickly see who among their staff members has too much or too little on their plate. This enables them to remove or reallocate tasks and resources where necessary.

The platform also allows users to gain valuable insights into their resource capacity so they can plan their resource allocation accordingly and make the necessary adjustments to the project timeline, regardless of where they are.

In addition to the resource planning tools, monday.com also provides features like shared documents for real-time collaboration, file management, Gantt charts, multiple dashboards, automation capabilities, and more than five visualization options. The platform supports third-party integration with apps such as Google Calendar, Slack, GitHub, Dropbox, Jira, and Trello. It can also integrate with dozens more apps via Zapier.

Wrike is a cloud-based project management and resource planning software tool that helps businesses with their project management needs. It provides users with a centralized place to store, share, and collaborate on projects, tasks, and resources. This powerful platform lets users easily plan projects and track their progress in real time. With its intuitive user interface, Wrike helps teams become more productive as they can plan out their tasks more efficiently. Additionally, Wrike’s reporting features offer valuable insights into team performance and the success of different projects.

Why I Picked Wrike: Users can easily manage multiple projects without switching between applications or searching for information in different places. Wrike provides access to real-time analytics that allow teams to monitor the progress of their work by tracking key metrics such as completion rate or due dates. The software allows users to assign tasks and resources based on role or availability so that everyone on the team knows who is responsible for what task ahead of time. Wrike’s interactive calendar interface makes it easy to create, adjust and store events that can be set up as one-time or recurring activities. Its forecasting feature helps companies streamline their project management by predicting what resources will be needed and how they can best be allocated. It allows businesses to analyze resource gaps or conflicts caused by changes in project timelines or team size and identify potential opportunities for future growth.

Wrike offers several collaboration tools that help teams stay organized while working on projects. Its group chat feature allows team members to communicate quickly and easily while staying focused on the task. Its files-sharing feature lets members access documents from any device so they can work together even when they’re not in the same place. Wrike’s discussion boards empower teams by enabling them to provide feedback quickly and effectively without ever leaving the application itself.

Wrike Standout Features & Integrations

Features include project management, task scheduling/tracking, resource management, expense tracking, API, budgeting, Gantt charts, marketing automations, collaboration support, and reporting.

Integrations include 400+ pre-built native integrations, including integrations with the most popular file management software from Microsoft, Google, and Dropbox, along with sales and marketing software from Salesforce and Marketo.

Parallax is a cloud-based resource planning software tool that gives enterprises visibility into the organization's usage and allocation of their resources. With its intuitive dashboard, users can easily monitor resource utilization in real time and make informed decisions about where they should allocate resources to maximize efficiency. It offers insights into resource trends over time, allowing users to identify areas where resources are being wasted or underutilized.

Why I Picked Parallax: Parallax’s smart algorithms allow users to quickly gain insights into resource utilization by analyzing data from multiple sources, including spreadsheets, databases, and other systems. The data can be visualized on an interactive dashboard which allows users to track performance metrics such as project progress and cost savings.

Parallax’s forecasting feature offers a comprehensive resource planning solution to help businesses increase their efficiency and productivity. This tool leverages advanced forecasting algorithms that analyze historical data and use machine learning techniques to generate accurate forecasts of resource availability. With this feature, businesses can accurately predict the quantity and types of resources they need in the future. They can then use this information to plan for upcoming projects, optimize existing workloads, and develop effective strategies for deploying available resources.

The forecasting capability of Parallax further enables users to anticipate potential risks, allowing for smarter risk management decisions and greater continuity in operations. The resource allocation tools within Parallax include drag-and-drop functionality to make assigning tasks easy and straightforward. Additionally, team members can be selected from pre-defined lists, speeding up the selection process for projects with large teams. With Parallax’s automated tracking capabilities, users can monitor their project’s progress in real time as resources are allocated, and work is completed.

Parallax Standout Features & Integrations

Features include resource management, budgeting, dashboards, notifications, API, data visualizations, external integrations, forecasting, multi-user, and scheduling.

Integrations include Salesforce, Oracle Netsuite, Asana, Slack, Harvest, Hubspot, Microsoft Teams, Jira Software, Tempo, and more.

Jira is a popular project and resource management software that is designed to help teams plan, track, and manage their work. It offers a range of features that are particularly useful for agile project teams, such as backlog prioritization, sprint planning, and Scrum and Kanban boards.

Why I Picked Jira: When starting, it’s easy to create a project from a template and then assign tasks to the appropriate team members. There’s even a capacity report that predicts bandwidth so you don’t take on more work than your employees can handle.

The roadmap dashboard lets you break projects down into tasks and then plan progression with a Gantt chart. It shows you what everyone is working on, which tasks are complete, and which are still in progress. You can also see a task’s dependencies, allowing you to quickly spot bottlenecks. You can gain visibility into how new projects are progressing via the progress bar in the project tracking dashboard. It shows how close to completion each project is.

Jira Standout Features & Integrations

Features include Agile project management, issue tracking, team collaboration, custom workflows, roadmaps, sprint planning, time tracking, project reporting, custom fields, project portfolio management, backlog prioritization, Scrum and Kanban boards, integration with other tools, mobile app, and API integration.

Runn is a resource allocation and scheduling software with powerful visualization and analytics features. Its simple and intuitive interface makes it easy to keep track of who is assigned to what, spot overbookings, identify resourcing patterns, and more.

Why I Picked Runn: Scheduling and allocating resources is incredibly easy in Runn. With a drag-and-drop, users can create project phases, allocations, and time off on the Gantt chart and timeline view. Unique to Runn are the real-time charts and scenario planning functionalities, which let users instantly see changes to their team’s workload, availability, and utilization.

Runn’s reporting and analytics features provide up-to-date data in one place to keep tabs on insights like utilization, project variance, and overall financial performance. Runn also is equipped with financial forecasting capabilities to track budgets, revenue, profit, and costs across your entire business. With Runn built-in time tracking and timesheets, users can monitor how their projects are going and compare how much time was worked with what was planned.

Runn Standout Features & Integrations

Features include apacity planning, resource scheduling, project management, time tracking, financial forecasting, custom fields, drag and drop interface, real-time reporting, team utilization reporting, workload forecasting, scenario planning, email notifications, Slack integration, API integration, and mobile app.

Integrations include Harvest, WorkflowMax, and Clockify, and users can also make use of Runn’s API to build their own integrations.

Resource Guru simplifies delegating tasks to your team. It has a super-intuitive UI that is easy to use and provides great visibility into project progression and workflow.

Why I Picked Resource Guru: The main benefit of the tool is that it provides full visibility into your team’s capacity so you can plan work and take on only as much as you can complete. With Resource Guru, it’s easy to view your team’s schedules in colorful Gantt charts that provide a clear overview of what everyone’s doing. The software has powerful leave management features, which means you won’t accidentally schedule tasks to unavailable employees.

Resource Guru Standout Features & Integrations

Features include resource scheduling, team management, time tracking, project planning, custom fields, drag and drop interface, real-time reporting, calendar sync, resource utilization reporting, availability scheduling, leave management, email notifications, API integration, and mobile app.

Integrations include Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Apple Calendar, Calendly, and Fantastical. You can use Zapier to connect Resource Guru with 1,500+ apps, though this may incur additional costs.

Hub Planner is a dedicated resource management software with powerful resource planning features. You get access to time tracking via timesheets and the ability to create intuitive reports that show total resource spend.

Why I Picked Hub Planner: Resource managers can schedule work on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis. It’s easy to spot gaps in workload and give people tasks to keep busy. There is also a matching feature that lets you tag employees based on their skill or role, so you can easily find people qualified for the work you have in mind. Another cool feature is the project pipeline. This highlights upcoming work, which is useful for capacity planning. It has a heat map that allows you to identify production gaps quickly.

Hub Planner Standout Features & Integrations

Features include resource management, PTO planning, timesheets, reporting, skills matching, task management, templates, drag and drop scheduler, project budgets, approval flow, smart scheduler, and third-party integrations/add-ons. 

Integrations include DIY options via their Hub Planner API and webhook. Or, open an account with Zapier for more options (may incur an additional cost). 

Mosaic is a modern resource management software purpose-built for project teams and time-billing companies. They offer resource planning, project management, workload forecasting, hiring insights via role demand, capacity planning, profit and loss analysis, budget and time tracking, and performance dashboards.

Why I Picked Mosaic: Mosaic is a leading resource management software that helps businesses optimize their resources for maximum efficiency. Its intuitive interface and comprehensive features enable users to manage multiple aspects of their operations with ease. With Mosaic, businesses can better organize, track, and coordinate the use of their resources in order to maximize productivity.

The first step to using Mosaic as a resource management software is creating an account on its platform. Once set up, users can start inputting data about their resources into the system. This data includes information about employees’ availability, cost tracking for specific projects or tasks, material costs associated with different processes, and more. By having this information readily available in one place, users gain insight into how they are using their resources while also ensuring they have access to up-to-date records at all times.

Mosaic Standout Features & Integrations

Features include resource scheduling, team collaboration, time tracking, project planning, budget tracking, custom fields, drag and drop interface, real-time reporting, capacity planning, utilization reporting, email notifications, API integration, and a mobile app.

Integrations include Quickbooks, Unanet, Deltek, Asana, Salesforce, Jira, Workday, SAP, Oracle, and many other software applications.

Projectworks is a professional services automation platform with resource planning and management, time and expense tracking, and invoicing capabilities. The software is designed for companies in the professional services industry to facilitate more effective project management.

Why I picked Projectworks: This platform is especially suited to service providers, with resource planning features like skills mapping, invoicing, and leave management. Timesheets can be linked to invoices to keep track of what's been paid out and what hasn't, and the expenses feature includes hosting fees, contractor invoices, and travel expenses.

The tool also offers business intelligence analytics and reports. Project reports give insights into what was planned vs. the actual outcome, and margin reports can be produced by project, customer, individual, or team. The software can also give predictive insights like capacity and revenue forecasting.

Projectworks standout features & integrations

Features include time tracking, invoicing based on T&M, fixed price, or manual billing, expense reporting, skills mapping, revenue and capacity forecasting, and leave management.

Integrations include Azure DevOps, Hubspot, Jira, MYOB, QuickBooks, and Xero, and a paid Zapier account unlocks additional integrations.

Deltek ERP is an enterprise resource planning system designed for project-based businesses, and it offers a range of features to help manage various aspects of a project-based business, from project planning and resource management to financial management and reporting.

Why I Picked Deltek: There are versions of Deltek built specifically for different types of business. Each has unique features that help in those industries. For example, the manufacturing ERP gives managers insight into how many orders are open, completed, or scheduled, whereas the agency tool helps owners plan for multiple projects at once. Each tool has an easy-to-use UI and plenty of reporting and analytics features. This gives a full overview of project progression, helping you keep a healthy margin.

Deltek Standout Features & Integrations

Features include project management, resource planning, time and expense management, financial management, procurement and purchasing, customer relationship management, human resources management, business intelligence and reporting, compliance and security, mobile app, and API integration.

Integrations include A2B Tracking, Angles Reporting, Boost, ClientPay, Dynafact, Elevia, FMIS Asset Management, InfoTek, IntroHive, Invoicepay, Raken, Insight Software, QuickBooks, Xero, Workmax Time, and Yellowfin BI.