Best Resource Management Software
I’ve selected these as the best resource management software for 2023.
- 2. Parallax — Best for professional services companies looking to aggregate functionality through integrations
Human resources are at the core of resource management software. Project managers use it to keep tabs on what the team is doing and if they are free to take on more tasks. This is especially useful, considering most project managers are running 2-5 projects at the same time!
However, if you are currently on the fence about whether you should invest or not in software like this, let me give you a quick thought. Resource management software can help you create a culture of retention. How? It gives you information on the workload of your team. Having a view that shows you allocation percentages can help you control workloads and make sure your resources are not on the brink of burnout.
So keep your team at healthy (not 100%) levels of allocation, give them time to develop their skills, and enjoy a more committed and efficient team.
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How I Picked The Best Resource Management Software
I evaluated and compared the most popular resource management tools on the market, both for their reviews and user interface. Then I weighed factors that make software a good option to manage resources, such as the ones that follow.
- User Interface (UI): The amount of information related to resources can be overwhelming, especially as our projects grow. Therefore, the software we use must make good use of white spaces and have easy-to-navigate toolbars and menus so we can find our way through the tool.
- Range of features: I looked at all the different angles from which you can see your resources. Whether that is from a timesheet, workload view, capacity hours, time reports, or project views by resource.
- Integrations: Some software on this list might not have the level of depth required to be excellent resource management software, but they use integrations to compensate for that. Integrations extend the functionality of a platform by connecting it to external tools.
- Pricing: I searched through pricing information to find if there are free versions of the software, free trials, and the starting price of paid plans. There should be a balance between price and value.
The 10 Best Resource Management Software Overviews
Have a look and sign up for some trials to test-drive and find the best resource management software for your case.
monday.com
Best for simple workload and capacity planning
monday.com is a flexible work platform to help teams communicate in context and get a birds-eye view of outstanding projects, available resources, and projected timelines.
Why I picked monday.com: Its smart design and straightforward interface mean teams can get started planning timelines, assigning project ownership, and managing any project in minutes.
monday.com offers various views to represent data so that each team member can work according to his preferences. With workload view, you can easily see who’s able to take on more work and who’s not. Gain insight into your team’s work capacity and make adjustments to timelines or ownership accordingly—no matter where you are. The monday.com app gives you the flexibility and power to run your team on the go. You can organize your daily work, projects, and teams all in one place.
monday.com Standout Features & Integrations
Features include automations, file management, dashboards, shared documents for real-time collaboration, Gantt charts, and 5+ views so you can see your project information the way you want to.
Integrations include apps like Slack, Google Calendar, Jira, GitHub, Excel, Google Drive, Gmail, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform, and thousands more accessible via Zapier.
monday.com Plans & Pricing
Pricing starts at $10 /user/month and comes with a free 14-day trial. They offer a free plan for up to 2 users.
Pros
- New features being rolled out regularly
- Easily create boards dedicated to operational resource tracking
- Color coded status great for resource overviews
Cons
- Comparatively complex pricing rubric
- May be too robust for small teams
- Gantt charts locked to mid-level plan
Parallax
Best for professional services companies looking to aggregate functionality through integrations
Parallax is a robust resource planning and forecasting solution that is designed to help increase utilization and is natively built for integrations. It is best suited for digital services firms and software development teams looking to take full advantage of modern predictive resourcing and active forecasting to discover measured growth, higher revenue rates, and stronger margins.
Why I picked Parallax: One of its strongest features is the predictive resource management software, which is purpose-built for project and resource managers, providing you with the tools you need to efficiently evaluate and optimize supply and demand. With better resource optimization, you should be able to keep teams happy and satisfied, your projects and resources on track, and everyone in the team and the organization perfectly aligned on common goals.
Additionally, Parallax’s resource planning software facilitates resource optimization for digital services companies. The tool gives you the ability to balance workloads, analyze utilization, and match the best available resources to the most suitable projects. This approach helps optimize team performance and improve overall productivity.
Parallax Standout Features & Integrations
Features include planned capacity, utilization, balanced workloads, skills tags with an advanced database search of employees, customizable billing models, real-time project P&L reporting, and project accounting.
Integrations include Hubspot, Slack, Tempo, Salesforce, Jira, Harvest, Microsoft Teams, Asana, and Oracle NetSuite. The integrations approach of the platform ensures you can aggregate the best features of each tool in your current tech stack under one roof.
Parallax Resource Planning has quote-based pricing that is available only upon request. There is no free trial available, although you can book a demo.
Pros
- Responsive customer service support team
- No additional cost for integrations
- Excellent predictive reporting capabilities
Cons
- Non-Agile teams may struggle with it
- No tracking for billable vs. non-billable hours
Kantata
Best all-in-one resource planning for services teams and agencies
Kantata is a well-rounded tool that bridges the core planning, execution, project accounting, and analysis systems in a single operating environment. It has modules for project management, accounting, resource management, business intelligence, and team collaboration for services teams and agencies
Why I picked Kantata: It offers a system of dashboards, live time and expense tracking features, and a great documenting system. Kantata ticks off all the boxes when it comes to RM features. The resource management module offers real-time utilization and margins at the project and even the task level. Some key features include resource forecasting, capacity management, skills management, scenario planning, and role-based planning.
I could go on and on about Kantata's features because there really are too many to list—it’s a comprehensive RM suite, that, despite requiring time to truly master, has been recognized as being easy to use and learn. What’s more, the company leverages its professional services expertise as part of its offering, making available its Kantata BI Consultants. They can build reports specifically for your business and provide training to your resources to help mitigate the risks and costs of implementation.
Kantata Standout Features & Integrations
Features include built-in reports, custom reporting and trend analysis, resource management features like real-time utilization, resource forecasting and capacity management, and accounting tools like project costing, budget management, and invoicing.
Integrations include pre-built integrations with tools like Expensify, G Suite, Netsuite, Jira, Hubspot, Xero, Salesforce, Slack, Concur, Qualtrics, Dynamics 365, and Quickbooks. They also provide an integration platform called M-Bridge to help you build your own integrations.
Kantata Plans & Pricing
Kantata offers plans to meet your needs. Choose from resource management to complete PSA with advanced BI. To receive accurate pricing information, contact Kantata directly.
Pros
- Resourcing fully integrated with master planning
- Good reporting functionality for resource data
- Distinguish between soft and firm allocation
- Easy capacity management
Cons
- Advanced features are available only in the Premier and Enterprise editions of the application
- Proofing solution is an add-on
- Custom reports can be difficult to create without training
Float
Best for digital agencies and production teams
Float is a resource management, planning, and scheduling software that helps teams manage shared work schedules.
Why I picked Float: Scheduling in Float is easy and intuitive. Create new projects quickly, and assign them to your team within seconds. The schedule view gives you an accurate, high-level overview of your team’s availability and capacity, and you can drill down deeper using Float’s search and filter functionality. Set custom work hours, import and assign public holidays, schedule time off, assign custom tags like location and skills to your people and projects, and set a scheduled status to let everyone know when you’re working from home or remotely, or what you’re up to on a particular day.
Real-time reporting lets you track your resource utilization, monitor project budgets, and forecast your team’s capacity. Add time tracking to access pre-filled timesheets and compare your team’s scheduled hours with the actual time spent on tasks.
Float Standout Features and Integrations
Features include right-click menus for splitting tasks, an activity timeline to track changes, pre-filled timesheets based on your schedule, capacity management, multi-project planning, forecasting, and reports.
Integrations include Jira, Asana, Teamwork, Trello, Google calendar, Outlook Calendar, Slack, and thousands more through Zapier.
Float Plans and Pricing
There are two plans available and pricing starts at $7.50 /user/month.
Pros
- Mobile app for iOS and Android
- 99.5% uptime
- 24-hour support with 30 min response time
Cons
- Time tracking requires you to get a higher plan
- Updating staff/personnel list takes time
Smartsheet
Best for advanced and custom workflow automations
Resource Management by Smartsheet, a high-level project and resource management software, helps teams make confident decisions about project planning, team capacity, budget forecasting, team utilization, and hiring needs in real-time.
Why I picked Resource Management by Smartsheet: The tool's unique project and resource matching feature allows users to match team members to project requirements according to different criteria like disciplines, skills, availability, and more. Resource Management by Smartsheet also offers built-in timesheets, mobile time tracking, and expense tracking. Users can create project reports by filtering project data, get insight into historical data, and see forecasts on team utilization, actual vs. planned time reports, budget tracking, expense reports, and projects in the pipeline.
RM by Smartsheet Standout Features & Integrations
Features include project and resource matching, dynamic reporting, time tracking, a resource management panel, and a resource timeline for projects.
Integrations include apps like Slack, Brandfolder, Workplace, Microsoft Teams, and Facebook Ads. It additionally has a flexible API you can use to build custom integrations with the tools you use and automation through Zapier where you can connect to 1000+ apps.
RM by Smartsheet Plans & Pricing
Pricing starts at $9/user/month and offers a 14-day free trial. Resource management is a premium add-on that you need to purchase on top of your Smartsheet plan. Pricing is available upon request.
Pros
- Intuitive for keeping timesheets and assigning hours
- Skills database helps resource allocation
- Able to forecast resource utilization
- Combines time tracking and resourcing
Cons
- Bulk project edits don’t apply to resource field
- Needs better data visualization
- Initial resource set-up is time consuming
Resource Guru
Best low-cost option for beginners
Resource Guru is a dedicated resource management software that aims to make resource management user-friendly.
Why I picked Resource Guru: The software makes sense of the gong show that is resource conflict resolution. Resource management and team collaboration are built in to make resource booking more straightforward, with clash management, leave management, and a waiting list to prevent over-booking. It helps project managers make bookings simultaneously with no chance of stepping on each other’s toes. Clashes are automatically prevented.
Helpfully, each staff member gets their own resource dashboard so they can log in and know exactly what they should be working on. And to monitor business performance, powerful reports help identify which projects and clients are being over-serviced and help to monitor team utilization and help with future capacity planning.
Resource Guru Standout Features & Integrations
Features include resource scheduling, resource management, leave management, project scheduling, capacity planning, and forecasting reports.
Integrations include calendar apps like Outlook calendar, Calendly, and Google calendar. Thousands of additional apps are accessible through Zapier.
Resource Guru Plans & Pricing
Pricing starts at $3/user/month.
Pros
- Daily resource summary emails
- Attractive and flexible UI
- Very affordable per-user rate
- Availability bar for capacity planning
Cons
- No copy-paste of resource tasks
- Unable to sort resources by experience level
Mosaic
Best for its recommendations based on resource skills and availability
Mosaic is a next-generation resource management software guaranteed to boost profitability and productivity.
Why I picked Mosaic: The tool is hugely collaborative, ensuring executives, project managers, and individual contributors can work together easily and take ownership over their KPIs. Lightning fast and extremely visual, Mosaic shows who is working on what, when—all in one beautiful interface.
Mosaic’s resource management features are AI-powered so that you can track, report, and forecast using smart systems that parse all your data and generate actionable insights for future workforce planning.
Mosaic Standout Features & Integrations
Features include resource planning, a visual workload heatmap, demand analysis, an intelligent project team builder, visual org charts, customizable business intelligence dashboards, scheduling automations, workload forecasting, workforce reporting, project accounting, time tracking, and project management.
Integrations include software like Quickbooks, Unanet, Deltek, Asana, Salesforce, Jira, Workday, SAP, Oracle, and many other software applications.
Mosaic Plans & Pricing
There are three different plans and pricing starts at $9.99/user/month (billed annually).
Pros
- Portfolios are included in the cheapest plan
- Guests can be invited to edit projects
- Plan automatically upgrades/downgrades
Cons
- Integrations are not included in basic plan
Celoxis
Best reporting and analytics features
Celoxis is a web-based software for managing projects, resources, issues, risks, timesheets, workflows, and collaboration.
Why I picked Celoxis: Project dashboards and reporting options are customizable, so you can see resources, tasks, and project details in a layout or format that works for your team.
Other features and capabilities of Celoxis include accurate resource loads, resource utilization management, resource capacity, and efficiency. These features are helpful for planning and decision-making around resource allocation. The real-time and customizable reporting options are also helpful for decision-making.
Celoxis Standout Features & Integrations
Features include project request tracking, automatic scheduling, multiple resources per task, RAG health indicators, revenue forecasting, custom financial KPIs, and portfolio management.
Integrations include Microsoft Project, Excel, Google Drive, Outlook, Salesforce, dozens of other pre-built integrations, and thousands more through Zapier.
Celoxis Plans & Pricing
There is a cloud and an on-premise license available. Pricing for the cloud solution starts at $25/user/month, and on-premise pricing is available upon request.
Pros
- Easy, interactive Gantt charts
- Percentage of project tasks-per-user feature
- Customizable widgets for groups or individuals
- In-app timer for task tracking
Cons
- Resource planning is not automated
- Complex menu structure
- Some difficulty with report building
eResource Scheduler
Best built-in financial module
eResource Scheduler offers both Cloud and On-Premise versions with configurability &; ease of use at core of its design. It’s been used by organizations of all sizes since 2011.
This resource planning tool’s features include a dashboard that highlights important information on single screen, along with multiple types of user-defined fields that allow capturing complete information (roles, skills, qualifications, certificates, team, office etc.) about your projects.
The scheduling chart offers resource, project, and role views, and users can create their own scheduling views on the fly. Filters identify qualified resources as per projects requirements. Meanwhile, features like drag and drop, availability and overload indicator, extend-shorten, precise split, and copy-paste make scheduling efficient and quick. They also offer the option to schedule at both project and task levels. You’ll find multiple calendars with different timings, holidays, exceptions, and personal leaves (visible on scheduling chart) to ensure correct resource capacity for different types of employee (Full, Part Time, Casual etc.). Their reports show real-time utilization at different levels and their reporting offers several different views/filters which make the reports informative and useful.
To integrate their tool with your other business tools, you can use their Open REST API, and you can also take advantage of easy imports/exports.
And finally, their timesheets and financial module (complete with cost and billing rates and a forecasting report) make eResource Scheduler complete resource management package. eResource Scheduler costs $5/resource/month and provides annual billing discounts (14-day free trial).
Pros
- Robust resource dashboard
- Change control records for resource data
- Ease of use and functionality
- Resource notification emails
Cons
- More complicated pricing structure
- No invoicing module
Hub Planner
Best for midsize and large companies
Hub Planner is a resource management software with a full suite of scheduling, time entry, and reporting features. The core feature is the simple and usable Scheduler, which allows for project and resource planning and visualization. Users can drag and drop to plan projects and schedule resources. The tool also offers a multi-function menu, powerful filtering, and a dynamic team capacity bar. Multiple view modes allow for both high-level birds-eye views and granular views of projects.
Hub Planner has a powerful reporting engine with 70+ pre-formatted templates. If you can't find what you're looking for in a template, you can create reports from scratch.
Hub Planner also has a number of inline workflows for timesheets, requesting vacation time, and a slick resource requesting & approval option. Their Unassigned Work feature is great for scheduling and forecasting ahead of the pipeline, and users can create custom fields at the resource or project level. Users can also customize schedule notifications and reminders.
They've taken a modular approach so you have the option to add or remove extensions to the base product, allowing teams to increase functionality or turn off bits they don't need. Inline integrations with Basecamp, Slack, iCal, REst API, and Zapier are available.
Hub Planner offers a pretty extensive 60 days free trial with everything included. There is an extensive knowledge base with tutorial videos, and their customer support is excellent.
Licenses begin at $7 per month, per resource with annual discounts available.
Pros
- Easy toggle between user/group
- Powerful & precise built-in reporting
- Search filter for available resources with skill sets & location
- Excellent capacity planning & forecasting
Cons
- Need an API or intermediary for MS Teams
- Editing Custom Fields requires manual input or help from Hub Planner support
- Need to click into modal for more details on events/projects bookings
Need expert help selecting the right Project Resource Management Software?
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The Best Resource Management Software Comparison Chart
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the baffling array of resource planning software out there. Below, we’ve put together a reader-friendly table neatly summarizing basic info about the tools described in this article.
| Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | monday.com Best for simple workload and capacity planning | 14-day free trial + freemium plan available | From $8/user/month (billed annually, min 3 seats) | Visit Website |
| 2 | Parallax Best for professional services companies looking to aggregate functionality through integrations | Free demo | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
| 3 | Kantata Best all-in-one resource planning for services teams and agencies | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
| 4 | Float Best for digital agencies and production teams | 30-day free trial | From $7.50/user/month | Visit Website |
| 5 | Smartsheet Best for advanced and custom workflow automations | Freemium version available | From $7/user/month | Visit Website |
| 6 | Resource Guru Best low-cost option for beginners | 30-day free trial | From $3/user/month | Visit Website |
| 7 |  Mosaic Best for its recommendations based on resource skills and availability | 30-day free trial | From $9.99/user/month | Visit Website |
| 8 | Celoxis Best reporting and analytics features | 30-day free trial | From $25/user/month | Visit Website |
| 9 | eResource Scheduler Best built-in financial module | 14-day free trial | From $5/resource/month | Visit Website |
| 10 | Hub Planner Best for midsize and large companies | 30-day free trial | From $7/resource/month (billed annually) | Visit Website |
Other Resource Management Solutions
These are some extra options you can pick from. Even though they did not make it to the top 10, they are still worth considering as your next resource management tool.
- Saviom
Best for enterprise resource and workforce management
- Productive
easy-to-learn resource management software for agencies with powerful, visual reporting features
- ClickUp
Best for its workload and box views that help you see what your team is up to and their capacity
- Forecast
Best AI-assisted RM
- Paymo
Best RM tool for remote teams
- Microsoft Project
Best RM software for Microsoft users
- ProjectManager.com
best for resource monitoring through project dashboards
- ActiveCollab
Best for resource management dashboards
- Meisterplan
Best for its role-based resource allocation prior to staffing
- Birdview PSA
Best for simulating resource loading
Check out our video on resource management software!
Resource Management Software FAQs
Find answers to common questions about resource management and resource management software.
What is resource management?
In project management, resource management refers to the practice of planning, tracking, and optimizing the utilization of resources (such as human resources, space, and equipment) in order to streamline project work and completion.
This process involves planning and managing: checking the resource’s availability, scheduling start and end dates, managing any resourcing conflicts or dependencies, and monitoring over time to adapt to changes.
How do you create a resource plan?
You can read our full guide to creating resource management plans for more detail, but here are the main steps:
- Identify the different types of resources needed to complete the project.
Resources could include team members, equipment, meeting rooms, or anything that’ll be required as part of the project process. - Quantify the amount of each type of resource required.
To quantify the resources, you’ll need to consider the resources and estimate their effort on the project. - Schedule the consumption of each resource within the project.
To schedule the resources, you’ll need a project schedule so you know who to book, when, and for how long.
What is a resource forecast?
Resource forecasting is a plan of the resources required to deliver a project. It often occurs in the initial phases of a project, even as early as the sales process.
A resource forecast is an estimate of the resources and effort that will be required for the project, which helps determine the project hours, project budget, and the project estimate put forward to the client.
How do you calculate project resources?
A simple way to calculate the level of effort required is to look at past project performance and compare it with the current project plan to identify the current project team velocity.
You can then use the formula: current velocity/project estimate = resources required.
It’s important to calculate resources needed for a project so that you take the right amount of the team’s time. Resource too little, and they won’t have enough time to complete the work, and if you resource too much, you might inadvertently be pushing them to waste time or work slowly to fill in the time.
Do I need resource management software?
Not necessarily. When agencies start, it’s usually with a handful of resources. There’s no urgent need for resource management or specialist software. Usually, everyone simply gets together for a quick huddle, agrees on priorities, and works out what everyone is going to work on for the day. Or—if people are feeling really ambitious—for the entire week.
As the agency grows, resource management becomes more formal, and the resource scheduler becomes a whiteboard. Simple, right?
Then, disaster strikes as someone accidentally wipes the whiteboard clean, or the office grows to the extent that people can’t actually see the whiteboard, and everyone realizes it’s time to move to the agency gold standard: the infamous resource scheduler of doom, otherwise known as the resource spreadsheet.
Should I still be using spreadsheets?
Everyone knows resource management by spreadsheet doesn’t really work. It’s not cut out for the job. Everything’s a bit of a hack, they’re clunky, and they’re horribly prone to errors. Months pass by and still, the resourcing spreadsheet somehow just about manages to keep its head above water.
At a push, your spreadsheet might tell you how under-resourced or under-utilized your teams are, or even include forecasting, but does it include budget tracking, time tracking for billable hours, project reporting, sending staff real-time notifications, helping them collaborate, or a built-in process for requesting resources and resource allocation? Without these elements, it cannot be the solution you’re looking for.
But there’s hope. A growing number of tools have evolved in recent years to fix the problem of resource management in Excel and actually create something better than the free resource management tools—stuff that actually brings additional business value on top of keeping everything organized.
What is resource management software?
Sometimes referred to as resource capacity planning software, it’s a type of project management tool that enables you to plan, allocate, and then track who’s working on what project, when, and for how long.
This software makes it easy to see the resource availability and capacity of the organization and the available skills. Then, schedule and provide reporting to show historical and forecasted resource utilization.
Some software also has project management software features. These make it easy to plan, schedule, and reschedule projects, tasks, and resources in the same tool.
Learn more about the use cases for resource management software here.
What are the benefits of using resource management software?
- Streamline resource management and deployment to be as efficient and effective as possible, reducing downtime and increasing utilization.
- Provide a bird’s eye view of organizational capacity to prevent overbooking and support hiring decisions.
- Forecast revenue by providing reports on upcoming projects and planned resource deployment.
Here are 6 other benefits of using resource management software.
What key features should I look for when evaluating resource management software?
- Workload resource planning: A view where you can see who is doing what, how much time it will take, and who can handle more tasks.
- Timesheet integration: Metrics relating to time spent, time used, and time costs are key to resource scheduling, so a timesheet integration or built-in solution is critical.
- Resource allocation automation: Resource allocation is time-consuming, so you want to be able to automate some of the grunt work. Look for automation features that require no coding. Most tools nowadays have drag-and-drop builders.
- Resource utilization alerts: Gone too far over time or cost budgets without noticing? You want a tool that monitors the relevant utilization metrics and catches this for you.
- Resource manager permissions: The tool should allow you to set different permissions for users depending on their required level of access.
Read more about common features of resource management.
What's an example of an effective resource management system?
An effective resource management system is one that lets you see your resources, the projects and tasks they are assigned to, gives you a visual representation of how busy they are and gives you options to balance the workload. It can be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet or Google sheet. However, it’s one that enables your organization to deploy the resources at its disposal as efficiently and effectively as possible.
An effective system enables the organization to conduct resource planning in a way that maximizes the utilization of available resources and considers the availability of staff, their skills, their preferences, their location and timezone, and maps them against projects and organizational goals.
Other resource management lists
- Enterprise resource planning software for resource management at large companies.
- Resource planning software to help you forecast required resources and their utilization on your projects.
- Resource scheduling software to help you schedule equipment, rooms, staff, and other resources.
- Resource allocation software, which is specifically designed to help you alllocated the right resources to the right projects and tasks.
- Free resource management software, in case you need a less expensive option that will still cover your primary needs.
- Marketing resource management software (MRM software) which is designed specifically for marketing teams.
- Resource tracking software, which combines resource planning with tracking to help you monitor and adapt your plan as you go.
- Open source resource management software for extra flexibility and (often) cheaper pricing.
- Web-based resource scheduling software, in case you require a SaaS solution, rather than an on-premise option.
What's Next?
Now that you know some of the best resource management tools, you might want to read our complete guide to workload capacity to get the most out of your team, boost morale, and improve output.
However, if you want to explore what you can do with Excel a little longer, here's an example and free template on resource allocation.
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