Tracking Time Off, the Missing Strategic Link in Your Resource Planning
”When new work comes in, we have the right people, ready to go. Winning work and protecting the team, we never have to choose just one.” How often can you confidently say the same? Facing resourcing questions about upcoming projects can sound simple, but if your schedules are built on assumptions and capacity is only estimated, face it, your resource planning is under-engineered!
Scattered time off records are one of the most common culprits. Living in a separate system or spreadsheets, managed by different teams, it never quite makes it into planning on time.
The classic trap, a consultant is booked on a project kicking off in three weeks. Schedules are confirmed and the client has been briefed. Then someone finds out they've had a week of approved leave sitting in the HR system the whole time. Now it's too late, either, scramble to reshuffle the team, delay the start, or have that uncomfortable client conversation. No good options, and all are avoidable!
Alternatively, consider tracking time off a strategic resourcing input and you’ll plan better, deliver more reliably, and hold on to your people for longer.
Schedules built on assumptions
At many consulting firms resourcing still happens in spreadsheets. Try asking a spreadsheet who's available for a ten-hour project next week, or who has capacity for a contract signed today but starting next month. By nature, spreadsheets are only reactive. They can only display what you knew when you last updated them, not what's happening ahead.
The cost is predictable: your projects slip, margins shrink, and the people holding it all together get burnt out. Not because the work wasn't planned, but because the plan was built on assumptions rather than accurate capacity. Firms that rely on spreadsheets often don't discover gaps until a deadline is already at risk.
Seeing clearly through the 60–90 day window 🪟
The most profitable consulting firms share a common discipline, a clear, accurate view of resourcing availability at least 60 to 90 days out. It’s a forward window that serves as both an operational convenience and a competitive advantage.
With forward visibility, you can commit to client timelines with confidence, plan business development around real capacity, and catch resourcing shortfall before it becomes an issue.
For many firms, there is no one accurate view. When time off doesn't flow automatically into your resourcing picture, even careful planning produces unreliable results. The firms pulling ahead in 2026 aren't only tracking capacity, they're connecting it to their resource management software.
Common HRIS tools that integrate seamlessly with PSA Software
When your HRIS and your PSA are integrated, adding time off stops being a manual hand-off every time. No spreadsheet reconciliation at the start of each sprint. No project manager only finding out about a week of time off just before it begins.
Check out these best in practice HRIS tools that integrate with Projectworks:
Employment Hero is a complete Employment Operating System, combining hiring, HR, payroll, and benefits. It’s one scalable solution for your business employment needs, and acts as leave management software to help you effectively deal with employee vacations, sick leave, and other types of entitlements.
BambooHR provides a fully-connected HR ecosystem to streamline your operations, make informed decisions, and support employee growth.
Not using Employment Hero or BambooHR? We'd love to know your leave management system of choice!
Projectworks, the resource management tool effectively bridging the gap 🌉
"Do we have enough people to deliver this project?" deserves a better answer than your best guess. The experience of high-performing firms makes it clear - tracking time off belongs at the centre of your resourcing.
Connecting your HRIS and PSA closes the gap effectively. Projectworks is the leading project intelligence software bringing time tracking, resourcing, invoicing, and forecasting together in one intelligent platform. Seamlessly integrate with Employment Hero or BambooHR to pull your employee time off data and resource your projects efficiently.
With a clear window into time off into the horizon, you’re able to mitigate the impacts on both active and scheduled projects. Employee time off is up-to-date in Projectworks and exports to payroll are accurate!
Get an accurate, forward-looking window into your availability and resourcing today by signing up for a free trial of Projectworks, or let us demo Projectworks for you.
Read similar resources from Projectworks
Scaling a consulting firm isn’t theory for us - it’s lived experience. We've developed a play-by-play cheat sheet that comes from years of leading and growing firms through every messy, exhilarating stage of the journey. We've made every mistake along the way, which means you don’t have to.
A DCAA auditor doesn't call ahead. Here's what happens when they show up.
Most AI pilots stall before they save anyone an hour. Here's how consulting firms automate admin work with AI, and what to fix first.