--- title: Tips & Tricks for Forecasting Fully Burdened Labor Costs in Jirav description: Here are three ways you can use Jirav to model expenses associated with employees such as payroll taxes, benefits, and equipment purchases. image: https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/A_heavy_load_(14026394702).jpg --- ![](https://www.jirav.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported%20sitepage%20images/header-logo.png?width=98&name=header-logo.png) - [ Resources ](https://www.jirav.com/resources) - Menu / Resources - [Resource Center ](https://www.jirav.com/resources) Blogs and resources on all things finance, FP&A, and Jirav [Webinars ](https://www.jirav.com/webinars) Learn more about Jirav and FP&A from industry experts [Events ](https://www.jirav.com/events) See our upcoming calendar of events [Help Center ](https://help.jirav.com/) Guide on how to use Jirav - [ Company ](https://www.jirav.com/company) - Menu / Company - [About ](https://www.jirav.com/company) Learn about Jirav’s story and meet our leadership team [News Coverage ](https://www.jirav.com/news) See the latest news and highlights [Press ](https://www.jirav.com/press-releases) Recent company announcements and updates [Careers ](https://www.jirav.com/careers) View current job openings and learn how to join the Jirav Tower ![business_env](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/business_env.svg) [ For Businesses ](https://www.jirav.com/reporting-planning-purpose-built-for-businesses) ![accounting_calc](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/accounting_calc.svg) [ For Accounting & CFO Firms ](https://www.jirav.com/reporting-planning-purpose-built-for-accounting-cfo-advisory-firms) [ Get a Demo ](https://www.jirav.com/request-demo) [ Sign in ](https://app.jirav.com/) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/April2021/images/banner-shap.png) BLOG # Tips & Tricks for Forecasting Fully Burdened Labor Costs in Jirav [![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/April2021/images/fb-icon.png) ](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://www.jirav.com/blog/forecasting-fully-burdened-labor-costs/) [![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/April2021/images/tw-icon.png) ](https://twitter.com/share?url=https://www.jirav.com/blog/forecasting-fully-burdened-labor-costs/) [![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/April2021/images/in-icon.png) ](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://www.jirav.com/blog/forecasting-fully-burdened-labor-costs/&summary=&source=CeBIT) 1 minute read ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/A_heavy_load_(14026394702).jpg) One of my favorite features of Jirav is the ability to join your payroll data with your accounting data, allowing you to forecast not just your financials, but also your staffing plan. Headcount can drive financial results, and vice versa. That's how things work in the real world, so we built our [financial modeling software](https://www.jirav.com/product/financial-planning-modeling) to do that, too. In Jirav, we don't believe in simply increasing an abstract Salaries & Wages expense account by an arbitrary amount each month (although you can do that, if you want). Rather, we enable you to define specific roles with associated salaries and hire dates that determine the amount of wage expense. You can plan out named hires, or you can choose to drive hiring for each role based on any metric you like, whether financial or operational. For instance, I could make my Warehouse Headcount a function of Customer Orders, which also drives Revenue. It's totally up to you. ![This Staffing Driver forecasts hiring a new support FTE in the Ops Department when revenue increases in increments of $50,000 (rounded up)](https://www.jirav.com/hs-fs/hubfs/staffing-plan-driver-revenue-drives-support-fte.png?width=1412&name=staffing-plan-driver-revenue-drives-support-fte.png)Once you've built up your staffing plan, you have a variety of options for how to forecast the associated payroll taxes, benefits costs, and any other expenses associated with hiring, such as provisioning a new laptop. The simplest method is to use a fixed percentage for taxes and benefits, and a fixed amount for the equipment purchase. Or you could get a bit more fancy and break down the taxes and benefits into their various components. Another option is to based the forecast on historical results — perhaps a trailing 12-month average. So which should you use? To help you decide, Evan Wells, our VP of BizOps and Financial Services, recorded a series of short walkthroughs as part of our new "15-Minute Coffee + Jirav Tips & Tricks" webinar series last week.  I've collected the recordings below. The first three videos each demonstrate one of the three methods for forecasting fully burdened headcount in Jirav. The fourth video shares a few tricks that are helpful if you're planning on using roles and sub-departments. --- ## Fully Burdened Headcount: Simplified Method Recorded April 6, 2020 --- ## Fully Burdened Headcount: Detailed Method Recorded April 7, 2020 --- ## Using Historical Averages to Project Headcount Burden Rates Recorded April 9, 2020 --- ## Tricks with Headcount Setup for Forecasting Recorded April 10, 2020 --- Interested in learning more about Jirav? Request a demo and see what else you can do with Jirav's planning, reporting, and dashboarding tools. [![Request Demo](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2567042/261e377a-063f-4dad-9dd5-b1b65c372fd0.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2567042/261e377a-063f-4dad-9dd5-b1b65c372fd0) ![Blake Oliver, CPA](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/61911ff6e9873ee6bb72cdcabb8bc2d2) ##### Blake Oliver, CPA Blake is a CPA, former Jirav marketer, founder and CEO of Earmark, and co-host of the Cloud Accounting Podcast. Published April 14, 2020 ###### Related topics - [Finance and fp&a](https://www.jirav.com/blog/topic/finance-and-fpa) ## Related blog posts ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/covid-19-webinar-video-featured-image-1.png) Finance and fp&a #### On-Demand Webinar: Forecasting the Economic Impact of Coronavirus [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/webinar/forecasting-coronavirus) ![Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/joshua-earle-lKkD6DY7FVw-unsplash.jpg) Finance and fp&a #### Making the leap from CPA to CFO with financial forecasting [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/cpa-to-cfo-with-financial-forecasting) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/Jirav%20Team%20Award.png) Finance and fp&a #### On-Demand Webinar: How to Build a Financial Model for an Accounting Firm [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/webinar-financial-model-accounting-firm) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/on-demand-ppp-forecasting-webinar.png) Finance and fp&a #### On-Demand Webinar: How to Forecast PPP Loans & Working Capital to Nail Cash Flow Projections with Jirav [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/webinar-ppp-loan-working-capital) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/blog/provencfo-video-40-to-4-hours.jpg) Finance and fp&a #### From 40 to 4 Hours Per Financial Model Forecast with Jirav [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/40-to-4-hours-per-financial-model-forecast) ![Sage Intacct Advantage 2020: That's A Wrap!](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/save-intacct-advantage-2020.png) Finance and fp&a #### Maximizing the value of budgeting & forecasting on Sage Intacct [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/sage-intacct-advantage-2020) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/zoom%20virtual%20backgrounds/jirav%20giraffe.jpg) Finance and fp&a #### Zoom virtual backgrounds for CFOs [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/zoom-virtual-backgrounds-for-cfos) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/laptop%20intacct%20widescreen%20bg%20white.png) Finance and fp&a #### How to Get More from Sage Intacct Reporting [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/sage-intacct-reporting) ![](https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/Webinar_%20How%20to%20Build%20a%20Financial%20Model%20for%20a%20Subscription%20Business.png) Finance and fp&a #### On-Demand Webinar: How to Build a Financial Model for a Subscription-Based Business [ Read more ](https://www.jirav.com/blog/webinar/how-to/build-a-financial-model/subscription-business) [Load more](##) ## Let’s get started! [ Request a demo ](https://www.jirav.com/request-demo) ![](https://ws.zoominfo.com/pixel/GayWM7nWYSEC9X3nq2tn) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Blake Oliver, CPA", "url" : "https://www.jirav.com/blog/author/blake-oliver-cpa" }, "dateModified" : "2025-09-02T20:13:20.533Z", "datePublished" : "2020-04-14T23:27:25.000Z", "headline" : "Tips & Tricks for Forecasting Fully Burdened Labor Costs in Jirav", "image" : [ "https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/A_heavy_load_(14026394702).jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.jirav.com/blog/forecasting-fully-burdened-labor-costs", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://www.jirav.com/hubfs/Jirav%20Logo%20-%20176x75%20(small%20logo).png" }, "name" : "Jirav" } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "http://www.schema.org", "@type" : "AccountingService", "address" : { "@type" : "PostalAddress", "addressCountry" : "United States", "addressLocality" : "San Francisco", "addressRegion" : "CA", "postalCode" : "94102", "streetAddress" : "25 Taylor Street" }, "description" : "Jirav is a business planning software powering financial planning and analysis in the cloud with all-in-one forecasts, budgets, reports, and dashboards", "geo" : { "@type" : "GeoCoordinates", "latitude" : "37.782585", "longitude" : "-122.411255" }, "image" : "https://www.jirav.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Jirav_SitePageAssets_Feb2018/Jirav%20Logo%20for%20top%20nav.png?width=1200&height=510&name=Jirav%20Logo%20for%20top%20nav.png", "logo" : "https://www.jirav.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Jirav_SitePageAssets_Feb2018/Jirav%20Logo%20for%20top%20nav.png?width=1200&height=510&name=Jirav%20Logo%20for%20top%20nav.png", "name" : "Jirav", "openingHours" : "Mo, Tu, We, Th, Fr 09:00-17:00", "priceRange" : "$100/month-$750/month", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.instagram.com/gojirav/", "https://www.linkedin.com/company/jirav/", "https://twitter.com/GoJirav", "https://www.facebook.com/GoJirav/" ], "url" : "https://www.jirav.com/" } ```