HRForecast smartPlan

HRForecast smartPlan turns strategic business scenarios into multi-year workforce plans, with capacity forecasting, gap-closing actions and target monitoring. It suits organizations coordinating workforce decisions across multiple planning units, particularly employers with more than 1,000 employees. The trade-off is an enterprise buying process: pricing is by request, and onboarding or consulting workshops cost extra.

Overview

smartPlan is built to translate business strategy into workforce requirements and actions rather than manage day-to-day HR administration. Planners can model alternative business scenarios, forecast headcount and organizational needs over several years, then compare requirements with available workforce capacity. Global macroeconomic and labor-market data adds context for emerging jobs, changing skills and broader market trends.

HRForecast, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Munich, positions the product for large employers. Its documented Enterprise (Scenario Planning) edition handles one or multiple scenarios and planning units, with unlimited planning attributes, driver models, gap-closing measure tracking and direct two-way connections to HCM or related systems. Access can be divided among administrators and users with Owner, Editor or Viewer rights across planning units, which is useful when plan authors, approvers and observers need different permissions.

Key features

Scenario modeling and forecasting

Driver models let planning teams express how business assumptions affect future workforce capacity. That makes smartPlan a practical fit for multi-year headcount forecasting and organizational planning where leaders need to compare several possible paths instead of committing to one projection.

Gap analysis and action tracking

The software identifies workforce gaps and proposes ways to close them. Its measure-tracking capability keeps those responses connected to the scenario that created the gap, giving planners a way to follow actions rather than stop at a diagnostic report.

Market context

Macroeconomic and labor-market data helps teams judge likely job demand, skill shifts and market direction alongside internal plans. This is valuable when external conditions could materially change hiring or reskilling requirements.

Workforce monitoring and integrations

The May 2026 release describes uploading workforce data to monitor actual FTE counts and workforce costs against planned targets. Enterprise customers can integrate HCM or related tools in both directions, reducing the need to keep planning and source systems separately updated.

Service and controls

The license includes Help Center access, application support by email and regular virtual consulting meetings within stated limits. HRForecast warrants 98% availability for the documented core features under its Master Service and Subscription Agreement. GDPR-aligned deletion rules apply, with backup data deleted within 30 days after profile deletion. Onboarding and strategy or process consulting workshops are outside the license fee and must be bought separately.

Pricing

Enterprise (Scenario Planning) edition

Custom pricing. Organizations must contact HRForecast for an offer. The edition includes planning one or multiple scenarios and planning units, unlimited planning attributes, driver models, gap-closing measure tracking and direct two-way HCM or related-tool integration.

This is the relevant choice for large organizations that need broad scenario coverage, governed access and connected planning workflows. The published scope does not include compensation planning or budget variance tracking, so teams requiring either should account for another system. There is no lower-priced public tier to trade away features for a smaller deployment, and onboarding or consulting workshops are additional purchases.

Platforms

smartPlan is available on Android, iOS and the web, supporting access across mobile devices and browsers.

Who it's for

smartPlan is aimed at companies with more than 1,000 employees, especially those coordinating strategic workforce plans across multiple business or planning units. It is a stronger fit for workforce strategy teams that need scenario comparisons, multi-year forecasting, gap responses and monitoring against targets. Smaller employers, or teams focused primarily on compensation planning or budget variance analysis, should consider a narrower or differently specialized product.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Connects scenarios to actions: driver models, gap analysis and measure tracking keep planning decisions tied to responses.
• Broad planning scope: multi-year headcount and organizational planning supports several scenarios and planning units with unlimited planning attributes.
• External market context: global economic and labor data informs workforce assumptions beyond internal history.
• Governed collaboration: Owner, Editor and Viewer roles separate plan control from review access.
• Enterprise connectivity: two-way HCM integration can keep source and planning environments aligned.

Cons

• Custom pricing: buyers cannot evaluate a public price before requesting an offer.
• Extra implementation spend: onboarding and strategy or process workshops are not covered by the license fee.
• Missing compensation and variance functions: the edition does not provide compensation planning or budget variance tracking.
• Large-company orientation: the stated target of more than 1,000 employees may make the platform disproportionate for smaller teams.

Alternatives

Workforce Planning Software is the broader category to compare when you want to survey multiple planning products.

• Arrange is a web-based freemium option with a forever-free workspace plan, two scenarios and benchmark rates in seven currencies; choose it for a lighter, lower-commitment planning start.
• Pave Market Data offers free U.S. and one additional-market benchmarks for startups with 1–200 employees, making it preferable when market compensation data is the priority.
• Workday Adaptive Planning provides a 30-day trial across a wider platform range; consider it when you want to evaluate that planning product before purchase.
• Bridgit offers its Bridgit Bench plan with pricing on request.
• PeopleCoral OrgStudio uses dedicated single-tenant deployment with price dependent on countries and headcount.
• Nakisa Capital Projects Suite requires a tailored demo for pricing.
• TalentNeuron is a paid product available through API and web.
• beqom PaySuite is a paid API and web product with demo-based pricing.

Verdict

Choose smartPlan if you are a large employer that needs to connect multiple business scenarios with multi-year workforce forecasts, gap-closing measures and monitored targets. Its main strength is that strategic assumptions and workforce actions sit in one planning framework. Look elsewhere if you need compensation or budget-variance planning, a public low-cost tier, or implementation services included in the subscription.