10 Best Resource Management Software & Scheduling Tools
Andrei Țiț
16 min
July 19, 2024
Resource management software and resource scheduling software have come a long way from colored spreadsheets, prone to human errors. That’s why I’ve decided to do a detailed review of the best resource management and scheduling tools to help you match your current project demand with the available resources.
You’ll get an overview of each tool, screenshots, key takeaways, and a comparison chart at the end to help you make a more rational decision. Plus, there’s a rundown on a bit of theory. There’s also work software for your daily activities and client work, but I’ve narrowed them down to those great at resource management and scheduling.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the best agency resource management software out there:
Paymo – best team scheduling tool for teams of up to 20 people
Runn – best for resource utilization and forecasting
best resource management software with advanced PM features
Pricing: Average
88
of 100
Pros
advanced resource management
capacity planner
vacation and leave management
employee performance widgets
Cons
resource management is available on the more expensive plan
Team scheduling module in Paymo
Paymo is a resource management software and scheduling tool that uses native time tracking, task management, Gantt charts, and invoicing. It will show exactly who’s working on what, for how long, and if a team member is over or underbooked.
Paymo started as a time-tracking tool and gradually developed into a robust project management platform. Granted, team scheduling would be incomplete if not based on tried-and-tested time-tracking software to evaluate hourly bookings, workload, etc. better. It also eliminates the need for several applications to track and manage basic work activities. Moving on.
Despite the module’s name—Team Scheduling—I still consider it a top resource management software because it offers the best of both worlds. Firstly, it lets you plan task durations and set dependencies between them.
Secondly, it reunites team capacity, workload, and availability on a visual timeline to help you allocate resources accordingly across your small business. With tasks and bookings in sync, you can map resource changes on the actual project plan, which is vital for sound resource management.
The automatic resource scheduling feature is worth considering, as Paymo sets up automatic ghost bookings based on the previously added task dates. This is good because what’s left is converting them into actual bookings instead of manually adding them individually. No worries if tasks don’t have a start and end date; you can still drop unplanned tasks directly into a user’s schedule.
Unscheduled work panel and automatic ghost bookings in Paymo
To forecast future resource demand, you can toggle between a weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly timespan. Users love that you can book resources by the hour for meetings using the daily view. The daily view is similar to a calendar but with hours on the horizontal axis.
Paymo also has a built-in leave planner that allows users to plan vacations without leaving the scheduler. Pair this with the professional user analytics that gives an overview of a user’s remaining paid vs. non-paid leave days and current performance, and you’ve got yourself a potent combo for resource management.
Key features
Gantt Charts and Portfolio Gantt Chart
Schedule timeline with users/projects/unscheduled work views
Drag and drop functionality for resource scheduling
Auto scheduling based on previous task details
Auto-sync between tasks and bookings
Resource capacity indicator at a user/task/project level
Vacation and leave management
Timesheets for tracking planned vs. actual work time
A new cloud resource management software on the market, Runn has by far the slickest and most intuitive interface out of all the resource management tools out there.
At one glance, you can view all your project timelines—including tentative ones that haven’t materialized yet from a sales perspective—and important milestones, along with the available resource pool in a so-called Planner.
Tasks are planned through a simple drag and drop, while the editing options include task splitting and multi-selection to ease the resource planning part. All in all, the learning curve is shallow.
I also like that you can add placeholders to account for work that needs to be done. Many users say they are unsure to whom to allocate work in the first place. This is where the placeholders become helpful. Depending on the project, each user has different rate cards to factor in junior and senior payment rates.
At the same time, Runn boasts visual charts to evaluate your team’s current capacity and workload, their remaining availability, and actual utilization in terms of billable vs. non-billable work. A new addition is the people cost chart, which allows you to see the overhead you incur daily with salaries – a great feature if you run payroll.
This employee resource management software stands out through its dynamic and straightforward financial reporting. Personalize your reports to monitor the project’s profitability, performance, and overall spending based on when the budget was breached and the actual amount. People’s KPIs and missing timesheet reports are available and look professional, too.
Key features
Scoping for project planning
Schedule timeline with users/projects views
Drag and drop functionality for resource scheduling
Split, transfer, and multi-select for resource allocation
Placeholder to indicate resource demand for a role
Different rate cards for users & HR overhead calculator
Resource utilization and financial reports
Timesheets for tracking planned vs. actual work time
Pricing (yearly)
Startup – Free, up to 5 users
Pro – $8/user/month
Enterprise – Custom
If you’re looking for a simple web-based resource management solution with not too many bells and whistles, Toggl Plan has your back.
The online tool comes with a simplistic, colorful design that makes project planning and scheduling resources fun. Define project segments on a separate left column, then plan out task durations with a drag and drop on the timeline for each segment.
Too bad that there are no task dependencies. At least milestones appear on top of the calendar dates, so you never miss any important updates ever again. You can also turn them into company-wide leave days.
Scheduling resources is simple; switch to the team timeline to visualize your team’s current workload and daily availability. One common reason for complaint is that the staff capacity is not visible, which is why some users feel that the tool is limited.
Otherwise, it would have covered all resource scheduling basics. Luckily, any changes made to the schedule also get reflected at a task level.
To probe against future demand, Toggl Plan lets you zoom out weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly. This way, you’re better prepared to know whether to hire more people or shuffle resources with a strategic mindset first.
The best part is that you can publicly share the project and team timeline with external clients, choose to show milestones, and keep the preferred zoom level.
If you compare it to similar resource management software, the major difference is that it lacks an integral feature that a good resource management solution should include—a time-tracking module. For this, you’ll have to purchase a subscription to Toggl Track.
Key features
Project and team timeline
Scoping for project planning
Drag and drop functionality for resource scheduling
Auto-sync between tasks and bookings
Daily workload and availability
Shareable project and team timeline
Zoom levels for weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly timespan
Custom color coding for tasks and schedules
Pricing (yearly)
No free plan available.
Team – $9/user/month
Business – $15/user/month
If you prefer using an online Gantt chart as your main planning and project management tool, then GanttPRO may be a great option for you.
This professional resource management and scheduling software lets users easily and visibly manage their projects. Crucial to resource allocation is knowing how to manage a project, so be sure to read this guide with an example and pictures.
GanttPRO is useful for teams across various organizations and spheres, including software development, finance, construction, education, marketing, event planning, manufacturing, digital agencies, etc.
With its help, you can plan work and resources, schedule tasks, set deadlines, and collaborate with stakeholders. The tool allows the creation of unlimited projects and working with unlimited resources, even using a free trial.
A handy online Gantt diagram is a perfect source to schedule activities, set dependencies, add milestones for project tasks, and work with the flexible WBS hierarchies. You can also prioritize tasks to make sure your deadlines are met.
GanttPRO has a clean user interface and an intuitive UX/UI design. Besides a professional Gantt chart timeline, you can utilize a board or task view. Import and export features are also available here.
This resource management and scheduling tool is reliable for in-house teams, freelancers, and remote workers.
Key features
Advanced resource management
Intuitive Gantt charts for professional planning and scheduling
Drag and drop task management
Team collaboration
Real-time notifications
Time tracking
Budget management
Export/import
Reporting
Helpful templates
Pricing (yearly)
Basic – from 7.99 /user/month
Pro – from $12.99 /user/month
Business – from $19.99 /user/month
Enterprise – available on demand
*If you are a single user, different price tiers apply.
ProjectManager is cloud-based project management software designed for business excellence. Its features help users plan, manage, and track projects, build workflows, and manage resources with powerful features for the whole team.
The resource planning features give users control over their schedules, resources, and costs by allocating both human and nonhuman resources and tracking those costs in real time. The software allows for visibility into your staff’s availability, and you can manage their workload to keep them working at capacity.
When onboarding your team, the software lets you set their availability. For remote teams, you can note vacation days, PTO, and even global holidays. That makes it a lot easier to assign team members to tasks.
Once everyone is assigned, the project manager can hover to the workload page. This color-coded chart shows everyone’s allocation, so it’s easy to see who has too many tasks at a glance. The project manager can then balance the workload across the team from that chart to keep the team productive but not overtasked.
Cost and time tracking features help keep projects running smoothly without bottlenecks that can threaten the project’s budget. One of the multiple project views, the Kanban board gives project managers visibility into the workflow to catch potential bottlenecks and reallocate resources to avoid them.
Resource plans and schedules can be incorporated into more extensive project plans. Users can estimate planned costs and the effort to make better resource plans. They can also set hourly rates for their team and track time with secure timesheets. Plus, real-time dashboards give a high-level overview of the project’s cost, workload, and more.
There’s even portfolio management, with roadmaps to manage multiple projects.
KeyFeatures
Set team availability, including vacations, PTO, and global holidays
Allocate resources and track costs
View and balance team allocation with workload chart
Track costs, workload, and more with live dashboards
Cost and time tracking in real time
Secure timesheets to track time spent on tasks
Visualize workflow with customizable Kanban boards
Roadmaps to plan, manage, and track portfolio resources
Pricing (yearly)
Team: $13 per user/month
Business: $24 per user/month
Enterprise: contact sales
As an all-in-one project management tool, ClickUp has a wide range of customizable features enabling teams to build their platform according to their business needs.
With over 15+ custom ways to view your work, ClickUp makes planning, scheduling, and allocating resources easier. Plan your work over time and create visual roadmaps in Timeline View to keep your unscheduled, assigned, and overdue tasks visible. Then, manage your team’s work capacity in the Workload view to ensure you allocate tasks appropriately. To get an even higher-level overview of your resources, simply use the Box view and Dashboards to get a completely unique view that lets you see workload and capacity at a glance.
ClickUp can also be connected to over 1,000 other tools to help bring all your work in one place, keep your most-used apps together, and streamline your workflow.
And if you need to take your work on the go, simply download the mobile app. Any changes made in the app automatically sync to your desktop app in real time, making resource management as easy for you as possible.
Key features:
15+ custom views, including Box, Workload, Timeline, and Gantt view
Profiles feature shows what each person is currently working on
Custom Fields such as capacity to set weekly work capacity
Dashboards with customizable widgets
Add a single or multiple assignees
Global time tracking and time estimates
Drag and drop functionality
Custom automation
Pricing:
Free plan available.
Unlimited – $7 per member/month
Business – $12 per member/month
Enterprise – call Sales for pricing
As the name suggests, Forecast is a project planning and resource allocation software that comes with powerful automation and resource forecasting features.
Their AI-powered auto-scheduling, for example, is much more different than Paymo’s in the sense that it matches a list of tasks with the available resources per their role and current workload while also sequencing them on the project timeline. Some users feel that the learning curve is a bit steep, though. Though auto-scheduling is an interesting feature, bear in mind that this is just a provisional resource forecast. You can save it and use it for future projects.
After you’re done with the resource planning, you can quickly spot over-allocated users and make adjustments thanks to the visual resource heatmap. This one gauges everyone’s utilization rates against their initial capacity in a grid-like view, highlighting potential bottlenecks early on. This resource heatmap is ideal for complex projects.
Forecast also offers rich user profiles. You can document each member’s role, team, and available skills. There are parameters to search for when matching resource demand with resource capacity in a strategic way.
Resource management-wise, the resource utilization report is not to be ignored, as it compares the total billable vs. non-billable allocated hours for each user, in case you want to calculate your projects’ profitability. Or make sure your team is working only on the projects with the highest revenue.
One common reason for complaint is that the pricing is a little steep due to its incremental seats, and it might not be ideal for small teams.
Key features
Scoping for project planning
Schedule timeline with user/project views
Auto scheduling based on current workloads and task dependencies
Resource heatmap with over- and under-booked hours
Timesheets for tracking planned vs. actual work time
Resource forecasting suggestions
Rich user profiles with roles, teams, and skills
Resource utilization reports
Pricing (yearly)
No free plan available.
Pro & Plus are annual custom plans with quotes on request.
Float is the leading web-based resource scheduling software packed with many helpful features amidst its simplicity. Or perhaps should I say because of it.
The people area shows you the entire team’s schedule and their current workload and leave days. To probe deeper data, use the search bar or predefined filters that sort information in a descending or ascending order.
I like that the resource scheduler also comes with an activity feed, allowing you to follow updates as they unfold chronologically and perhaps spot inconsistencies along the way.
If you want to update the schedule, right-click on a task to split, re-assign it, or duplicate it on the go. Or use the quick shortcuts to apply the exact change to multiple tasks. Many users love the speed and smoothness of the updates.
You can also set a scheduled status to alert the team that you work from home or are out of the office. As well as set tentative tasks in case they haven’t been confirmed yet.
On the other hand, user profiles come with job titles, departments, and tag fields, making it easy to organize your team after searchable terms. In return, they can also compare their work time with the initially scheduled hours, thanks to the pre-filled timesheets.
Float doesn’t disappoint on the reports side either, displaying logged vs. scheduled hours, future scheduled workload, and the billable vs. non-billable ratio of logged hours in an easy-to-understand bar chart timeline.
It also has project reports, but they’re too simple, in my experience. For example, projects are either under or over an hourly or financial budget. This major difference is why I didn’t include it under the project resource management tools.
Key features
Schedule timeline with users/projects views
Drag and drop functionality for resource scheduling
Split, duplicate, and multi-select for resource allocation
Placeholder to indicate resource demand for a role
Scheduled statuses and tentative tasks
Resource schedule change history
Resource utilization and financial reports
Timesheets for tracking planned vs. actual work time
Pricing (yearly)
Starter – $6/user/month for resource planning
Pro – $10/user/month for resource planning and time tracking
Enterprise – annual plan only; on demand.
Perhaps one of the oldest online resource scheduling software on the market, Resource Guru intentionally keeps their designs alive. The interface has undergone a major update, packing enough punch power to help you effectively manage resources of any kind.
You read that right. This is one of the few software for resource scheduling that lets you manage people and physical and non-physical resources, like meeting rooms or conference calls. It’s an interesting feature, no doubt. Nevertheless, every non-human resource costs in Resource Guru. These will show up on the schedule timeline, with the possibility of booking them on an hourly basis.
Back to people, the scheduler gives you the big picture of your team’s workload and remaining availability on the same timeline. A nice addition against burnout is the ability to add bookings on a waiting list in case the person you’re trying to schedule is overbooked already.
Resource Guru is ideal for remote teams, considering different time zones. Mention each user’s time zone, then plan your resources accordingly. You can also specify hourly intervals for when a user is available for work to avoid any resource clashes.
However, Resource Guru is limited in some respects—the lack of task dependencies and time-tracking makes some users feel that the software might not be sufficient for their needs.
Like Paymo, this cloud-based resource scheduling software has a more robust built-in leave planner than others in its category. I’m talking about customizable leave types, part-time support, and paid vs. unpaid holidays.
It has fully customizable permissions, with each user seeing their current and future workload in a personal dashboard. No need for human resource management software anymore.
But what I have against Resource Guru is their pricing scheme. Resource Guru offers three plans—Grasshopper, Blackbelt, and Master—at seemingly attractive prices. Is this really the case?
All plans are available for accounts with 30 (human) resources or more and non-human resources costs. It’s worth noting that a Grasshopper plan costs $125 plus the non-human resources, which adds up easily even if paid annually.
The Blackbelt amounts to $200, and the Master plan $300 if we assume a minimum of 30 human resources.
Key Features
Schedule timelines with workload and availability
Human, physical, and non-physical resources
Add bookings to a waiting list
Account for different time zones
Custom fields for teams and skill-tracking
Individual dashboard for current and future bookings
on the basic plan, only the manager can fill out timesheets
no access to the Teamdeck app unless on the more expensive plan
For simple resource scheduling software, time tracking, and leave management all in one, Teamdeck wins the ticket.
Bookings, timesheets, and leave days—yes, even timesheets—reside on the same resource plan, with visual indicators for the remaining bookable and tracked hours. At your choice, you can display or hide either one of those timelines or re-arrange them as you see fit. Don’t forget to hit save at the end to keep the customized view.
Roles, skills, and departments can be accounted for with the help of custom fields. On the other hand, projects are straightforward to create or import from a CSV, text, or XML file.
Where Teamdeck stands out in terms of benefits, though, is the robust leave management. People can request full or half-day leaves to be further approved by their project or resource managers while also motivating their reason. The leave days will automatically be deducted from each user’s total.
I also like that you can create resource utilization and time off reports from templates, saving you the hassle of adding them from scratch. Since there’s a timesheet module, you can also run payroll and see how much you should pay each one of your team members.
Key Features
Project bulk import
Schedule timeline with workload, availability, timesheets, and leave days
Customizable schedule timeline
Custom fields for teams and skill-tracking
Resource utilization reports
Vacation and leave management
Vacation approval
Timesheets for tracking planned vs. actual work time
Pricing (yearly)
Basic resource – $0.9/user/month
Team member – $3.60/user/month
Comparison chart — top 8 resource management and resource scheduling software
So what’s the best software for resource allocation, you may ask, after so many reviews? I’ve compiled a comparison chart below for all the online tools to make your life easier.
Best Resource Management & Resource Scheduling Software
Resource management vs. resource scheduling
To better understand the difference between those two, let’s analyze what a resource is.
In traditional project management, a resource can be any asset required to complete a project – be it human, physical, or technical equipment. For good reasons, the more modern approach leans towards naming human resources as people, but it doesn’t exclude the rest.
Resource management refers to planning, monitoring, and optimizing resources. As a project manager, you must first identify the number and types of resources required.
If they’re people, this is usually done after a specific role or skill set that fits the project at hand. Only then can you do a proper resource distribution, a.k.a. balance out resources per their allocations – either via resource-leveling or resource smoothing – and forecast future ones.
Resource scheduling is part of resource management and optimization and allocating the right people for the appropriate tasks. This involves evaluating the current workload of each team member, checking their future availability, and prioritizing tasks accordingly so there are no project delays.
To summarize, resource management involves planning and identifying resource demand. In contrast, resource scheduling involves allocating the existing resource capacity to delay the project.
How does this work out in a software context, though?
Criteria for resource management software
In my experience, resource management software entails some planning, so don’t be surprised if you see Gantt Charts or timelines with task dependencies included in their suite. They’re more encompassing in this sense, leaning toward the project management software end.
Apart from this, consider the following feature criteria for resource planning software:
Planning tools: Is creating a clear project breakdown easy with assigned users, deadlines, and dependencies? Look for calendars, timelines, Gantt Charts, or any planning feature that allows you to schedule project phases.
Skills management: Can I filter after specific skill sets? You should create detailed profiles of team members with skills, location, and belonging teams and filter after different parameters such as custom tags or clients.
Resource forecasting: Can I forecast demand for future projects? Ideally, the resource management system will be your trusted adviser and calculate future demand based on the previously forecasted projects.
Analytics: How easily can I gauge project and user capacity to the current resource utilization? The more granular you can be, the better.
Criteria for resource scheduling software
On the other hand, resource scheduling software is more oriented towards scheduling resources per se. This means you’ll want a clear overview of the whole team’s capacity, both at a macro and micro level, so you know where to make trade-offs and when.
Here are the feature criteria that we took into account for the best resource-scheduling software:
Bird’s eye view of resource schedule: Can I see the entire resource schedule for the whole team, including current workloads, remaining availability, and unscheduled work?
Automatic scheduling: Does the resource planning tool make suggestions based on the existing data? Preferably, some mechanism or automation either allocates resources on your behalf or speeds up the process altogether.
Visual alerts: Are any available burndown graphs or visual indicators that work for me, not against me? You want tools that signal the resource utilization status or progress both at a user and project level.
Leave planner: Will I know whom to rely on? Although often overlooked, a built-in leave planner can save you time when it comes to allocating the right amount of work to the right people without overburdening them.
Benefits of resource management & resource scheduling software
Of course, some of the features listed above might overlap or come in pairs. For example, planning might accompany an overview of the project schedule. Real-time analytics might be part of a dense user profile with different metrics, requiring more experience. Moreover, resource scheduling software combined with project management and time tracking serves many industries and is tailored to consultants and knowledge workers, teams of all sizes, and creatives.
However, both resource management software and resource scheduling software come with a set of advantages:
Increased visibility. Effective project planning is deemed to help deliver projects on time and within budget. But this is just half the story. You must also know which resources are available, their current workload, and future availability.
Resource management and resource scheduling software give you a visual overview of your team’s schedule. This way, you can match the available people with the right tasks based on their efforts. Plus, avoid resource clashes and resource shortages.
Closer ties with clients. If you think about it, a resource management solution or a resource scheduling software is, in fact, a communication tool. Project managers can monitor the correct deployment of resources against the initial resource forecast. Similarly, product managers ensure the correct deployment of resources, but against product goals and outcomes. If you are curious about which is better in pm, read this article on project manager vs. product manager responsibilities.
At the same time, stakeholders and clients can follow the project progress straightforwardly — a clear project schedule instead of a long and painful meeting.
A healthier work environment. Having simple resource management software and resource capacity planning software in place can boost overall team accountability. It might sound too good to be accurate, but knowing whom to report to and what’s on your plate at any given moment brings reassurance.
Your colleagues can finally productively organize their efforts without burning out. This will also increase the quality of the delivered work, as everyone can contribute to the full extent of their skills and not scramble their efforts on low-impact tasks.
Note: if a career in project management interests you, read our guide concerning project manager education that outlines the skills you need, along with advice and resources.
Andrei Țiț
Author
Andrei Țiț is a product marketer at Ahrefs. He has been involved in product marketing at various SaaS companies for over six years, specializing in content marketing and short-form video. In his free time, he enjoys cooking and traveling.
Alexandra Martin
Editor
Drawing from a background in cognitive linguistics and armed with 10+ years of content writing experience, Alexandra Martin combines her expertise with a newfound interest in productivity and project management. In her spare time, she dabbles in all things creative.
