Best Resource Management Software
I’ve selected these as the best resource management software for 2022.
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monday.comBest for simple workload and capacity planning
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Kantata (formerly Mavenlink + Kimble)Best all-in-one resource planning, timesheets, and project financials
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elapseitintegrated resource planning and task tracking solution that you can actually use from small details to the big picture
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SmartsheetBest for advanced and custom workflow automations
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RunnBest for managing and tracking resources in real-time
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SaviomBest for enterprise resource and workforce management
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Resource GuruBest low-cost option for beginners
- Mosaic
Best for its recommendations based on resource skills and availability
- Silverbucket
Best for project-based work
- Productive
easy-to-learn resource management software for agencies with powerful, visual reporting features
According to PMI’s Pulse of the Profession 2020 report, poor resource management can waste up to 11.4% of a company’s resources. Resource management software can help you manage workloads and address this risk. Very useful, considering most project managers are running 2-5 projects at the same time!
I've selected the top resource management software, and I'll walk you through my selections in this complete review. You'll learn about the factors I consider when evaluating software, as well as the main information about each tool's features and functionality, to help you choose the right software for your use case.
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How We 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
Kantata (formerly Mavenlink + Kimble)
Best all-in-one resource planning, timesheets, and project financials
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.
Why I picked Kantat: 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
elapseit
integrated resource planning and task tracking solution that you can actually use from small details to the big picture
elapseit is a SaaS platform where two of the most needed and used features in project management - task management and resource planning - are integrated and interconnected in a unique way that will make workforce management a lot easier.
The resourcing system takes vacations and bank holidays into account and is designed to help you avoid resource over and under-allocation. Bank holidays can be defined per location so you can grow worldwide without worries. You can define custom vacation types with different numbers of vacation days and keep track of them. All this can happen with or without an approval workflow. Each person’s timesheet is pre-filled based on the allocation, and you can generate multi-language invoices based on hours submitted and approved.
elapseit is smart enough to let you know in seconds if you have enough resources to take a new project on board based on the “Available Capacity” report, so forecast is a breeze. You can check the resource utilization along with many other reports. You can even see the income your resources generate by checking the profitability report.
The task system integrates seamlessly with the resource planner, so anytime you are looking at the allocation planner you are also seeing how many tasks any of your team member is working on, what is their status, if there is any blocker or if they are working on tasks that are not part of an allocation on that project.
In a nutshell, elapseit is a powerful project and resource management software with fully integrated features. These include resourcing management & forecast, task management with Kanban boards and Gantt charts, time-tracking, time-off management, invoicing, reports, document management, all together in a secure user experience. It's the best option for all company sizes and project types. The price starts at $14USD/user/month.
Pros
- Clear, intuitive data interface
- Multilanguage: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
- Prefilled timesheets based on allocations
- Mobile applications (iOS and Android)
- Integration of tasks management and resource planning
Cons
- Dashboard could be more customizable
- The complexity of the interface might be overwhelming at first until you get used to it
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
Runn
Best for managing and tracking resources in real-time
Runn is a real-time resource, demand, and capacity planning tool with integrated time tracking and powerful forecasting capabilities. You can get a bird’s-eye view of all projects and people to instantly spot overbookings and identify resourcing patterns.
Why I picked Runn: Scheduling allocations is easy and intuitive in Runn. Simply drag-and-drop to create project phases and allocations. Flick between monthly, quarterly, and 6-month views to plan for the short and long term. If you don’t have the right person at the right time, you can use placeholders instead.
Additionally, you can see visualizations of capacity, workload, availability, and billable and non-billable utilization. Drill into different roles, teams and tags to compare trends and understand which groups are overbooked. Plan out tentative projects to see how your resourcing plans might change if the work gets confirmed.
Finally, Runn lets you track projects, view forecasts, utilization, project variance, and overall financial performance. Its built-in timesheets will help you understand how much time was worked compared to what was planned.
Runn Standout Features & Integrations
Features include resource scheduling, project planning, capacity management, project forecasting, timesheets, and reporting.
Integrations include apps like Harvest, WorkflowMax, and Clockify for importing project, client, and people data and syncing time entries. With Runn’s API, you can build your own integration to send data across your favorite tools.
Runn Plans & Pricing
Pricing starts at $10/user/month and has a 14-day free trial. There is also a free plan for up to 5 people.
Pros
- Powerful API
- Over-budget predictions
- Easily identify overbooked/unavailable employees
- Intuitive utilization reporting and forecasting
- Drag-and-drop resource scheduling
Cons
- Limited number of integrations
- No offline or mobile time tracking
Saviom
Best for enterprise resource and workforce management
Saviom is a leader in powerful and configurable resource management software.
Why I picked Saviom: Its ERM solution enables agile resource scheduling with a Gantt chart-style view using simple drag-and-drop functionality. Besides, the enterprise-wide visibility of the tool helps you identify and allocate the right resource to the right job. Additionally, using modeling and simulation techniques, the tool helps select an optimized resource plan and enhance ROI.
Using the forecasting and capacity planning module, businesses can forward plan pipeline projects and bridge the capacity vs. demand gap proactively. Moreover, you can optimize your workforce by maximizing the profitable utilization of every resource.
Firms can improve their organizational health index using real-time Business Intelligence. They can build customized portals, dashboards, analytics, and reports using the tool's highly configurable and expandable capability.
Saviom Standout Features & Integrations
Features include a multidimensional resource scheduler and planner, advanced forecasting and capacity planning, and real-time business intelligence.
Integrations include Outlook, Google, Salesforce, Jira, and custom integrations you can build using its data exchange framework.
Saviom Plans & Pricing
With a tiered pricing model as customizable as the tool, Saviom’s power and lite licenses operate under role-based access, ensuring you retain full control over data.
Pros
- Seamless integration with other enterprise applications
- Highly flexible real-time reports, analytics & dashboards
- Real-time resource optimization, modeling & simulation
- Highly configurable & customizable RM solution
- Multidimensional resource forecasting & capacity planning
Cons
- Pricing is available only on request
- More suitable for medium to large enterprises
- There is a learning curve as the tool comes with extensive features
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
Silverbucket
Best for project-based work
Silverbucket is a resource planning tool for project-based businesses, and is designed for use by architects, engineers, and IT professionals. Silverbucket is easy to use and allows users to view and compare resource plans and actual hours to get insights into the success of resource management activities.
The tool provides clear views of a company’s resource allocation activities, including conflicts, workloads, and capacity levels. Project managers can allocate team members to tasks and projects, and make allocations to unassigned roles if needed.
Skills tracking features such as tracking competencies and abilities are also included, as are reporting tools such as performance dashboards, insights on past resourcing plans, and forecasting for future resource management plans.
Silverbucket gives different parties, such as project managers, team leaders, and company management, information about resourcing and how it affects the success of projects, as well as monitor sales forecasts, cash flow, and utilization rates.
Silverbucket offers a variety of APIs for integrations, which also allow automation of data flows.
Pricing starts from €10/planned person/month.
Pros
- Soft booking can be used to create tentative allocations
- Easily compare resource plans to actual hours
Cons
- No ability to create “what if” resource planning scenarios
- No mobile application available
Productive
easy-to-learn resource management software for agencies with powerful, visual reporting features
Productive is an all encompassing agency management tool. This online resource management tool supports time tracking, employee cost rate management, budgeting and profitability reporting (among other features). You also get progress reports which show you the future revenue on every project.
Some other, standard resource management software features include multiple views (per project/person/team). Booking indicators tell you who’s overbooked or underbooked at a glance. You can also schedule people on custom events (vacation, sick leave, education, or anything else). It also factors in overheads and employee costs when calculating profitability, ensuring you can focus on improving your metrics without getting burdened by non-billable work.
One of the best things about this resource planning software is that Productive has very active development and a well defined roadmap. It was built to replace a non-integrated tool stack agencies usually struggle with, both in terms of cost and quality of reporting. All in all, Productive gives you an amazing, top-down view of your people’s capacity that also reflects on the rest of your business (reports, time tracking, profitability).
Productive’s integrations include an assortment of accounting tools such as QuickBooks Online and Xero. A Zapier integration is available too, along with an open API anyone can use.
Productive costs $12/user/month. They also offer a fully-featured, free 14-day trial.
Pros
- Built-in time management can bill multiple business entities
- Plenty of custom tags to choose from
- Quite easy to set up collaborative tasks
Cons
- Invoicing and quotation features are limited
- Mobile app could be faster/more responsive
- Roles/user rights are not as customizable as they could be
Need expert help selecting the right Project Resource Management Software?
We’ve joined up with the software comparison platform Crozdesk.com to assist you in finding the right software. Crozdesk’s Project Resource Management Software advisors can create a personalized shortlist of software solutions with unbiased recommendations to help you identify the solutions that best suit your business's needs. Through our partnership you get free access to their bespoke software selection advice, removing both time and hassle from the research process.
It only takes a minute to submit your requirements and they will give you a quick call at no cost or commitment. Based on your needs you’ll receive customized software shortlists listing the best-fitting solutions from their team of software advisors (via phone or email). They can even connect you with your selected vendor choices along with community negotiated discounts. To get started, please complete the form below:
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 | From $11/user/month | Visit Website |
| 2 | Kantata (formerly Mavenlink + Kimble) Best all-in-one resource planning, timesheets, and project financials | Not available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
| 3 |  elapseit integrated resource planning and task tracking solution that you can actually use from small details to the big picture | 30 days free trial | From $14/user/month | Visit Website |
| 4 |  Smartsheet Best for advanced and custom workflow automations | 30-day free trial | From $9/user/month | Visit Website |
| 5 |  Runn Best for managing and tracking resources in real-time | 14-day free trial | From $10/person managed/month | Visit Website |
| 6 |  Saviom Best for enterprise resource and workforce management | 30-day free trial | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
| 7 |  Resource Guru Best low-cost option for beginners | 30-day free trial | From $2.50/person/month | Visit Website |
| 8 |  Mosaic Best for its recommendations based on resource skills and availability | 30 days free trial | From $9.99/user/month | Visit Website |
| 9 |  Silverbucket Best for project-based work | 30 day free trial | €10/planned person/month | Visit Website |
| 10 |  Productive easy-to-learn resource management software for agencies with powerful, visual reporting features | 14 days free trial | From $12.50/user/month | Visit Website |
Other Resource Management Solutions
None of the above work for you? Check out the below list of additional tools:
- Wrike
best resource management software for teams of all sizes
- ClickUp
Workload and box views that help you see what your team is up to and their capacity to take more work
- Zoho Projects
Best workload allocation tools
- Celoxis
Best reporting and analytics features
- VOGSY
best for G Suite users
- Schedule It
Best for scheduling work shifts & client bookings
- Forecast
Best AI-assisted RM
- Microsoft Project
Best RM software for Microsoft users
- Paymo
Best RM tool for remote teams
- ActiveCollab
Best for resource management dashboards
Resource Management FAQs
What is resource management?
In project management, resource management refers to the practice of planning, tracking, and optimizing the utilization of resources (such as staff, 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.
What is resource management software?
It is software that makes it easy to plan, schedule, and reschedule projects. 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.
What features should I look for when evaluating Resource Management software?
- : 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 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's an example of an effective resource management system?
An effective resource management system is one that works for your organization. It could be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet or Google sheet. However, it’s one that enables an 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.
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 you need resource management software?
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.
Other resource management lists
- Enterprise resource planning software for resource management at large companies.
- Resource scheduling software to help you schedule equipment, rooms, staff, and other resources.
- Resource tracking software, which combines resource planning with tracking to help you monitor and adapt your plan as you go.
- Marketing resource management software (MRM software) which is designed specifically for marketing teams.
- Open source resource management software for extra flexibility and (often) cheaper pricing.
- Capacity planning software to help you organize your team's workload according to their capacity and availability.
- Free resource management software, in case you need a less expensive option that will still cover your primary needs.
- Resource allocation software, which is specifically designed to help you alllocated the right resources to the right projects and tasks.
- Resource planning software to help you forecast required resources and their utilization on your projects.
- 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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