The Financial Planning dashboard helps you track and analyse workforce costs across your organisation. Use this dashboard to monitor remuneration spend, labour capacity, recruitment investments, training costs, and other HR-related expenditures to support budget planning and cost management.
This dashboard is designed for HR leaders, workforce planning analysts, and finance teams who need to forecast labour costs, track HR program spending, and optimize workforce investments.
To request a demo or explore other Analytics capabilities, reach out to your account manager.
Top Line KPI Metrics
The dashboard displays eight key performance indicators that provide a comprehensive view of workforce financial health:
Monthly Total Remuneration Spend – Total employee compensation including base salary and all additional payments for the current month. Measures overall workforce cost burden and payroll obligations.
Monthly Base Remuneration Spend – Base salary component of employee compensation excluding bonuses, allowances, and other variable pay. Represents fixed payroll obligations and supports base cost forecasting.
Monthly Labour Capacity (hours) – Total contractual hours across all active employees within the month. Indicates available workforce capacity and helps calculate fully-loaded hourly rates.
Average Labour Cost – Mean cost per employee calculated from total remuneration divided by labour capacity hours. Provides a per-hour workforce cost benchmark for budgeting and project costing.
Recruitment Cost – Total investment in hiring activities including job advertising, agency fees, assessment costs, and recruitment team expenses. Tracks cost to acquire new talent.
Training Cost – Total expenditure on employee development including course fees, trainer costs, materials, and employee time invested in training. Measures investment in workforce capability building.
Diary Notes Cost – Cost associated with employee notes, records, and documentation activities. Tracks administrative overhead related to employee record management.
Performance Improvement Plan Cost – Investment in performance management interventions including PIP administration, coaching, and support resources. Measures cost of performance remediation efforts.
Visualisations
The dashboard is organised across three tabs providing different perspectives on workforce financial performance.
| Visualisation | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Overview Tab | |
| Monthly Remuneration Spend | Stacked column chart comparing base salary versus non-base payments (bonuses, allowances, overtime) across months. Shows payroll composition trends and variable pay patterns. |
| Costs by Month | Stacked column chart displaying all HR program costs (recruitment, training, diary notes, performance management) by month. Reveals seasonal spending patterns and cost trends across HR programs. |
| Recruitment Cost Breakdown | Pie chart showing recruitment spend by source (agency, direct advertising, referral, social media, job boards). Identifies which sourcing channels consume the most recruitment budget. |
| Training Cost Breakdown | Pie chart breaking down training investment by type (soft skills, technical, compliance, leadership development, certifications). Shows training portfolio composition and where development dollars are allocated. |
| Diary Notes Cost Breakdown | Pie chart displaying diary note costs by category (recognition, compliance, behavioral, skills gap, productivity). Indicates which types of employee documentation activities require the most administrative investment. |
| PIP Cost Breakdown | Pie chart showing performance improvement plan costs by category (values/behavioral, safety/incident, compliance/policy, productivity, attendance). Reveals which performance issues consume the most remediation resources. |
| Deep Dive Tab | |
| Monthly Total Remuneration by [Dimension] | Bar chart comparing total monthly payroll spend across your selected dimension (e.g., department, location, business unit). |
| Monthly Base Remuneration by [Dimension] | Bar chart showing base salary spend segmented by your chosen dimension. |
| Labour Capacity by [Dimension] | Bar chart displaying available workforce hours broken down by dimension. |
| Average Labour Cost by [Dimension] | Bar chart comparing per-hour labour rates across different segments for cost benchmarking. |
| Recruitment Cost by [Dimension] | Bar chart analyzing hiring investment segmented by dimension. |
| Training Cost by [Dimension] | Bar chart showing training spend broken down by your selected dimension. |
| Diary Notes Cost by [Dimension] | Bar chart displaying administrative costs segmented by dimension. |
| PIP Cost by [Dimension] | Bar chart comparing performance management investment across different segments. |
| Cost Detail Pivot Table | Customizable pivot table for detailed cost analysis across multiple dimensions simultaneously. |
| Row Data Tab | |
| Remuneration Costs Detail Table | Granular table showing individual payment records with employee, job, pay package, payment date, base/non-base amounts, hours, and currency for detailed payroll analysis. |
| Job-Related Costs Detail Table | Line-item table of all HR program costs with event type, date, employee, job, cost category, fixed cost, employee time cost, and total cost for detailed expense review. |
[Screenshot: Overview tab showing KPI tiles, remuneration trends, and cost breakdown visualizations]
Filters
Use filters to narrow your analysis to specific time periods, organizational units, employee segments, or cost categories:
Date-based filters:
- Date (default: last 365 days) – Filter data by specific date ranges or months to analyze spending trends over time
Organizational filters:
- Business Entity – Filter by legal entity or company
- Business Unit – Filter by department or division
- Location – Filter by office, region, or geographic location
- Supervisor Name – Filter by reporting manager to analyze team costs
- Supervisor Status – Filter by manager employment status
Job characteristics:
- Position Title – Filter by role or job title
- Pay Grade – Filter by salary band or grade level
- Employment Condition – Filter by employment type (full-time, part-time, casual, contractor)
- Work Class – Filter by work classification category
- Work Type – Filter by work arrangement (permanent, temporary, fixed-term)
- Work Right – Filter by visa or work authorization status
- Probation Status – Filter by probationary period status
- FTE – Filter by full-time equivalent percentage
Demographic filters:
- Age Group – Filter by employee age bands
- Gender – Filter by employee gender
- Leave Type – Filter to analyze costs for employees on specific leave types
Deep Dive Options
The Deep Dive tab includes a dynamic parameter called Show Deep Dive By that lets you slice all visualizations by different dimensions. Select from these options to compare financial performance across segments:
- Business Entity
- Business Unit
- Department
- Location
- Supervisor Name
- Position Title
- Pay Grade
- Employment Condition
- Age Group
- Gender
- Custom fields for Employees
This parameter updates all Deep Dive visualisations simultaneously, making it easy to identify cost drivers, compare spending across organisational units, or analyse financial patterns by employee demographics.
[Screenshot: Deep Dive tab with Show Deep Dive By parameter selector]
Understanding Key Calculations
Remuneration Metrics
Monthly Total Remuneration Spend aggregates all employee payments in the selected month including base salary, bonuses, allowances, overtime, commissions, and other compensation components. This represents total payroll obligations and cash outflow for workforce costs.
Monthly Base Remuneration Spend includes only the fixed salary component, excluding variable payments. Base remuneration calculations are prorated for partial pay cycles when employees start or end employment mid-cycle. This metric supports baseline budget forecasting and represents committed fixed costs.
Non-Base Remuneration (shown in visualisations) includes all variable pay components such as bonuses, shift allowances, overtime, commissions, and other supplemental payments. The ratio of base to non-base spend indicates pay structure flexibility and variable cost exposure.
Labor Capacity and Cost Efficiency
Monthly Labour Capacity (hours) sums contractual hours per pay cycle across all active employees. This metric comes from employment contracts and represents available workforce capacity regardless of actual hours worked. For salaried employees, standard full-time hours are typically 38-40 hours per week multiplied by weeks per pay cycle.
Average Labour Cost divides total remuneration by total labour capacity hours to calculate a mean hourly workforce cost. This metric includes all compensation components (base and non-base) divided by contractual hours, providing a fully-loaded hourly rate. Use this benchmark for project costing, capacity planning, and comparing labour cost efficiency across teams or time periods.
HR Program Costs
Recruitment Cost aggregates all expenses related to hiring new employees including job advertising, recruitment agency fees, assessment center costs, recruiter time, and onboarding materials. Costs are captured at the job level and attributed to the hire date. When combined with hire volume, this metric calculates cost-per-hire benchmarks.
Training Cost includes course fees, external trainer costs, training materials, venue expenses, and the employee time invested in training activities (calculated using hourly labour cost). Costs are categorised by training type enabling analysis of investment allocation across soft skills, technical, compliance, leadership, and certification programs.
Diary Notes Cost represents the administrative overhead of maintaining employee records, documentation, and notes. This cost primarily reflects employee time spent creating and managing records, calculated using hourly labour cost multiplied by time invested.
Performance Improvement Plan Cost tracks investment in performance management interventions including PIP administration time, coaching sessions, support resources, and manager time spent on performance remediation. Costs are categorised by performance issue type (values/behavioral, safety, compliance, productivity, attendance) to identify which performance challenges require the most resources.
Cost Breakdowns and Categories
Cost breakdown visualisations (pie charts) segment each cost type by relevant sub-categories:
- Recruitment: by source (agency, direct, referral, social, job boards)
- Training: by type (soft skills, technical, compliance, leadership, certification)
- Diary Notes: by category (recognition, compliance, behavioral, skills gap, productivity)
- PIP: by issue type (values/behavioral, safety, compliance, productivity, attendance)
These breakdowns reveal where HR program dollars are allocated and help identify opportunities for cost optimisation or strategic investment reallocation.
Currency and Time Period Considerations
All financial metrics are converted to your organisation's base tenant currency using exchange rates at the transaction date. This ensures consistent reporting for multi-currency organisations.
Monthly aggregations use the payment date or event date to assign costs to periods. For remuneration, the payment date determines which month reflects the cost. For HR program costs, the event occurrence date determines the period attribution.
Related Articles
- HR Analytics Dashboard - Active Vacancies
- Talent Analytics Dashboard - Hiring
- Talent Analytics Dashboard - Team Performance (link TBD after publishing)
- Feature Overview - Humanforce Analytics
Additional Information
To request a demo of Humanforce Analytics, reach out to your account manager.
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