SaaS Headcount & Hiring Plan Calculator
Payroll is usually a SaaS company's biggest cost. Build your team role by role, add cash and revenue, and see total payroll, monthly burn and the runway your hiring plan leaves — before you sign the offers.
Your numbers
Your team / hiring plan
Add each role with its headcount and fully-loaded monthly cost (base salary plus benefits, taxes, equipment and overhead — often 1.2–1.4× base).
Cost by role
| Role | Heads | Cost / head | Monthly cost | % of payroll |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | — | — | 100% |
How the headcount planner works
Add each role with its headcount and fully-loaded monthly cost, then your cash, revenue and non-payroll costs. The calculator totals your payroll, works out monthly net burn (payroll + other costs − revenue), and divides your cash by that burn to get runway. It's a static snapshot — it holds revenue flat — so treat the runway as the conservative "if nothing else changes" figure. For growth over time, use the scenario calculator or a full model.
Use fully-loaded cost, not base salary
The most common headcount-planning mistake is budgeting base salaries and being surprised by the real bill. A role's fully-loaded cost adds employer payroll taxes, benefits, software, equipment and a share of overhead on top of salary — commonly 1.2–1.4× base. Plan with the loaded number and the runway you see is the runway you'll actually get.
Why headcount is the lever that matters
For most SaaS companies, people are 60–70% of total spend, which makes the hiring plan the single biggest driver of burn and runway. Two extra engineers can quietly shorten runway by months. That's why every offer is really a runway decision: the question isn't just "can this hire add value?" but "does the payoff land before the cash does?" Model the plan first — see the headcount planning guide for when to make the key hires — and hire deliberately. This is a fast estimate, not a forecast; for phased hiring against a live model, build it in a full financial model.
Save your hiring plan
Planning your next hires? Subscribe and we'll send this plan plus founder-friendly runway and fundraising guides.
Tie hiring to the whole model
Adlega turns a headcount plan into a live model — phase hires over time, see the impact on runway and cash month by month, and goal-seek to a target.