Product Update: Cash Breakdown & Headcount Budgeting

At CandorIQ, we’re always working to make headcount planning and workforce budgeting more transparent, insightful, and actionable. IWith a couple of our latest updates, we’re introducing two major improvements: Cash Breakdown in Headcount Scenario Planning and Headcount Budgeting. These enhancements give Finance and HR teams a clearer picture of workforce costs and make it easier to track spending against budgets. I spoke with a couple of our engineers Anthonie Lorsithong and Arjun Lahoti to dive into what these updates mean for our customers.

Cash Breakdown: See the Full Picture of Employee Costs

One of the biggest challenges in workforce planning is understanding the full breakdown of employee costs—not just salaries, but also bonuses, variable pay, taxes, and benefits. With our new Cash Breakdown feature, customers can now see a detailed breakdown of fully loaded employee costs at a glance.

Why This Matters

According to Anthonie (the engineer who led the project), the problem we set out to solve was simple: before this update, CandorIQ displayed total spend for each month, without a granular view of how that money was allocated. Now, companies can understand exactly where their workforce dollars are going, allowing for smarter decision-making around budget allocations.

How It Works

When users create a new headcount scenario, CandorIQ already provides insights into projected cash burn. This update builds on those insights by categorizing spending across multiple cost components. Technically, the implementation was straightforward—CandorIQ pulls existing user-inputted fields and categorizes them into clear spending categories, making it easy to interpret workforce costs.

Real-World Impact

With this new visibility, customers can adjust their workforce planning strategy in a more informed way. For example, seeing how taxes and benefits account for 30-40% of total workforce costs could lead to reallocating salary budgets, adjusting bonus structures, or refining hiring strategies.

Looking ahead, Anthonie expects customers will want even more customization and configurability in the insights they receive—something the team is already thinking about for future updates.

Headcount Budgeting: Track Spend vs. Budget with Precision

To ensure workforce plans align with financial reality, CandorIQ now allows users to set and track headcount budgets at multiple levels—including company, division, and department.

Why This Matters

Arjun (the project’s lead engineer) explains that without a defined budget, workforce planning lacks context. “It’s impossible to put your workforce plan into perspective without understanding the financial implications,” he says. With this update, users can now see how their actual and projected workforce spend compares to their set budget, enabling more strategic decision-making when hiring and adjusting headcount.

How It Works

The new Headcount Budgeting feature operates within both Tracker and Scenario Planning:

• Tracker: Users set a budget for the entire year and monitor how their actual workforce spend aligns with it.
• Scenario Planning: Users set budgets for specific hiring scenarios to see how workforce plans impact financial targets.

To make budgeting versatile and customizable, CandorIQ allows companies to define budgets by company, division, department, or a combination of these. The budget insights tab dynamically updates based on filters applied, ensuring users only see relevant budget data.

Real-World Impact

By referencing their budget while creating, reviewing, and approving headcount, customers gain greater confidence in their workforce investments. Whether it’s hiring new talent or adjusting existing compensation structures, having budget visibility is key to scaling responsibly.

Challenges & Future Enhancements

One of the biggest technical challenges was allowing flexible budget structuring while keeping the experience seamless. CandorIQ had to find a way to let users define budgets by company or department while also ensuring insights remain accurate.

Looking ahead, Arjun sees potential in letting customers customize how spend is calculated—for example, allowing them to choose which headcount statuses or cost factors are included in budget tracking.

What’s Next?

These updates mark a major step forward in making workforce planning and budgeting more data-driven and actionable. But we’re not stopping here. Future iterations could focus on:

• More granular insights into workforce costs and budget tracking
• Greater customization in budget structuring and spend calculations
• Enhanced reporting to support executive decision-making

With these improvements, CandorIQ continues to empower HR and Finance teams with the data they need to plan with confidence. 

Learn More

Want to see how these updates can improve your workforce planning and budgeting? Schedule a demo with our team today!