Free tool · for anyone staffing a peak season
Seasonal Headcount Estimator
The fastest way to size a seasonal hire before you commit. Enter a week's forecast volume and your core staff on hand, and this free single-tab estimator turns it into the labor-hours, the heads you need, and the seasonal hires to add — plus a mini table to size a few weeks at once and find your peak. Download it, fill it in, and know the number.
Take it with you — free, no signup
Direct download. No email, no account — just the files.
What it does
- Turns a week's forecast volume into labor-hours, then into the heads you need (rounded up), then into the seasonal hires to add after your core staff.
- Uses two honest settings you set — labor-hours per unit, and productive hours per worker a week — so the number reflects your operation.
- Includes a mini multi-week table that sizes several weeks at once and surfaces the peak: the most you'll need at one time, your hiring target.
- Comes pre-loaded with illustrative example numbers so you can see it working, then overwrite them with your own.
- Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice — no macros, no signup, nothing saved anywhere but your own file.
Own it, don't rent it
Want the whole plan, not just the number?
This free estimator sizes the hire. The full Seasonal & Peak-Season Hiring Workbook plans the whole peak — a working-back hiring ramp that counts the post-jobs and hire-by dates backward from your opening day, a seasonal roster that computes each hire's fully-loaded cost, a shift-coverage grid, and a dashboard that measures labor against the revenue it supports. Plus four guides, in one owned spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice).
A one-time purchase you keep and reuse every peak — the structured workbook between a blank spreadsheet and a rented per-seat staffing app.
A planning tool, not payroll, scheduling, or HR software, and not HR, tax, employment, or legal advice. Wage rates, overtime, and worker classification are yours to set and verify with a qualified professional. The example figures are illustrative. Free to use; please don't resell or redistribute.