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.
Related reading
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.