15 Resource Management Software Solutions & Their Best Uses

Resource management software helps you manage your agency’s most important asset: human resources.

But there’s so many resource management tools you can choose from. This is why we’ve compiled a list of top options available and what they’re best for to help you find your ideal resource management software.

Productive is a single-platform agency management tool that helps you run a profitable business.

Productive’s biggest benefit is that it offers extensive resource planning and forecasting features with other agency operations functionalities.

The main Resource Planning features include:

Let’s explore these key features in more detail:

With Productive, you can create a resource management plan while taking into account key employee details, including their working hours, allocated time off and categories, and holidays (especially useful for remote teams).

When creating your bookings, you’ll also get an overview of how many hours have already been booked across a specific service (for ex. design or development).

Productive’s resource planner works on the basis of drag-and-drop scheduling, so you don’t have to redo everything to implement changes to your schedules or even assignees.

Notifications can also be enabled to notify assignees of modified or updated bookings.

With its Sales CRM feature, Productive also supports scheduling for sales teams.

You can also create two types of special bookings to handle potential situations or future projects: placeholders and tentative bookings.

Placeholders are used when you want to plan resources for future staffing needs. Placeholders have all the same information associated with them as regular employees, so you can add them to your reports to assess utilization and determine hiring needs.

Tentative bookings are great for accounting for possible projects without impacting your confirmed capacity (or the amount of hours an employee can potentially work for). You can turn your tentative bookings into confirmed ones, and vice versa.

Find out more on creating your capacity planning template with Productive.

There are two ways in which Productive can provide insights into how your employees are being scheduled: through utilization and forecasted utilization.

For a quick overview of how your employees are scheduled on a daily basis, you can use the capacity indicators on heatmaps in your resource plans. They are color-coded representations of resource capacity.

You can also check your utilization with Productive’s Reporting. You can view utilization by department, seniority, skills, or more.

You can also set utilization targets and add this to your Billable Utilization by Person report with custom fields and formulas to monitor employee performance (you can also set up color coding).

You can also view your forecasted utilization through your resource planner.

The Scheduled / Available time field shows the amount of hours that have been scheduled for this employee in the future, which helps determine your resource gaps and balance it with resource demand.

You can also check this within your Forecasted Billable Utilization by Person report (available in the Reports Library).

If you schedule your resources ahead of time, you can also make use of Productive’s Forecasting feature.

This means that you can view key financial metrics in real time, but also for upcoming periods of time. This includes your profitability, revenue, and budget burn.

This helps you get timely financial reporting based on reliable data. You can pinpoint exactly when your projects will stop being profitable, reallocate employees, and check the impact this has on your metrics.

Finally, Productive includes both Time Tracking and Time Off Management.

Time tracking can be handled in different ways: employees can use a timer or create their entries manually.

Conversely, managers can approve these entries individually or in bulk, and even lock timesheets for editing for data accuracy.

To get automatic time tracking, managers can also sync resource bookings with time tracking, so that entries matching your bookings can be created automatically.

When it comes to time off management, managers can define categories of leave and allocate them to employees and handle requests and related files through the platform.

Productive also includes integrations with various HRIS tools, such as BambooHR, Breathe, Justworks, Humaans.io, and more.

Other notable features include: Automations, Productive AI, Permission Builder, Revenue Recognition, Purchase Orders

Productive offers various integrations with HR, accounting, and collaboration tools.

Integrations include Slack, Google Calendar, and Outlook for scheduling and updates; Xero and QuickBooks for accounting; BambooHR, Breathe, Humaans.io for HRM; Memtime for time tracking; and more.

You can go for a free 14-day trial before you decide to check out a paid plan.

Smartsheet is a versatile resource management software solution and project management solution that empowers teams to collaborate, plan, and execute projects seamlessly. It offers intuitive spreadsheets, interactive Gantt charts, and automated workflows, enabling real-time visibility and streamlined project management.

Features:

Smartsheet provides a user-friendly interface that allows teams to quickly adapt and begin managing resources effectively. It’s often compared to a spreadsheet, which can be both a positive and a negative. If you’re looking for a more modernized solution, consider some other alternatives from this list.

You can also learn more about Smartsheet in our list of Bitrix24 competitors.

Hive is one of the best project planning tools for smaller teams that want to manage valuable resources.

Features:

Users underline that they enjoy Hive for being user-friendly and having an intuitive interface. However, users report some issues with the project and task management features:

Source: Capterra

Find out more in our list of the best Harvest competitors.

Asana is a popular resource management tool known for its simplicity and collaborative features. It enables teams to prioritize tasks, track progress, and manage resources effectively, enhancing overall productivity and coordination.

Features:

Asana’s clean and intuitive interface promotes easy adoption among team members, fostering better collaboration. The free version of Asana lacks some advanced features, which may require upgrading to a paid plan for a more comprehensive resource management platform, or checking out more robust Asana alternatives.

Microsoft Planner is a project planning software solution within the Microsoft 365 suite. It simplifies task organization and team coordination, providing a visual and user-friendly platform for efficient work management.

Features:

Microsoft Planner’s integration with other Microsoft 365 tools allows for a seamless workflow, facilitating effective resource management within a familiar ecosystem. The tool’s reporting and analytics capabilities are relatively limited compared to other project management software.

LiquidPlanner is a comprehensive resource planning software that emphasizes dynamic scheduling and intelligent resource allocation. It provides accurate project forecasting and helps teams optimize their resources for maximum efficiency.

Features:

LiquidPlanner’s intelligent scheduling algorithms ensure optimal resource allocation, maximizing productivity and project success. The tool’s advanced features and functionality may make it overwhelming for users who require a simple resource management software solution.

For more options, check out our LiquidPlanner alternative guide.

Saviom is a powerful project resource management software designed to assist organizations in effectively managing their workforce and project resources. It offers comprehensive planning, scheduling, and reporting capabilities, empowering businesses to optimize resource utilization.

Features:

Saviom’s robust reporting and analytics features enable data-driven decision-making, leading to improved resource utilization and project outcomes. The initial setup and configuration process of Saviom may require technical expertise or assistance

Check out how Saviom fares as a replacement for Resource Guru.

Wrike is a versatile resource planning solution and project management software that combines project management capabilities with collaborative features. It offers comprehensive task management, real-time communication, and customizable workflows, making it ideal for teams of all sizes.

Features:

Wrike’s flexibility and scalability make it suitable for both small teams and large enterprises, ensuring efficient resource management across different organizational levels. On the other hand the learning curve for mastering advanced features and customization options in Wrike may be steep for some users.

To find out more, you can check out our Wrike or ClickUp or Productive comparison.

Jira is a popular resource planning tool primarily used for agile project management. It offers a range of features for planning, tracking, and releasing software projects, making it a preferred choice for software development teams.

Features:

It’s robust features and integration capabilities make it a powerful project management tool specifically tailored for software development projects. However, Jira’s interface and feature set might not be a perfect fit for agencies outside the software development realm.

Ganttic is a visual resource scheduling software that simplifies resource allocation and capacity planning. It offers an intuitive Gantt chart interface, drag-and-drop functionality, and real-time collaboration, enabling effective resource management across projects.

Features:

Ganttic’s user-friendly interface and intuitive drag-and-drop functionality make it easy to create and adjust resource plans, enhancing efficiency and project coordination. Some users may find the reporting and analytics capabilities of Ganttic to be less comprehensive compared to other resource management tools.

Celoxis is a comprehensive project and resource planning tool that caters to diverse industries. It provides end-to-end project visibility, resource tracking, and collaborative features, enabling teams to manage resources effectively and deliver projects on time.

Features:

The robust feature set and scalability of Celoxis make it suitable for various industries, facilitating efficient resource management and project execution. The extensive range of features in Celoxis may require additional time and effort for onboarding and training team members.

Workfront (formerly known as AtTask) is a comprehensive work management platform that offers powerful resource management capabilities. It combines project planning, resource allocation, and collaboration features, allowing teams to optimize resource utilization and improve productivity.

Features:

Workfront is a platform within the Adobe ecosystem. It can be a good pick for creatives due its proofing features and Figma modules. As the main downside, multiple users state that it can take a while to learn Workfront’s terminology and start using it effectively.

Find the best Adobe Workfront alternative.

Planview AdaptiveWork, formerly Clarizen, is a robust resource allocation tool that combines project planning, collaboration, and resource optimization capabilities. It provides a centralized platform for planning, executing, and tracking projects while effectively managing and allocating resources.

Features:

Planview’s comprehensive feature set empowers agencies to manage projects and resources efficiently while facilitating collaboration and enhancing decision-making through its robust analytics capabilities.

Some users on Capterra state that the licensing model can be awkward and that the software can be expensive for their particular needs.

We also covered Planview AdaptiveWork in our list of the top Mavenlink competitors, so you can check out that article to learn more.

Paymo is an affordable option for managing client work, with Gantt charts, resource load charts, and leave management features.

Features:

Paymo is a popular tool for businesses with limited budgets: “Paymo is best for small teams, so it might not be as suitable if your team grows beyond 20 people” (Capterra). Users especially underline how useful it is for time tracking and task management.

Forecast.app is an AI-powered software that offers a collaborative environment for resource managers and their teams.

Features:

Forecast offers a fair range of features for project and resource planning; however, the pricing of the software is not public, which can make it more difficult to make an informed decision on its cost for value.

One of the mentioned downsides for Forecast is the lack of a public roadmap to help businesses stay in sync with improvements and updates:

Source: G2

Resource planning ensures that your time, money, and personnel are allocated optimally. It also provides a more high-level overview of your processes, so you can resolve resource requests across multiple projects.

The benefits of this includes:

Overall, a good resource management solution supports both project managers and their teams.

While there are many options to choose from, your best choice will depend on a couple of main factors:

Make sure to also pay attention to how active the vendors are — you want a tool that is frequently updated with improvements and new features to help you stay competitive.

To summarize, our article reviews some of the best software for agencies:

With Productive, you can handle your project management, finances, collaboration, resources, and business intelligence, all in a single tool.

Book a demo with Productive find out how you can support your business growth.