Hiring and capacity planning
Updated
A hire is the largest recurring commitment most owner-managed businesses make, and it is usually decided on a feeling that everyone is busy.
This is part of the fractional cfo half of a fractional CFO or fractional controller engagement.
Quick answer: Capacity planning costs a hire fully — wage, employer CPP and EI, workers’ compensation, vacation, equipment and the lag before the person is productive — and tests it against the forecast to show when the business can carry it and what revenue has to appear for it to pay back.
On this page
The full cost of a hire
- The wage, which is the visible number and rarely the whole one.
- Employer CPP and EI, plus the second CPP contribution on earnings in the CPP2 band.
- Workers’ compensation premiums, set by industry classification rather than by role.
- Vacation and statutory holiday pay, which accrue from the first day in some provinces and some industries.
- Equipment, software and space.
- The ramp — the weeks or months before the person is producing at the level the plan assumes.
The ramp is the one businesses forget, and on a senior hire it is often the largest single component.
Capacity planning: when the business can carry it
The question is not whether the hire is affordable in a good month. It is whether it is affordable in the quietest month of the year, because payroll does not fall with revenue.
That makes it a cash question before a profit question. Running the hire through a rolling cash forecast shows the month it gets tight, usually earlier than expected.
Employee or contractor
The other half of a hiring decision is what kind of hire it is, and that is not a free choice. The classification turns on control, tools, the ability to subcontract and the chance of profit or loss, and getting it wrong lands on the payer rather than the worker.
Subcontractor or employee sets out the factors, and it is worth settling before the arrangement starts rather than after a season of it.Who this is for, and who it is not
A good fit: a business considering its first hire, a step up in headcount, or replacing someone senior, especially where revenue is uneven across the year.
Not a fit: a business with spare capacity, where the question is how the current team spends its time. We say so on the first call instead of quoting work you do not need.
Common questions about hiring plans
How accurate can this be?+
Does this include the payroll setup?+
Can you model two options?+
We are already stretched. Is it too late to plan?+
Starting fees
Every fee is fixed in writing before any work begins.
- Controller or CFO supportcontroller from $1,650, CFO from $2,750 a monthThis page
- Monthly bookkeeping, GST/PST filing includedfrom $325 a month
- Payroll, remittances, T4s and ROEsincluded in monthly bookkeeping
- Books, payroll and the year-end T2 together$500–$700 a month
- Corporate year-end and T2 returnfixed fee, quoted in writing
- Personal tax return (T1)from $125; self-employed or rental $275–$500
- Catch-up bookkeepingfrom $2,200 per year of records
- One-off advice call with a CPA$225 plus GST