6 Alternatives to Harvest Forecast For Efficient Resource Management

Efficient resource management is critical for consulting firms, IT services, and professional services teams. While Harvest Forecast has been a go-to solution for resource scheduling, growing firms often need tools with more advanced features tailored to staffing managers, resource allocation, and utilization forecasting.

In this article, we’ll explore six alternatives to Harvest Forecast, starting with Operating.app, a solution built specifically to handle the complex needs of larger consulting and professional services teams.

1. Operating.app - a Harvest Forecast alternative for better resource management

Best for consulting firms, IT services companies, and professional services teams doing client work.

Operating.app is built to help professional services companies tackle resource management challenges. It goes beyond basic scheduling to provide powerful tools for staffing managers and resource managers, ensuring resources are optimized, utilization is forecasted, and projects are staffed with the right expertise.

Operating offers native integrations to CRMs, HR & people platforms and time tracking tools

Operating offers native integrations to CRMs like HubSpot and Pipedrive, HR & people planning tools like HiBob and Flowcase, and time tracking tools like Harvest. Operating also has a fully open REST API, making it east to connect your platform of choice to Operating.

• Operating CRM integrations explained: By connecting your HubSpot CRM or Pipedrive CRM to Operating, your deals flow automatically to Operating, making collaboration between sales teams and project delivery teams easier.
• Operating HiBob HR Integration: You can connect Operating to your HiBob HR platform so people data employees and leaves flow through the platforms automatically.
• Operating Flowcase integration for connecting resume & CV data with resource allocation: By connecting Operating with Flowcase, you can also enrich Operating skill data with the resume data from Flowcase!

Let's dive a bit deeper to the Harvest time tracking integration next.

A resource planning tool with Harvest integration

Operating comes with a powerful two-way Harvest time tracking tool integration. The Harvest integration functionality is as follows:

• Link clients, projects, people, and time tracking data between Harvest and Operating
• Analyse predictive project burnup charts that combine the resource allocation data in Operating with the time tracking data from Harvest
• When confirming a tentative project in Operating, create the project automatically in Harvest with the right Harvest Project Codes, Project Budget Types etc.
• Compare estimated hours with the timesheet data to reveal anomalies and correct course
• Navigate between Harvest and Operating with ease

Key Features in Operating:

• Skills and Role Matching: Match consultants to projects based on their skills, seniority, and roles, with seamless integration to CRM tools like HubSpot.
• Utilization Forecasting and Monitoring: Forecast utilization at the competence, team, or site level, and compare planned utilization to actual hours tracked.
• Time Tracking Module: Track actual time spent on projects to enhance utilization forecasting and improve decision-making.
• Staffing Manager Tools: Minimize bench time and optimize staffing with functionalities specifically designed for staffing managers and resource managers.

Operating.app is ideal for growing firms that need advanced tools to scale resource management, improve forecasting, and deliver projects on time with the right talent.

Learn more about Operating.app

2. Float.com - simple scheduling optimized for creative teams and agencies

Float.com is a visual resource allocation tool that simplifies project scheduling for teams of all sizes. It’s especially suited for teams looking for a lightweight and intuitive solution that handles scheduling for shorter periods of time. Float is used not only by consulting teams, but by different types of professional services teams looking for a scheduling solution to organize their work.

Highlighting Float's focus on being a scheduling tool for project management purposes, Float.com offers integrations to multiple project management tools like Asana and Trello.

Key Features:

• Drag-and-drop scheduling to plan projects and resources easily.
• Calendar-like view for short term scheduling especially good for creative agencies
• Integration with tools like Asana, Trello, and Monday.com.

Float.com is ideal for firms that need a simple, visual tool to manage team capacity in hectic scheduling environments.

3. Productive.io - all-in-one project & agency management tool

Productive.io is an all-in-one tool for agencies, integrating resource management, task management, project tracking, and financial oversight. Productive.io supports multiple different project types and has native capabilities for managing retainer projects, making it the ideal choice for e.g. creative and ad agencies.

Key Features:

• Resource scheduling for managing workloads and team assignments.
• Integrated project management, time tracking, and budgeting.
• Profitability tracking to ensure project success.

For teams that need resource management in the same tool as their task management and project management, Productive.io offers a comprehensive solution. For consulting teams that tend to use their clients' tools for time tracking and task management, Productive.io might provide some redundant functionality.

4. Forecast.app - resource planning for professional services

Forecast.app is a great resource planning tool for professional services teams of all types, not only agencies and consulting firms. Although it has the same name, it's not to be mistaken with Harvest Forecast. From the list provided here, Forecast.app is one of the more generic all-purpose resource allocation tools, that provides functionalities and solutions to multiple different types of use cases.

Forecast.app provides integrations to many platforms, such as Jira, Google Calendar, and Pipedrive making it possible to connect your professional services tool stack.

Key Features:

• AI-powered scheduling to optimize workflows.
• Budget management and profitability tracking.
• Integrations with popular tools like Slack, Jira, and QuickBooks.

Forecast.app is particularly useful for teams that want to use AI to improve decision-making and reduce manual planning.

5. Runn.io - resource allocation for professional services teams

Runn.io combines resource planning with capacity forecasting, offering a transparent and flexible approach to resource allocation. Runn.io highlights being a resource allocation platform for all industries. Runn.io also has its own timesheet module, making it possible to track time under the same platform where resource planning is conducted

Runn.io provides integrations to multiple different types of tools like Clockify and AlexisHR.

Key Features:

• Real-time capacity tracking to manage workloads effectively.
• Forecast project demand and resource needs.
• Integration with tools like Slack, Jira, and Xero.

Runn.io is a strong alternative for firms that want clear visibility into team availability and future resource capacity.

6. Parallax - capacity planning that connects with other tools

Parallax is a resource management and capacity planning tool designed for digital agencies and professional services firms. It focuses on aligning project planning with team capacity to optimize performance.

Key Features:

• Forecasting and Capacity Planning: Predict future demand and ensure team capacity aligns with project needs.
• Real-Time Utilization Insights: Track billable hours and ensure optimal utilization of resources.
• Integrations: Connect with tools like Salesforce, Jira, and HubSpot for seamless workflows.

Parallax is a strong choice for firms looking to improve capacity planning, monitor utilization, and ensure projects are staffed effectively. It's especially good if you're looking to have a comprehensive tool that sits in between your other tooling.

Conclusion

While Harvest Forecast is a solid resource scheduling tool, growing consulting firms, IT services, and professional services teams need more advanced capabilities to optimize resource allocation and utilization. These features include capacity forecasting, better project staffing capabilities (skills-based matching), advanced reporting capabilities, and more robust integration capabilities. The tools listed in this article is a a good place to start looking for the right tool for your company.