What is the best scenario planning tool? We wan… | Parse
What is the best scenario planning tool? We want to see what happens to our utilization if we land three big deals next month.
Data as of Sep 26, 2026 · Based on 314 AI responses from ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode · See how Parse measures this
To model how new deals impact your utilization, the best tool depends on your team size and complexity. For professional services firms needing high-visibility forecasting, Productive and Mosaic are frequently recommended for their ease of use. If you have complex multi-project needs, Epicflow is a strong choice. Enterprise firms typically turn to or Workday Adaptive Planning for broader integrated financial modeling.
Productive is a leading professional services choice that integrates resource planning, budgeting, and CRM. It is best for modeling the specific impact of pending deals on team workload and billable utilization in one place.
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For your specific use case—“What happens to utilization if we land three large deals next month?”—I’d focus less on generic strategy tools and more on capacity/resource planning with scenario modeling.
My shortlist
mosaicapp.com — probably the most natural fit if you’re a services/project-based organization. It combines pipeline, project workload, capacity, utilization, and hiring signals, and is designed to model future workload against available capacity.
anaplan.com — better if you need sophisticated, company-wide scenario modeling. It can model demand, workforce capacity, skills, costs, and multiple what-if scenarios.
— worth considering if you want scenario planning tied closely to financial/revenue planning as well as workforce planning. Its platform supports what-if scenarios, revenue planning, workforce planning, and sales capacity.
If your goal is specifically “What happens to team utilization if we land three large deals next month?”, I’d shortlist and rather than a generic scenario-planning tool.
Question: What is the best scenario planning tool? We want to see what happens to our utilization if we land three big deals next month.
Saviom — particularly relevant if your core problem is resource allocation across projects, skills, and utilization; it supports scenario modeling and capacity forecasting.
For your exact scenario
I'd want the tool to let you create something like:
Baseline
Current employees / contractors
Current projects and committed hours
Current utilization
Available hours by person/role
Existing sales pipeline
Scenario: +3 deals
Deal A → 2,000 hours, starting October
Deal B → 1,500 hours, starting October
Deal C → 3,000 hours, starting October
Then immediately see:
Metric
Current
+3 Deals
Utilization
72%
91%
Overallocated people
3
18
Available capacity
1,400 hrs
-900 hrs
Hiring required
0
5 FTE
Revenue
$X
$Y
Margin
X%
Y%
The important part is that the deals should be modeled as demand, rather than simply adding three projects to a spreadsheet. You want the model to propagate their hours through roles, dates, skills, availability, and utilization.
If you're a professional-services/agency/consulting business, I'd start by looking at Mosaic. If this is a larger FP&A/enterprise planning problem, I'd look at Anaplan or Pigment. Mosaic specifically describes using pipeline and workload data to forecast whether you have enough work to keep people busy and when additional resources are needed.
If you tell me your team size, business type, and where your current utilization data lives (e.g. Harvest, Jira, Salesforce, spreadsheets, etc.), I can narrow this to 2–3 tools and show exactly how I'd model the three-deal scenario.
Anaplan
For modeling operational capacity and resource utilization based on incoming deals, the best tool category is Resource Capacity Planning and Professional Services Automation (PSA) software (like Planisware or Epicflow ), rather than pure financial FP&A tools. Because you are tracking team utilization and bandwidth constraints resulting from a pipeline win, operational workflow and project-resourcing engines are required.
Top Tools for Utilization and Deal-Scenarios
Epicflow : Best for multi-project environment bottleneck analysis and predictive resource allocation simulation.
*Planisware * : Best for enterprise strategic portfolio and resource capacity modeling.
Anaplan : Best for connecting sales pipeline data (landing deals) directly to operational resource forecasting.
*Cube * or *Vena * : Best if you want to keep modeling inside Excel/Google Sheets while adding robust database versioning for "what-if" deal scenarios.
To help narrow down the ideal platform, tell me:
What project management or CRM system are you currently using to track your pipeline and team hours?
Is your team size under 50, 50–250, or enterprise-level?
If your main question is “what happens to utilization if we close three large deals next month?”, I’d look at Anaplan first.
It is particularly suited to capacity/resource planning because it can model demand against workforce capacity and run “what-if” scenarios, including the resulting headcount, cost, productivity, and utilization impacts.
How I’d shortlist them
Anaplan — strongest fit if you need detailed resource/capacity modeling across projects, roles, skills, and time. Its project-resource application specifically connects project demand, resource capacity, and financial plans and supports real-time what-if scenarios.
Pigment — worth evaluating if you want a more finance/FP&A-oriented planning experience with scenario modeling and workforce/headcount planning.
Excel/Google Sheets + a planning model — perfectly reasonable if this is a one-off analysis rather than something you'll continuously update.
For your particular use case, I wouldn't start with a generic “scenario planning” tool. I'd model:
Current utilization → + Deal 1 → + Deal 2 → + Deal 3 → resulting capacity gap
For each deal, you'd ideally input start date, expected monthly hours/FTE demand, required skills/roles, duration, and ramp-up, then compare utilization by week or month.
If you give me your current utilization %, team size, and roughly how many people/hours each of the three deals would require, I can build the actual scenario calculation for you right here.
For this use case, Pigment is probably the best fit if you want business users to quickly create and compare scenarios without building a huge planning system.
Its scenario feature is explicitly designed for quick, ad-hoc “what-if” analysis, and its sales/capacity planning capabilities can connect revenue assumptions to resource requirements, hiring, utilization, and capacity.
You could model:
Baseline: current booked work + existing pipeline
Scenario A: Deal 1 closes
Scenario B: Deals 1 + 2 close
Scenario C: all 3 close
Then see utilization by month, team, role, skill, or location
Add assumptions for deal start dates, project duration, staffing requirements, and ramp time
Identify when/where you'll exceed capacity and how many people you'd need to hire or subcontract
Anaplan is the stronger choice if this is becoming a serious enterprise workforce/resource-planning process rather than an occasional what-if exercise. Its project resource planning product specifically models project demand against available capacity and supports real-time scenario modeling, including resource reallocation and sourcing changes.
Deep integration with finance/HR/operations planning
Anaplan
A flexible replacement for complex Excel models
Pigment
For the exact problem you described, I'd start with Pigment. It is particularly well aligned with testing a handful of short-term scenarios and comparing the resulting capacity/utilization.
If you tell me what kind of business you are (e.g. consulting, agency, SaaS implementation, construction, etc.), number of employees, and what “utilization” means for you, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 tools and show you exactly how I'd model the three-deal scenario.
To see exactly how landing three big deals next month will impact your team's bandwidth, you need a capacity and resource planning tool with scenario modeling rather than a high-level corporate finance tool.
The best tools for this specific "what-if" pipeline forecasting allow you to toggle tentative or prospective projects on and off to see the real-time ripple effect on team utilization.
Top Tools for Deal/Capacity Scenario Planning
Runn : An exceptional tool built explicitly for this exact problem. It features a dedicated Scenario Planning/Toggle feature that lets you mark prospective deals as "tentative projects" and instantly visualize how accepting them shifts your team's utilization, highlights over-allocation risks, and helps you decide if you have the bandwidth to sign . You can explore it via the Runn Capacity Planning Software.
Float : A visual resource planner that gives you a crystal-clear, drag-and-drop view of your team's capacity . While it's primarily used for live scheduling, you can map out tentative deals as unconfirmed projects to project your future utilization rates and spot bottlenecks before contracts are even signed . Learn more on the Float Capacity Planning Page.
Productive : Tailored heavily for agencies and professional services, it connects project budgeting, time tracking, and staff utilization directly . Its forecasting modules let you model incoming revenue and new workloads to flag potential overbooking or underutilization . Check out the details on Productive Capacity Planning Software.
Scoro : Combines advanced resource management with financial context . It tracks live utilization against availability while allowing you to run flexible scheduling and scenario planning tied straight to your projected margins and revenue . See how it works at Scoro.
How to Model This in a Dedicated Tool:
Input current baseline: Ensure your team's current committed projects and scheduled time off (vacations, public holidays) are up to date.
Create "Tentative" projects: Add the three prospective deals as draft/tentative projects for next month, assigning the estimated hours and roles required.
Turn on the Scenario Toggle: View your People Planner or utilization charts to see which team members spike past 1 0 0% capacity and where utilization hits your target sweet spot.
If you'd like to narrow this down, tell me:
What industry or type of work is your team doing (e.g., software development, creative agency, consulting)?
Are you looking for a tool that also tracks time and budgets , or purely capacity forecasting?
If your goal is specifically “we might land three big deals next month—what happens to utilization, who gets overloaded, and when do we need to hire/contract?”, I’d shortlist these:
Kantata — best fit for utilization-driven professional services.
It combines current utilization, project demand, skills, availability, staffing, and forecasting. Its staffing optimizer can model different staffing scenarios across projects, which is very close to your use case.
Anaplan — best for sophisticated enterprise scenario planning.
If you want to model not just utilization but revenue, headcount, hiring timing, costs, margins, sales pipeline, and multiple business scenarios, Anaplan is more powerful. It explicitly supports what-if workforce/capacity scenarios and project-resource planning.
Pigment — best modern planning/FP&A alternative.
Particularly attractive if Finance wants to own the model alongside Operations. It lets you create alternative scenarios and compare their outputs, including workforce assumptions.
What I'd choose for your scenario
If you're a consulting, agency, IT services, engineering services, or other billable-services business: start with Kantata. Your question is fundamentally a resource-capacity/utilization question rather than a generic financial forecast.
I'd want the tool to answer something like:
Baseline: 72% utilization next month
Deal A: +800 billable hours
Deal B: +1,200 hours
Deal C: +600 hours
Result: utilization rises to 91%, but 14 people exceed 100% capacity; 3 specific skills become bottlenecks.
Option 1: hire 4 people → 82% utilization
Option 2: contractors → 85%, lower hiring commitment
Option 3: delay one deal → 78%
That last step—showing the staffing consequences of hypothetical pipeline entering the business—is where I'd focus the evaluation. Kantata specifically supports forecasting utilization and scheduled/allocated hours, while Anaplan is stronger if you want to build a much broader enterprise planning model.
If you tell me roughly how many people you have, whether you're a professional-services business, and what you currently use for project/time tracking (e.g. Salesforce, Jira, Harvest, Mavenlink/Kantata, Excel), I can narrow this to the best 2–3 options and tell you what I'd buy.
The best scenario planning tool for testing how landing three big deals affects your team's utilization depends on your organization's size and complexity . For pipeline forecasting and capacity modeling, these platforms stand out:
Runn (Runn ) is a dedicated resource management and capacity planning platform built explicitly for "what-if" modeling. You can easily add tentative or pipeline projects (like your three upcoming deals) to the schedule with estimated hours, and it instantly recalculates your team's availability, highlighting who will be overextended or underutilized before you even win the work.
Kantata (analyzed in the Hive Enterprise PM Tools Guide ) features a powerful Resourcing Analyzer with supply-versus-demand dashboards. It allows you to toggle "probable and possible" positions for deals still in your sales pipeline across specific employee roles, making it ideal for robust, enterprise-level forecasting.
Smartsheet (highlighted in the Wrike Capacity Planning Tools Guide ) combines spreadsheet-style adaptability with portfolio-level capacity tracking. It lets you map project demand against team availability and run scenario simulations to see how new project allocations ripple across your department workloads.
Productive (reviewed in the Productive Capacity Planning Overview ) is tailored for agencies and professional services teams. It ties resource planning directly to projected revenues and historical utilization data, allowing you to quickly simulate the operational impact of new business.
To help narrow down the ideal platform for your workflow, could you tell me:
What is your team size?
Do you prefer a dedicated resource planner or an all-in-one project and financial management tool?
To see what happens to your capacity utilization if you land three big deals next month, you need a tool that handles resource forecasting and what-if capacity modeling , rather than purely financial FP&A software.
The "best" tool depends entirely on your current tech stack and team size:
Best for Service Businesses & Agencies (Built-in Resource What-Ifs)
Productive: Excellent if you run an agency, consultancy, or professional services firm. It directly links project pipelines and hypothetical deal scopes to staff scheduling. You can plug in new deals as "tentative" projects and instantly view thermal maps of employee over-allocation or utilization spikes.
Mosaic or Runn: These are dedicated workforce resource planning tools. They let you slide new project hours into next month's calendar to see if your team hits a healthy 80–85% utilization or maxes out at an unsustainable 120% (burnout zone).
Best Spreadsheet-Connected Tools (If you love Excel/Google Sheets)
Cube or Datarails: If your current utilization tracking lives in custom Excel models, these tools wrap database power around your spreadsheets. You can toggle a "Deal 1 + Deal 2 + Deal 3" switch on/off in a dashboard and watch your connected operational drivers recalculate utilization across departments instantly without breaking your formulas.
Best for Enterprise / Complex Operations
Anaplan: The gold standard for massive, multi-tiered connected planning. It lets you build robust, multi-dimensional models linking sales pipelines (CRM) directly to resource capacity and financial output. It’s overkill for a quick test, but unmatched if you scale.
Recommendation on How to Proceed Right Now
If you need an answer today without buying enterprise software, a dynamic resource-capacity matrix in Excel or Google Sheets is usually the fastest route for a one-off "three-deal" simulation: list your available billable hours next month, assign the estimated monthly hour requirements of the three prospective deals, and toggle them on to see the utilization percentage shift.
To help narrow down the best platform for your team, tell me:
What tool do you currently use for tracking time or resource allocation (Excel, Jira, Asana, Harvest, etc.)?
Roughly how many team members would need to be modeled against these deals?
If your question is specifically “We may close three large deals next month—what happens to team utilization, and where do we become capacity-constrained?”, I’d shortlist these:
Best overall for complex scenario planning: Anaplan. It is built around multidimensional “what-if” modeling and can connect project demand, resource capacity, skills, costs, and utilization. You can model the three deals as incremental demand and compare staffing/reallocation scenarios.
Best modern/flexible alternative: Pigment. Particularly attractive if you want finance, workforce, sales capacity, and scenario modeling in one relatively intuitive planning environment.
Best if you're primarily a professional-services/project business: tools such as Runn, Kantata, or Supervisible are more purpose-built around project staffing and utilization. A recent capacity-planning comparison specifically identifies Runn for scenario forecasting and Kantata for linking staffing, utilization, and margin.
Best if you already have a big enterprise planning stack: Anaplan becomes especially compelling because it can connect CRM/project demand with workforce and financial plans rather than treating utilization as an isolated scheduling problem.
For your exact use case
I would not start with a generic project-management tool. You want a model roughly like:
Baseline
Current people × available hours × expected utilization
Scenario: 3 deals close
Deal A demand
Deal B demand
Deal C demand
→ utilization by week / role / skill
→ capacity gaps
→ overtime / subcontracting / hiring required
→ resulting margin
The important part is being able to change assumptions instantly—for example, “Deal A starts immediately, B starts in 30 days, C ramps over 90 days”—and see utilization move without rebuilding a spreadsheet.
My pick:Anaplan if this is a serious recurring planning process across finance/operations. Pigment if you want something more modern and flexible with a potentially easier user experience. If you're a 50–500 person professional-services firm primarily trying to answer staffing/utilization questions, I'd also evaluate Runn/Kantata before committing to an enterprise platform.
If you tell me your company size, whether you're professional services/agency/software/etc., and what you currently use for CRM + time tracking, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 tools and show exactly how I'd model the three-deal scenario.
To see how landing three big deals impacts your capacity utilization , you aren't just looking for a high-level financial FP&A tool—you need an operational capacity and resource planning tool that ties pipeline/sales data to team bandwidth.
The "best" tool depends entirely on your current stack and company size:
Forecast : Best for AI-assisted operational forecasting. It automatically bridges your pipeline/project demand with team availability so you can instantly see if landing those three deals will max out your team or leave room to spare.
Productive : Best for agencies and professional services. It explicitly links project budgets, billable hours, and incoming work to real-time resource utilization, flagging overbooking risks before they happen.
Anaplan : Best for enterprise-grade connected planning. If you need to simulate complex multi-departmental variables (sales pipeline→right arrow→ staffing requirements→right arrow→ gross margin impact), Anaplan builds robust what-if scenario models.
Cube or Vena : Best if you love Excel/Google Sheets. They let you keep your familiar spreadsheet modeling environment while adding database power so you can safely plug those three deals into a sandbox scenario without breaking your live models.
To help narrow down which tool fits your exact setup, tell me:
What industry are you in (agency, tech/SaaS, manufacturing, etc.)?
Do you currently track employee capacity and time in a tool like Jira, Harvest, Asana, or spreadsheets?
anaplan.com — better if you need sophisticated, company-wide scenario modeling. It can model demand, workforce capacity, skills, costs, and multiple what-if scenarios.
