Operating schedules · in 1 model

Headcount pyramid: hiring, attrition and promotion

Heads by grade, rolled forward year by year.

By Surojit Chakraverti, founder of L3VLUP and an investor running a long-short healthcare and technology equities strategy.

On this subject: headcount pyramid: hiring, attrition and promotion.Updated 30 October 2026

What it does

The capacity of a firm that sells its people’s time. Each grade (partner, principal, manager, consultant, analyst) starts the year with its closing headcount, loses leavers and those promoted to the grade above, gains those promoted from the grade below, and hires whatever is still needed to reach its plan. Promotions net to zero across the firm, so the firm’s headcount moves only by hires and leavers. Average heads by grade drive billed hours and pay; non-partners per partner is the leverage that profit per partner rests on.

Where it lives

The same schedule in each model that carries it, with the rows to open. Open a model in the browser, go to the sheet, and click the lines.

Professional services utilisation model

Assumptions, rows 11–29: Partners at the end of FY0A, Partners: planned headcount growth, a year, Partners: attrition, % of opening headcount, Principals at the end of FY0A…
Headcount, rows 6–12: Partners: opening, Partners: leavers, Partners: promoted in, Partners: hired…
Headcount, rows 15–22: Principals: opening, Principals: leavers, Principals: promoted out, Principals: promoted in…
Headcount, rows 25–32: Managers: opening, Managers: leavers, Managers: promoted out, Managers: promoted in…
Headcount, rows 35–42: Consultants: opening, Consultants: leavers, Consultants: promoted out, Consultants: promoted in…
Headcount, rows 45–51: Analysts: opening, Analysts: leavers, Analysts: promoted out, Analysts: hired…
Headcount, rows 54–66: Opening headcount, Hires, Leavers, Closing headcount…

Inspect it in the browser Worked model Starter that leaves this schedule blank

What a reviewer looks for

Promotions out of one grade that never arrive in the next.
Hiring as an input, so higher attrition silently shrinks the firm.
Billed hours on closing rather than average headcount.

Learn it, then build it

Read · Guide · 11 min

Financial Modelling Best Practices: The Conventions That Make a Model Auditable

Vocabulary: Leverage Model, Up-or-Out.

Other operating schedules

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