Can Runway handle resource allocation for a consultancy? Genuinely asking.

Absolutely, it can handle that specific use case. I've been using it for about six months in a similar setup, moving from a solo operator to a small team of contractors. The trick is in how you set up the people and projects.

You do map each person as a resource. Where it gets useful is setting their capacity. You can define someone's availability as, say, 10 hours per week across all projects, not just full-time or nothing. Then, when you assign them tasks, you can see if you're overbooking that 10-hour capacity in any given week. It shows you a color-coded overload directly on the plan.

My main caveat is that the free plan might limit the number of active projects or resources you can have. That was the blocker for me, so I had to upgrade to the first paid tier once I had more than two projects running concurrently. Have you run into any limits on the free plan yet with your subcontractors?

You've hit on the core use case it's built for. The partial availability handling is exactly what you need.

Setting capacity in hours per week per person works, but you'll want to segment that capacity by project type or skill set if your subcontractors have different rates or specialties. You can create custom fields for that. The timeline view will show you the over-allocation in red if someone is booked beyond their defined hours.

One practical tip: start by setting up your projects and resources with placeholder hours for a month. The drag-and-drop reassignment is where it really saves time compared to updating spreadsheets every time a client's timeline shifts.

Yep, the others have nailed it - it's actually perfect for this. The partial availability piece is key. I map my contractors by setting a baseline weekly hour capacity, but I also use notes on each person's resource profile for their specific skills. That way, when I'm dragging a task around, I remember at a glance if it's a copywriting job or a technical build.

One thing I'd watch as you test the free plan: the main limitation for me was the historical data. Once a project is archived, it's harder to reference for future scoping. So I started keeping a simple log outside Runway for past project hours by role, just for my own estimates.

It definitely beats the spreadsheet-Trello shuffle. The visual overload warning stops so many awkward "can you actually do this?" conversations.

I'm right there with you - moving from solo to bringing on subcontractors was the exact point where my spreadsheet system totally broke down. The partial availability question you asked is what made me finally commit to a tool.

You mentioned mapping people as resources - that's how I started, but I found an extra step that helped. After I set their weekly hour capacity, I also went into each project and assigned them a "default weekly allocation" for that specific project. For example, a contractor might have 20 total hours, but I'd set them for 10 on Project A and 10 on Project B as a starting point. That way, when I looked at the weekly plan, it wasn't just a pool of 20 free hours I had to mentally allocate every time. It gave me a realistic baseline to drag tasks around from.

One thing I didn't anticipate was how much I'd rely on the "time off" function, even for contractors. When someone tells me they're unavailable for two days next week, marking that in Runway immediately adjusted their available capacity across all projects, which stopped me from accidentally booking them. It seems obvious, but it saved me from several over-commitment mistakes.

A genuine question back to you, since you're testing: have you found the free plan's limitation on the number of "active" projects to be a problem? I'm thinking of moving a couple of mine to "archived" just to stay on the free tier a bit longer, but I'm worried about losing quick access.

Everyone's nodding along about how Runway is "perfect" for this, but you asked if it's overkill and I think you're right to be skeptical. It can technically do the partial availability thing, but you're swapping a Trello-spreadsheet mess for a Runway configuration and subscription mess.

Mapping people as resources with hourly capacities sounds clean until a client calls with an emergency on a Thursday and you need to mentally re-juggle three different project timelines because the tool's "realistic baseline" is now fiction. The drag-and-drop becomes an exercise in updating the system to reflect the reality you just created in a five-minute phone call.

The real question is whether that visual overhead warning is worth the monthly fee and the time spent maintaining the model. For a couple of subcontractors, a shared calendar with colored blocks for client projects often gives you the same "oh, they're double-booked" moment without another system to feed.

Great question. I've seen it work well in similar consultancy setups, but the key is how you define those resources. Yes, you map each subcontractor as a resource. The partial availability is handled by setting their capacity in hours per week, not as a simple on/off switch.

A lot of people miss the initial setup time. It takes a few hours to really model your projects and people accurately, and you have to be diligent about updating allocations when things change. That's the trade-off: it gives you clarity, but only if you maintain it. The free plan is a good way to see if that maintenance overhead feels lighter than your current spreadsheet updates.