Agency utilisation and capacity calculator

See gross, net and productive utilisation side by side, with the working shown. Hours are taken off for each person's 2027 public holidays and leave, and you can work out the billable hours a target needs, or how much capacity is free. It runs in your browser: nothing you type is sent to us.

Calculator

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Enter hours for the period you picked. Press Enter to move to the next box.

Results

Gross · Net · Productive

Team: billable hours of contracted and available. Free capacity: hours.

Each person
Person Contracted h Holidays h Leave h Available h Billable h Gross Net Productive Free h
Team

Want real hours instead of estimates? Jasper's time tracking logs time against clients and projects, keeps billable time apart, and reports hours by client, project or person.

How we got this

The team figures add everyone's hours first and then divide, so a part-timer counts for less than a full-timer.

Three ways to measure utilisation

Agencies, software vendors and consultants all say "utilisation" but divide by different things. The calculator shows all three, so you can see which one a quoted figure uses.

The three definitions of utilisation
DefinitionFormulaUse it to
Grossbillable hours ÷ contracted hourssee how much of what you pay for is billed, time off included
Net (available)billable hours ÷ (contracted − leave − public holidays)judge how the hours people were at work were used
Productive(billable + productive non-billable) ÷ available hoursinclude pitches, internal projects and training

Worked example

A designer in New South Wales works 38 hours a week, Monday to Friday, with 20 days of annual leave and 5 other days off expected in 2027. They bill 1,200 hours and spend 150 hours on pitches and training.

  1. 2027 has 261 weekdays. At 7.6 hours a day that is 1,983.6 contracted hours.
  2. 9 NSW public holidays fall on a weekday in 2027, including the additional days for Anzac Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, which fall on weekends: 9 × 7.6 = 68.4 hours.
  3. Leave: 25 days × 7.6 = 190 hours.
  4. Available: 1,983.6 − 68.4 − 190 = 1,725.2 hours.
  5. Gross: 1,200 ÷ 1,983.6 = 60.5%. Net: 1,200 ÷ 1,725.2 = 69.6%. Productive: 1,350 ÷ 1,725.2 = 78.3%.
  6. For an example target of 70% net, they need 70% × 1,725.2 = 1,207.6 billable hours: 23.2 a week across the year, or 26.6 in each week they are at work. For 70% gross they would need 1,388.5 hours, or 30.6 in each week at work.

The same person reads as 60.5% or 69.6% depending on the definition. That gap is why a target means little until you say which one it uses.

Leave and public holidays by country

  • Australia: full-time and part-time employees get 4 weeks of annual leave a year, based on their ordinary hours, and 10 days of paid sick and carer's leave for full-time staff, pro rata for part-time (Fair Work Ombudsman). Some shiftworkers get more.
  • United Kingdom: almost all workers get 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year; someone working 5 days a week gets at least 28 days, and 6 days a week is still capped at 28. An employer can include bank holidays in that (GOV.UK).
  • United States: the Fair Labor Standards Act "does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations, sick leave or federal or other holidays" (US Department of Labor). The federal holidays here are the days most federal employees get off; private employers choose their own.

Public holidays only count on the days someone works: a Monday holiday does not reduce the hours of a Tuesday-to-Friday worker.

Questions

What is a good utilisation rate for an agency?

We could not find a reliable, free, agency-specific benchmark. The figures quoted online rarely say where they come from, which definition they use or which kinds of agency they cover. Work out your own from your costs: the charge-out rate calculator shows how billable hours and your rate together cover salaries and overheads.

Should leave and public holidays count?

That is the difference between gross and net utilisation. Gross divides by every contracted hour, so time off pulls it down. Net divides only by the hours someone was available. Neither is wrong; say which one you report, and use the same one every time.

What counts as productive non-billable time?

Work that helps the agency but is not charged to a client, such as pitches, internal projects or training. Admin and waiting time usually do not count. Agree a list with your team so everyone logs it the same way.

Why are the public holidays only for 2027?

They come from the same checked list as our 2027 leave planner, where every date links to its official source. A holiday only counts when it falls on one of that person's working days.

How do I plan capacity for next month?

Choose "Planning capacity", pick the month (any month of 2027), and enter the billable and non-billable hours already booked for each person. Free capacity is what is left after public holidays, leave and those bookings.

Does anything I type leave my browser?

No. The sums run in your browser and your figures are saved only in this browser. A share link keeps everything after the # in the address, and browsers never send that part to a server. "Clear my data" removes what is saved here.

Next step: turn billable hours into a charge-out rate.

Sources

Last checked 4 October 2026. Each rule links to the regulator; each public holiday date links to its government's own page from the leave planner.

Changes: 4 October 2026: first published.