Everhour tracks project time against capacity, while this page explains how to turn availability into a staffing number.
Measure billable utilization against total capacity and see exactly how many hours you're leaving on the table each period.
Working hours this period
Industry average for agencies: 75–85%
The calculator gives you the number — Everhour takes it from there.
One click and you're timing. Start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Everhour.
Set a budget, assign rates, and get alerted before you're over.
Measurement
Track your budget through time or costs
Every report you need — configured your way, always up to date.
Tracked hours flow straight into a polished invoice — no copy-paste, no manual math.
A capacity calculation answers a practical planning question: does the team have enough available hours for the work already committed? The basic output is available capacity, planned demand, and the gap between them. A positive gap means the team has room. A negative gap means the manager must move work, add people, reduce scope, or change the delivery date.
For U.S. teams, the weekly baseline usually starts from employer-defined capacity. The FLSA does not define full-time or part-time employment, although federal overtime rules require covered nonexempt employees to receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a fixed 168-hour workweek. That is why many firms use 40 hours as a gross weekly planning baseline.
Start with gross capacity, then subtract hours that should not be available for project work. The formula is: people multiplied by weekly capacity, minus PTO, holidays, unpaid leave, and planned non-project obligations. Then compare planned work to the remaining capacity: planned demand divided by available capacity equals planned utilization.
Example: a 5-person team uses a 40-hour weekly baseline, giving 200 gross hours. One person has 8 hours of PTO, another has 8 hours of holiday time under company policy, and the team has 20 hours of internal meetings and admin work. Available project capacity is 164 hours. If planned client work is 132 hours, planned utilization is 80.49%, leaving 32 available hours.
U.S. federal law does not set a utilization target, so the target belongs to the firm, role, service line, or industry benchmark. A delivery consultant, account manager, and practice lead should not share one target unless their non-billable responsibilities are the same. Capacity planning gets distorted when one blended percentage hides different job designs.
Leave rules also affect the denominator. The FLSA does not require payment for time not worked, including vacations, sick leave, or holidays, so paid leave is not a federal denominator entitlement for private employers. Many U.S. employers still net out leave by policy. In 2025, BLS reported 80% private industry access to paid vacation and 81% access to paid holidays.
A one-off capacity calculation works for a staffing check before a proposal, a sprint, or a weekly schedule. It is enough when the inputs are stable, the team is small, and nobody needs an approval trail. Save the denominator definition beside the result so the same week is not later recalculated with a different capacity rule.
A managed workflow becomes necessary when capacity changes every week. Everhour Time Tracking captures task and project hours through timers or manual entries, works inside common project tools, and feeds timesheets, reporting, budgeting, invoicing, and payroll review. Approvals, locked periods, reminders, and timer rules keep the planning number tied to actual tracked work.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
High Performer
G2
Summer 2026
Best Ease Of Use
Capterra
Summer 2026
Rated in the top time trackers across G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius — with consistent praise for ease of use, integrations, and support.
Use headcount, each person's weekly capacity, planned PTO, holidays under employer policy, unpaid leave, and non-project obligations that remove time from delivery work. Then enter planned demand by project, client, or workstream. The result should show available capacity, planned demand, remaining hours, and planned utilization against the denominator you chose.
Many U.S. firms use 40 hours as a gross weekly baseline because federal overtime rules require covered nonexempt employees to receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a fixed 168-hour workweek. The FLSA does not define full-time employment, so 40 hours is a common employer policy baseline, not a federal full-time definition.
Federal holidays reduce capacity only when the employer's policy, contract, or applicable law gives workers that time off. OPM lists 11 federal holidays in 2026 for federal employees. Private-sector paid holidays remain a matter of employer policy unless another law or contract applies, so the denominator must follow the team's actual policy.
Planned utilization is planned demand divided by available capacity. Capacity remaining is available capacity minus planned demand. In the example above, 132 planned hours divided by 164 available hours equals 80.49% planned utilization, while 164 minus 132 leaves 32 available hours. Both figures matter because one shows load percentage and the other shows staffing room.
The common mistake is using gross capacity after leave is already known. A 5-person team at 40 hours each has 200 gross hours, but that is not available project capacity after PTO, holidays, unpaid leave, or standing internal work. If the team plans against 200 hours while only 164 hours are available, the schedule is already overloaded.
Everhour Time Tracking logs task and project hours through live timers or manual entries, including tracking inside tools such as Asana, ClickUp, GitHub, Jira, Monday, Notion, Trello, and Basecamp. Approved timesheets and locked periods help managers compare planned capacity with actual project hours before reporting, billing, or payroll review.
Track approved hours against project demand and capacity rules. Everhour turns task time into timesheets, reports, budgets, and billing data, so capacity planning stays connected to actual work.
14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime
