Germany capacity math starts with the denominator. Everhour helps teams manage weekly capacity, approvals, and time records.
Measure billable utilization against total capacity and see exactly how many hours you're leaving on the table each period.
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Capacity utilization shows how much of a selected available-hours base became billable client work. For a German professional-services team, the core formula is billable hours divided by available hours, then multiplied by 100. The result answers a practical question: did this person, role, or team turn enough available capacity into client-facing work during the period?
The denominator carries the main judgment call. You can use fixed capacity, net working hours after absences, or total recorded hours. Each choice answers a different management question. A fixed-capacity denominator measures billable load against a standard schedule. A net-working-hours denominator removes leave, public holidays, sickness, or other absences. A logged-hours denominator measures the billable share of time actually recorded.
Germany-specific capacity starts with working time, leave, and holidays. Destatis reported that full-time employees in Germany usually worked 40.2 hours per week in 2023. That gives 2,090.4 gross annual hours before statutory leave, public holidays, PTO, sickness, training, and internal non-billable work reduce the usable denominator.
Germany's Federal Vacation Act sets minimum annual leave at 24 working days on a 6-day week, commonly converted to 20 workdays for a regular 5-day week. Holiday treatment also needs local precision. Germany has nine holidays observed nationwide in practice, with German Unity Day set federally and other common or additional holidays set by state law.
Use this formula for billable utilization: billable hours / available hours x 100. Start with the period capacity, subtract the absence items your policy excludes from available hours, then divide billable client work by that net denominator. Keep internal training, admin, sales support, and paid leave outside billable hours unless the client contract treats them as billable.
Example: a consultant in Berlin has 174 scheduled monthly hours. During the month, the person takes 16 hours of vacation and has 8 holiday hours, leaving 150 available hours. The consultant records 126 billable client hours at €90 per hour. Utilization is 126 / 150 x 100 = 84%, and billable capacity revenue for the month is €11,340.
A one-off calculation is enough when you need a fast monthly check for one person or a planning estimate before assigning work. It also works for a single project review when billable hours, leave, and holidays are already clean in a spreadsheet. The result is less reliable when different managers use different denominator rules.
A managed workflow matters when capacity affects staffing, approvals, billing, or payroll review. Germany's Working Time Act also limits the working day to 8 hours, extendable to 10 if the average over six calendar months or 24 weeks does not exceed 8 hours per working day. Everhour Team Management lets admins set weekly capacity, approve timesheets, lock approved periods, and organize team groups for consistent utilization reporting.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
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Use the denominator that matches the question. Fixed capacity is useful for staffing plans. Net working hours are better for productivity after leave, holidays, illness, and other absences. Logged hours show the billable share of time actually recorded. Label the denominator clearly because the same 126 billable hours can produce different utilization rates.
German official sources define capacity inputs such as working time, leave, and holidays, but they do not set a national professional-services utilization target. A target rate is a firm, role, or industry benchmark decision. Set separate targets for roles with different client load, management duties, or sales responsibility.
Public holidays should reduce available capacity when the calculator measures realistic working capacity. Germany has nine holidays observed nationwide in practice, with German Unity Day set federally and other common or additional holidays set by state law. Use the employee's Bundesland, municipality where relevant, and calendar year before subtracting holiday hours.
Unpaid breaks should stay out of available billable capacity unless firm policy counts them as working time. German working-time rules require at least 30 minutes of rest breaks for workdays over 6 and up to 9 hours, and 45 minutes for workdays over 9 hours. Treating those breaks as available hours inflates the denominator.
Two results usually disagree because they use different denominators. One report may divide billable hours by gross schedule capacity, while another subtracts vacation, state holidays, sickness, or training before dividing. Both calculations can be valid, but they answer different questions. Put the denominator definition beside every utilization percentage.
Everhour Team Management lets admins set weekly capacity per team member, apply roles and team groups, approve timesheets, and lock editing after approval or after a chosen period. Those controls keep utilization inputs consistent before managers review capacity, billing, or payroll-support reports.
Everhour Resource Planning shows workload on a visual timeline and compares planned capacity with actual tracked time. Managers can set full-time, part-time, or custom weekly capacity, add time off to the schedule, and spot overallocated team members before assignments turn into capacity pressure.
Set weekly capacity, approve timesheets, and lock completed periods before utilization reports drive staffing or billing decisions. Everhour keeps capacity rules and reviewed hours in one operational workflow.
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