๐Ÿ”‹ Capacity as a Professional Services KPI

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๐Ÿ“– Definition

Capacity represents the maximum possible output of a company โ€” typically measured in hours available to work. It reflects how much effort or production your organization can deliver during a specific period.

In professional services, capacity directly depends on the number of consultants, their working hours, and whether they are full-time or part-time.

๐Ÿ“ˆ Why Capacity Is an Important Metric

Capacity shows how much work your organization can handle โ€” now and in the future.

Capacity planning ensures that your agency has the right number of people, with the right skills, available for upcoming projects. Without it, agencies risk either:

  • Understaffing โ†’ missed deadlines and employee burnout, or
  • Overstaffing โ†’ higher bench costs and reduced profitability.

By tracking capacity, leadership teams can align staffing decisions with project pipelines and business goals.

๐Ÿงฎ How to Calculate Capacity

Capacity is calculated by summing up all consultantsโ€™ available working hours in a given time frame.

๐Ÿ’ก Formula: Capacity = ฮฃ (Employee Working Hours ร— Employment Rate)

Where:

  • Working Hours = standard hours per week (e.g., 40 for full-time)
  • Employment Rate = percentage of full-time availability (e.g., 0.5 for part-time)

๐Ÿ’ก Example

An agency has:

  • 5 full-time consultants (40 hours per week each)
  • 3 part-time consultants (20 hours per week each)
  • Period: 4 weeks

Calculation:

Capacity = (5 ร— 40 ร— 4) + (3 ร— 20 ร— 4) Capacity = 800 + 240 = 1,040 hours

โœ… The total 4-week capacity of the agency is 1,040 hours.

๐Ÿ“ How to Measure and Monitor Capacity

Capacity management is usually handled by the Project Management Office (PMO) using resource scheduling tools such as Float, 10,000ft, or Harvest Forecast.

These tools help visualize:

  • Current employee workload
  • Future project allocations
  • Gaps in team availability

Key Questions Capacity Analysis Can Answer

  • What is our working capacity and workload throughout the year?
  • How much can we grow before we need more staff?
  • When will we need extra help to deliver new projects?

๐Ÿ“Š Capacity in Metric AI

Metric AI integrates with resource scheduling and time-tracking tools to give you a complete view of:

  • Current and planned capacity
  • Actual tracked hours
  • Utilization ratios
  • Segmentation by office, department, or role

This allows agencies to balance their workload, plan hiring proactively, and ensure high team efficiency and profitability.

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