Utilisation Rate Calculator
Team utilisation rate is the percentage of total available work hours that a team member spends on billable client work, calculated as billable hours ÷ total capacity hours × 100. The industry target for client-facing staff is 70–75% (2024 Sortlist Agency Operations Survey); median small-agency utilisation runs around 68%. This calculator shows where each person sits and projects the revenue impact of closing the gap.
Utilisation Rate Calculator
See your billable utilisation per person and team-wide, compared to the industry benchmark.
Shared assumptions
Your team (4 of 8)
Per person + team totals
| Person | Billable hrs / wk | Utilisation | Annual revenue | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior strategy | 22 | 55% | $132,000 | Below target |
| Senior delivery | 30 | 75% | $180,000 | On target |
| Junior delivery | 28 | 70% | $168,000 | On target |
| Operations / PM | 14 | 35% | $84,000 | Under-utilised |
| Team weighted | 94 | 58.8% | $564,000 | Below target |
Industry benchmark
Target: 70-75% · Median small agency: 68% · Top quartile: 75-80%
Sortlist 2024. Sustained over 85% correlates with 35% higher turnover.
If everyone hit 75%
+$156,000/ year
Additional revenue without hiring. $720,000 total at the target.
Share this exact scenario
That's the number. The real test is whether your live projects hold up to it.
Ascend tracks the real figures as the work runs. Start free.
Run the Project Profitability CalculatorKeep this result
Email yourself this result. Your inputs stay on the link, so the numbers are here when you come back.
One email with your result. Nothing else unless you sign up.
Generates a permanent URL with your team's numbers pre-filled, so anyone you share it with sees the same scenario.
Method: utilisation = billable hours / total work hours. Annual revenue = billable hrs/wk × weeks/year × billable rate. Sources: Sortlist Agency Operations Survey 2024, Productive.io 2024 Agency Benchmarks, HubSpot State of Marketing Agencies 2024, AgencyAnalytics 2025 Pricing Benchmark.
How this calculator works
Utilisation rate is the share of a person's total work hours that bill to clients. The math is simple: billable hours divided by total work hours. The reason most agencies do not track it is not difficulty. It is that nobody wants to be the person who has to ask the team to log time honestly.
This calculator handles both per-person and team-weighted variants. You enter each team member with their typical billable hours per week. The shared assumptions row at the top sets the work-hours baseline (default 40), the weeks worked per year (default 48 after holidays and sick days), and a blended billable rate so the annual-revenue projections are meaningful.
The status tag against each person tells you where they sit relative to the industry band. Red for under-utilised, amber for below target, green for on target, amber/red again for at-risk or burnout-risk. The team weighted row at the bottom of the table is what you compare against the benchmark figures from Sortlist and HubSpot.
The "if everyone hit 75%" panel projects what your team would earn if every person moved to the bottom of the target band. For most small agencies that is a meaningful number, often six figures of additional annual revenue without hiring.
Frequently asked questions
What is utilisation rate for an agency?+
Utilisation rate is the share of a person's total work hours that are billable to clients. A team member working a 40-hour week and logging 28 billable hours has a 70% utilisation rate. It is the single most important agency operating metric because it directly determines revenue capacity at a given hourly rate and team size.
What is a good utilisation rate?+
The 2024 Sortlist Agency Operations Survey puts the industry target at 70-75% for client-facing staff. Median small-agency utilisation runs around 68%. The top quartile sustains 75-80%. Going above 85% consistently triggers burnout: AgencyAnalytics found sustained over-85% utilisation correlates with 35% higher staff turnover in the following 12 months. So the sweet spot is the 70-80% band.
How do I calculate utilisation rate?+
Divide billable hours by total work hours over the same period. For a week: billable hours that week / total work hours that week × 100. For a year: total billable hours / (work hours per week × weeks worked) × 100. The calculator above does both per-person and team-weighted variants automatically.
What counts as non-billable time?+
Business development, internal meetings, admin, training, recruitment, marketing your own agency, infrastructure work, debugging your own tools. None of those bill to clients but they still consume work hours, which is exactly why pure billable-time ratios sit below 100% even for senior people working hard.
How do I raise utilisation without burning out the team?+
Four moves in order. (1) Track utilisation per person and surface it weekly so people see their own number. (2) Reduce non-billable overhead — fewer internal meetings, less context-switching. (3) Re-scope under-utilised people into more billable client work and re-scope over-utilised people out of admin work. (4) Stop hiring until existing utilisation hits the 70-75% band — most small agencies hire to relieve perceived overload that is actually a tracking problem.
Read the full guide · 9-min read
What your utilisation rate means (and the numbers good agencies hit)
Median sits at 68%, the target band is 70-75%, and the top quartile holds 75-80%. Here is what your number means and how to lift it without burning the team out.
Built into Ascend
Native time tracking built in — utilisation rolls up from tracked hours on every project, no separate timesheet tool to keep in sync.
Related calculators & guides
Work the same numbers from the next angle.
Team Capacity Planner
Model your team's revenue ceiling against a 12-month target. Cheapest-lever comparison shows whether raising utilisation, lifting rates, or hiring closes the gap most cheaply.
Open toolAgency Operating Manual Generator
Answer 12 questions, get a 12-section operating manual: cadence, RACI, metrics, four playbooks (Acquire/Deliver/Bill/Retain), decision rules, tool stack, gaps, and a 30/60/90 plan. Tuned to your team size, service shape, and growth target. Free PDF download.
Open toolWhat your utilisation rate means (and the numbers good agencies hit)
Median is 68%. Target is 70-75%. Top quartile holds 75-80%. Here is how to lift it 5-10 points without burning the team out.
Read the guideWhen to hire your next person (or your first contractor)
Three levers raise your agency revenue ceiling: utilisation, rate, headcount. Most owners reach for hiring first. The math usually says fix utilisation. Here is when each lever is the right move.
Read the guideThe cost of agency tool sprawl (and what to do about it)
Median small agency spends $310/month on tools and adds 1.4 new ones per year that never get removed. The cost saving is rarely the headline. The integration tax is.
Read the guideHow to build a database or form with AI
Describe the database or form you need in plain language and Ascend builds the structure, ready to edit. The full workflow for both, step by step.
Read the guideTrack utilisation weekly, automatically.
Ascend logs time against the project record and rolls it up per person and team. Utilisation becomes a chart you check Monday morning, not a quarterly spreadsheet exercise.
Try Ascend free