Transparent calculations
How do you calculate agency capacity?
For each role, start with scheduled working hours for the period. Deduct leave, holidays and the internal work you want to protect. That gives the hours available for client delivery. Deduct already committed client work and the proposed new project to find the remaining hours for that role.
Remaining hours = client capacity − committed work − proposed work
Enter total hours across people in each role, rather than entering a headcount. Do not deduct internal work twice by also including it in committed client hours. A negative result shows a shortfall. The planner totals shortfalls separately from spare hours so an overall positive balance cannot hide a role bottleneck.
A worked agency example
In the sample, Design has 80 scheduled hours, 8 hours off and 12 hours of internal work: 60 client-delivery hours. Existing work needs 45 hours and the proposed project needs 20, leaving a 5-hour shortage.
Development has 72 client-delivery hours and 60 hours of combined demand, leaving 12 spare hours. The total is positive by 7 hours, but the design work still does not fit. Reduce scope, move a deadline or confirm that a suitably skilled person can cover the work before promising delivery.
What should you do with a capacity gap?
Review a shortfall with the people who will do the work. Split deliverables across dates, reduce optional scope or reassign work only when the required skills are available. A positive result is still a planning estimate: this tool does not model day-by-day scheduling, dependencies, skill levels, uncertainty or overlapping deadlines.
Use the billable utilization calculator to check the other side of the decision. Then review agency profit-margin definitions and evidence and agency pricing observations without treating them as a guaranteed result for your business.
From calculation to client work
Keep the hours close
to the project.
Workspace369 connects client records, projects, tasks and invoices. Time tracking and billable time come with every plan. Use those records to review actual work against the scenario you planned here.
This free tool is a standalone planning model. It does not connect to your workspace or claim that the app automatically calculates this exact report.
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Common questions
Why can the team have spare hours and still be overloaded?
Capacity is specific to skills and timing. A developer with spare time may not be able to complete a design task. This planner shows role shortages separately from spare hours; review individual skills and deadlines before treating hours as interchangeable.
Should internal work be included in committed hours?
Keep the categories separate. Put meetings, administration and protected internal work in the internal-work field. Put existing client-delivery commitments in committed client work. Counting the same hours in both fields understates your remaining capacity.
Does this planner schedule individual tasks?
No. It compares aggregate hours for a single period and up to 12 roles. It does not assign people to dates, model dependencies or predict completion. Use the result as a starting point for a detailed project schedule.
Method and sources
Created by the Workspace369 editorial team. Method reviewed October 10, 2026. These are transparent calculations on your inputs, not survey findings or measured industry averages. Sources explain the concepts; our examples and implementation are original.
- Productive: calculating resource capacity — explains schedules, time off and role availability.
- Teamwork: using the workload planner — distinguishes availability, assigned effort and capacity.
Found a problem with a formula? Contact Workspace369 with the inputs and expected result, excluding personal or client information.