Practical use cases
- Estimating how many productive hours a team has available in a period.
- Feeding a realistic capacity figure into the workforce allocation calculator.
- Sense-checking whether planned work fits the capacity you actually have.
Calculator
Works entirely in your browser — nothing is sent, saved or tracked. Results update as you type.
How it works
The formula is:
Total capacity = (employees × productive hours per employee) − planned leave hours
Use “productive” hours, not gross paid hours — exclude time you would never expect to be available for the work. Keep the basis the same each period so figures stay comparable.
Worked example: With 12 employees at 130 productive hours each and 80 hours of planned leave, capacity is (12 × 130) − 80 = 1,480 hours.
For the full background — what it measures, why it matters and how to read it — see the workforce capacity metrics guide.
How to read the result
This is the realistic pool of hours available for work in the period. It is an estimate that depends heavily on what you treat as “productive” hours.
Pair it with the workforce allocation calculator to see how much of this capacity each activity consumes, and keep a buffer for the unexpected.
Common mistakes
- Using gross paid hours instead of realistic productive hours.
- Forgetting to subtract planned leave and known absences.
- Changing the basis between periods so capacity is not comparable.
- Planning to use 100% of capacity with no buffer.
Free, printable planning resources
Plan and onboard consistently alongside the numbers. No signup, no gating.