Practical use cases
- Sizing available capacity before committing to a project or volume of work.
- Comparing planned demand against the capacity your current team can actually deliver.
- Sense-checking whether a period needs extra hiring or temporary cover.
Calculator
Works entirely in your browser — nothing is sent, saved or tracked. Results update as you type.
How it works
The formula is:
Net capacity = (Workers × Productive hours per week × Weeks) × (1 − Leave % ÷ 100)
Gross capacity is workers × hours × weeks; net capacity subtracts the share you expect to lose to leave, sickness and other absence. Use productive hours (time actually available for work), not contracted hours, if they differ.
Worked example: For 25 workers at 37.5 productive hours over 13 weeks with 12% expected leave: gross = 25 × 37.5 × 13 = 12,187.5 hours; net = 12,187.5 × (1 − 0.12) = 10,725 hours for the period.
How to read the result
Net capacity is the figure to plan against — it already allows for the time you expect to lose. Compare it with the labour hours your planned work will need: if demand is higher than net capacity, you are short and may need hiring, overtime or temporary cover; if it is lower, you have headroom.
The leave percentage is an estimate, so treat the result as a planning range rather than a precise number. Re-run it with a higher and a lower leave figure to see how sensitive your plan is to absence.
Common mistakes
- Using contracted hours instead of genuinely productive hours, which overstates capacity.
- Forgetting to subtract leave and absence, then wondering why the plan runs short.
- Mixing period lengths — make sure weeks, demand and capacity all cover the same period.
- Treating the leave estimate as exact rather than testing a range.
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