Utilisation rate
also known as utilization rate · billable utilisation
The share of a team member's available hours spent on billable client work. A core lever for agency profitability and capacity planning.
For example, if a designer has 40 available hours in a week and logs 30 on billable client work, their utilisation rate is 75%. The other 25% goes to internal meetings, admin and pitching - useful, but not directly paid for by a client.
Why it matters to your firm: utilisation is one of the biggest levers on profit. Too low and you are paying for idle time; too high and your team burns out and quality slips. Tracking it tells you when to hire, when to push for more work, and how to price.
Most agencies target 70-85% utilisation for delivery roles - high enough to be profitable, with room left for admin, learning and pitching.
Utilisation rate = billable hours ÷ available hours × 100
Most agencies target roughly 70-85% for delivery roles.
Utilisation rate calculator
Plug in your numbers - it updates as you type.
Prefer its own page? Open the utilisation rate calculator