How to use the capacity report for hiring decisions

Written By Matti Parviainen

Last updated 3 days ago

The Capacity report (Reports → Capacity) shows your organization's total capacity and how booked it is — based on plans only (allocations, not tracked time), making it a forward-looking view for the next 1–6 months. One of the most common questions it answers: does the workload justify an additional hire? You can switch units (% booked, % available, hours booked, hours available) and group by role, site, group, or person.

One of the most common questions it can help answer: does the workload justify an additional hire?

Start with confirmed vs. tentative bookings

Rather than looking at a single metric, the most useful starting point is to compare confirmed and tentative (weighted) bookings side by side.

The thresholds depend on your business, but as a rule of thumb:

  • Confirmed bookings should be a healthy share — e.g. 80%+ — of the team's capacity.

  • Tentative (weighted) bookings should add a significant amount on top — roughly 20% or more.

If both hold, the team is heading toward over capacity, which strengthens the case for a hire. If either is low, there's likely room to absorb new work with the current team — especially if the confirmed bookings have some buffer.

Use % Available as a gut-check

The % available view gives a quick read: if there's remaining capacity even after accounting for weighted tentative work, the current team can probably handle the pipeline without adding headcount. Think of it as the "even if we win everything we're hoping to win, do we still have room?" test.

Look at individual workload, not just the aggregate

The aggregate view tells you whether the team as a whole has room — but not whether it can realistically absorb new work given how current bookings are spread. For that, use the People timeline: filter to the relevant group, role, or seniority and look at how bookings are distributed.

For example: if everyone is already booked at ~90% and incoming projects each need 20%+ of a person's time, there's no easy way to absorb that without major reshuffling — even if the aggregate doesn't scream "over capacity." Hiring may still be the right call.

Two lenses, one decision

To summarize, the Capacity report supports hiring decisions through two complementary perspectives:

  1. Aggregate availability — does the team as a whole have room? The quick answer.

  2. Individual workload distribution (via the People Timeline) — can the team realistically take on new work given how bookings are spread? The nuanced answer.

Both are worth checking before making a hiring decision.

A note on utilization vs. hiring

These views help you judge whether there's enough work to justify a hire. The separate question of how to get people from 80–90% utilized closer to 100% is a sales and staffing challenge — not necessarily solved by adding headcount.

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