PeopleMuster

Utilisation report template

A utilisation report compares the hours your people logged on client work with the hours they had available. Divide billable hours by available hours for each person, total the team, and set this week beside last week. Anyone reading it sees in one minute where time went and who is running hot or idle.

Send it every Monday for the week just closed, and once a month as a roll-up for the leadership meeting. It's most useful before you sign new work, because it shows whether the people who'd staff it have any room left.

UTILISATION REPORT
Team: [TEAM OR DEPARTMENT NAME]
Period: [PERIOD START] to [PERIOD END]
Prepared by: [PREPARED BY]
Standard working day: [STANDARD HOURS PER DAY] hours

1. TEAM SUMMARY
Measure | This period | Last period | Change
Available hours | [AVAILABLE HOURS] | [AVAILABLE HOURS] | [CHANGE]
Hours logged | [LOGGED HOURS] | [LOGGED HOURS] | [CHANGE]
Billable hours | [BILLABLE HOURS] | [BILLABLE HOURS] | [CHANGE]
Utilisation (billable / available) | [UTILISATION %] | [UTILISATION %] | [CHANGE]
Target utilisation | [TARGET %] | [TARGET %] |

2. BY PERSON
Person | Role | Available | Logged | Billable | Non-billable | Utilisation | Band
[PERSON NAME] | [ROLE] | [AVAILABLE HOURS] | [LOGGED HOURS] | [BILLABLE HOURS] | [NON-BILLABLE HOURS] | [UTILISATION %] | [BAND]
[PERSON NAME] | [ROLE] | [AVAILABLE HOURS] | [LOGGED HOURS] | [BILLABLE HOURS] | [NON-BILLABLE HOURS] | [UTILISATION %] | [BAND]
[PERSON NAME] | [ROLE] | [AVAILABLE HOURS] | [LOGGED HOURS] | [BILLABLE HOURS] | [NON-BILLABLE HOURS] | [UTILISATION %] | [BAND]
[PERSON NAME] | [ROLE] | [AVAILABLE HOURS] | [LOGGED HOURS] | [BILLABLE HOURS] | [NON-BILLABLE HOURS] | [UTILISATION %] | [BAND]

3. BY PROJECT
Project | Client | Billable? | Hours this period | Share of logged hours
[PROJECT NAME] | [CLIENT NAME] | [YES OR NO] | [PROJECT HOURS] | [SHARE %]
[PROJECT NAME] | [CLIENT NAME] | [YES OR NO] | [PROJECT HOURS] | [SHARE %]
[PROJECT NAME] | [CLIENT NAME] | [YES OR NO] | [PROJECT HOURS] | [SHARE %]
Internal and admin | - | NO | [INTERNAL HOURS] | [SHARE %]

4. BY DEPARTMENT
Department | Available | Billable | Utilisation
[DEPARTMENT] | [AVAILABLE HOURS] | [BILLABLE HOURS] | [UTILISATION %]
[DEPARTMENT] | [AVAILABLE HOURS] | [BILLABLE HOURS] | [UTILISATION %]

5. TIMESHEETS STILL OPEN
Person | Days missing or unapproved
[PERSON NAME] | [MISSING DAYS]

6. WHAT WE'RE DOING ABOUT IT
Finding | Action | Owner | By
[FINDING] | [ACTION] | [OWNER] | [DUE DATE]

What to put in each blank

[STANDARD HOURS PER DAY]
Write the working day your contracts assume, such as 8. Every available-hours figure in the report is built from it.
[AVAILABLE HOURS]
Take working days in the period times the standard day, then subtract approved leave and public holidays. Leave out leave and every rate looks too low.
[BILLABLE HOURS]
Count only hours logged against work a client pays for. Sales, internal tools and training go in non-billable, even when they matter.
[UTILISATION %]
Divide billable hours by available hours and round to a whole number. Use logged hours instead only if your team agrees to call that figure effort, not utilisation.
[TARGET %]
Set the rate your plan needs by role. Leads and managers usually carry a lower target than the people doing the delivery work.
[BAND]
Label each person under, on target or over. Pick the thresholds once, such as 10 points either side of target, and keep them the same every week.
[SHARE %]
Divide the project's hours by total logged hours. A single client above half the team's time is a finding in itself.
[MISSING DAYS]
List the dates with no timesheet or an unapproved one. Chase these before you send the report, or the rate is wrong for everyone.
[FINDING]
Write one sentence a manager can act on, such as a designer above 100% for two weeks running.

Before you send it

  • Close timesheets before you build the report. A utilisation figure with three people's hours missing starts an argument you can't win.
  • Show the trend beside every number. A single week at 55% says little; the fourth week in a row at 55% says a lot.
  • Anyone above 100% for more than two weeks is a burnout and quality risk, not a star. Flag them in section 6 with a real action.
  • Keep the report to one page. If leadership wants more detail, attach the timesheet export rather than widening the tables.

PeopleMuster builds this report from your team's timesheets: total hours, utilisation %, average daily hours and the weekly trend, split by project and department, and posts it to Slack.

Questions people ask about this letter

How do you calculate utilisation?

Divide a person's billable hours by their available hours for the same period, then multiply by 100. Available hours are working days times the standard day, less leave and holidays. Someone with 128 billable hours out of 152 available is at 84%.

What is a good utilisation rate?

A good rate is the one your plan needs, set per role, with leads lower because they manage and sell. For a published reference, Deltek's Clarity study of architecture and engineering firms, released 12 May 2026, put average staff utilisation just under 60%. Set your own target from your plan, then track the trend against it.

Should utilisation use logged hours or billable hours?

Use billable hours for utilisation, and report logged hours beside it. Billable over available shows how much of the week clients paid for. Logged over available shows whether timesheets are complete at all.

How often should you send a utilisation report?

Weekly for the team leads, monthly for leadership. Weekly catches an overload while you can still move work; monthly shows the pattern behind hiring and pricing decisions.

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