Coverage gap calculator
Some questions are answered in heads, not hours. A support desk needing four people on a Monday is short at three. How many hours those three will work does not change it, and this compares the two counts.
Fill in every field to see the result.
How to use it
Step 1
Enter the headcount the period requires. Whole people, since half a person cannot answer a phone.
Step 2
Enter the headcount on the team before absences.
Step 3
Enter how many of them are away. Approved leave, booked training, anything that puts somebody elsewhere.
Step 4
The result gives the effective count, the shortfall or surplus, and coverage as a percentage of what was required.
Step 5
Count only the people who can actually cover the work. If the shift needs a skill or a language, enter just the people who have it.
Step 6
Run each timezone as its own team. Three people on three continents shouldn't read as three people in one room.
Questions people ask
Why count heads when the capacity tool counts hours?
Some work cannot be pooled. Hours are interchangeable on a project and not on a rota, where one person must be present at one time. Both numbers matter, and they answer different questions.
What does a coverage figure above a hundred percent mean?
More people than the period needs. The surplus figure names how many, which is the number to move somewhere short before it becomes idle time.
Does requiring nobody count as covered?
Yes, at a hundred percent. A period needing no one cannot be short, and printing a division error there would be noise.