A service business capacity plan compares committed work with the hours and skills actually available to deliver it. Use this worksheet before accepting another project or hiring another employee.
Download the editable CSV worksheet. Open it in your spreadsheet application, keep the instructions, and complete the blank entry, owner, due date, and evidence columns. This is a blank planning tool; the example below is illustrative.
When to use this worksheet
Use it with the manager who owns this workflow and one person who performs the work. Bring a recent completed case and a recent exception. Compare the worksheet with those records before adopting it as a team standard. If an existing system already stores these details, use its fields rather than maintaining two competing records.
Template fields and completion checklist
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Role and week | Separate specialist work from general support; hours are not interchangeable. |
| Paid hours | Start with scheduled hours for each person. |
| Unavailable hours | Deduct leave, training, internal meetings, and management responsibilities. |
| Delivery hours | Paid hours minus unavailable hours; reserve a deliberate allowance for interruptions. |
| Committed demand | Estimate remaining hours on signed projects by role and delivery week. |
| Capacity gap | Available delivery hours minus committed demand; a negative result needs a decision. |
How to put the process into practice
List the next four weeks of signed delivery commitments. Ask the people doing the work to estimate remaining effort, rather than using the original quote unchanged.
Compare demand and available hours for each skill. A surplus in administration cannot resolve a shortage of licensed technical capacity.
Move discretionary work, renegotiate a milestone, or use qualified outside support before promising new dates. Record who can approve each option.
Worked example
Illustrative example: three consultants have 120 paid hours in a week. Leave and internal work consume 30 hours, leaving 90 delivery hours. Signed projects require 105 hours. The 15-hour deficit remains even if total company headcount looks adequate. Moving a 20-hour workshop into the following week creates five hours of headroom, provided the client agrees.
Common mistake to avoid
Planning everyone at 100% delivery utilization leaves no room for corrections or urgent customer needs. Set a buffer from your actual interruption history and revisit it after the first month.
What to measure after implementation
Track estimated versus actual delivery hours, overdue milestones, and overtime by role. Review weekly; investigate a growing backlog before treating higher utilization as success.
Review the first completed worksheet
Before expanding this process, have the responsible manager check one completed record against the original evidence. Confirm that another team member can understand the next action without asking the author to explain it. Record any missing information as a revision to the worksheet. Choose a review date based on how often the workflow runs; a weekly process gives feedback sooner than a quarterly one.
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- Client Onboarding Workflow for Missing Documents
- Project Margin Review Template for Service Firms
- Browse all business templates and checklists
Elixir Consulting Group helps owner-led businesses install practical systems. Explore operations consulting or book a consult to discuss the workflow your team needs to improve.
