Skip to main content
Capacity is the foundation of all other metrics—it defines how much working time is available for allocation. Understanding capacity is essential for scheduling, resource planning, and realistic workload management.

​
What Is Capacity?

Capacity is the amount of productive time available for work. It’s measured in two ways:

Daily Capacity

How many productive minutes are available per day per person

Available Capacity

How many total productive minutes are available in a time period

​
Daily Capacity

Each person has a daily capacity—the productive minutes available on a working day.

​
The Two Standards

CharleOS uses two different daily standards for different purposes:
TypeMinutesHoursUsed For
Billing Day450 minutes7.5 hoursDay rate calculations
Default Capacity390 minutes6.5 hoursSchedule allocation, utilisation, capacity planning

​
Why Two Different Values?

The billing day of 7.5 hours is an industry standard for professional services. It’s used when calculating:
  • Day rates (revenue per day)
  • Days allocated in contracts
  • Billable days delivered
It represents a “full day’s worth” of billable work in contractual terms.
Why 6.5 and not 7.5?If you scheduled 7.5 hours of focused work every day, you’d have no time for necessary coordination, communication, or mental breaks. The 6.5-hour default is more realistic and sustainable.

​
Role-Based Capacity

Different roles have different daily capacities because they have different meeting loads and responsibilities:
RoleTypical CapacityReason
Developer6.5 hours (390 mins)Standard capacity with meetings/standups
Designer6.5 hours (390 mins)Standard capacity with reviews/feedback
QA6.5 hours (390 mins)Standard capacity with testing/coordination
PM/CSM5 hours (300 mins)More meetings, coordination, client calls
Manager4.5 hours (270 mins)Heavy meeting load, 1-on-1s, planning
Leadership4 hours (240 mins)Strategic work, high meeting volume
These can be configured in the system per role or per person. If no role-specific capacity is set, the system uses the 390-minute default.

​
Available Capacity

Available capacity is your total productive time in a date range:
The Formula
Available Capacity = (Working Days - Leave Days) × Daily Capacity

​
What Is a Working Day?

A working day is any weekday (Monday-Friday) that is not:
1

Weekends

Saturday and Sunday are automatically excluded.
2

UK Bank Holidays

CharleOS tracks UK bank holidays and excludes them from working days.Common UK bank holidays:
  • New Year’s Day
  • Good Friday, Easter Monday
  • Early May Bank Holiday
  • Spring Bank Holiday
  • Summer Bank Holiday
  • Christmas Day, Boxing Day
3

Approved Leave

Any leave with status approved is subtracted from working days.This includes:
  • Full day leave
  • Half day AM
  • Half day PM
Half days count as 0.5 days.

​
Worked Example: February Capacity

Let’s calculate available capacity for February 2025:
StepCalculationResult
1. Count Calendar Days
Days in February 202528 days
2. Exclude Weekends
Saturdays and Sundays8 days
Weekdays28 - 820 days
3. Exclude Bank Holidays
UK bank holidays in Feb 20250 days
Working days20 - 020 days
4. Subtract Leave
Leave taken2 days
Net working days20 - 218 days
5. Calculate Available Capacity
Daily capacity390 mins (6.5h)
Available minutes18 × 3907,020 mins
Available hours7,020 ÷ 60117 hours
So in February, with 2 days of leave, this person has 117 hours (7,020 minutes) of available capacity.

​
Half-Day Leave

Half-day leave is supported and counts as 0.5 days: Example:
  • Working days: 20
  • Full day leave: 1 day
  • Half day AM leave: 1 half-day (0.5 days)
  • Net working days: 20 - 1 - 0.5 = 18.5 days
  • Available capacity: 18.5 × 390 = 7,215 minutes

​
How Capacity Is Allocated

CharleOS uses a priority-based fill-first algorithm to allocate capacity across scheduled work.

​
Allocation Priority

Work is allocated to capacity in this order:
1

Help Desk Tickets (Priority 1)

Active and scheduled help desk tickets get first priority. Client support comes first.
2

In-Progress Multi-Day Items (Priority 2)

Subtasks that started before today and are still ongoing get next priority (work you’ve already begun).
3

Single-Day Items Starting Today (Priority 3)

Tasks scheduled to start and finish today.
4

New Multi-Day Items Starting Today (Priority 4)

Larger tasks starting today that will span multiple days.
5

Future Items (Priority 5)

Work scheduled for future dates.
6

Explicit Priority Order (Priority 6)

If items have explicit priorityOrder values set, those override the default hierarchy.

​
How Allocation Works

For each day in the schedule:
  1. Start with full daily capacity (e.g., 390 minutes)
  2. Sort scheduled items by priority
  3. Allocate capacity to each item in order:
    • If an item needs 120 minutes and 390 are available, allocate 120 and reduce available to 270
    • If an item needs 300 minutes and only 270 are available, allocate 270 and carry over 30 minutes to the next day
  4. Continue until capacity is exhausted or all items are allocated
  5. Multi-day items track remaining minutes across days
Weekends get 0 capacity. Tasks may span weekends, but no hours are allocated to Saturday/Sunday. The remaining work simply shifts to Monday.

​
What Consumes Capacity?

Item TypeConsumes Capacity?Notes
Subtasks✅ YesIf they have scheduled start/end dates
Help Desk Tickets✅ YesWhen active or scheduled
Project Tasks❌ NoDisplayed but don’t consume capacity (for context)
Unscheduled Items❌ NoNot allocated until scheduled

​
Capacity Status Indicators

CharleOS uses color-coded indicators to show capacity health:
StatusUtilisationBadgeWhat It Means
Over CapacityGreater than 100%● RedMore work scheduled than capacity allows
At Capacity80-100%● AmberNear or at capacity limit
Healthy50-80%● GreenGood capacity utilisation
LowLess than 50%● BlueSignificant available capacity
These indicators appear on:
  • Schedule views (day-by-day capacity bars)
  • Capacity quick view (team overview)
  • Scheduling dialogs (warnings when over-scheduling)

​
Where to See Capacity

Capacity information appears throughout CharleOS:
Your personal schedule shows daily capacity:
  • Progress bar per day (green/amber/red)
  • Percentage allocated (e.g., “78% scheduled”)
  • Next available date
Helps you see when you’re over-scheduled or have bandwidth.
PM and Manager dashboards show team capacity:
  • Each team member’s capacity status
  • Available vs scheduled vs logged minutes
  • Who has bandwidth for new work
  • Can filter by client to see client-specific capacity
When scheduling new work:
  • Shows assignee’s current capacity
  • Warns if scheduling would create conflicts
  • Suggests conflict-free start dates
  • Shows end date based on capacity
Visual timeline showing capacity per day:
  • Color-coded capacity indicators
  • Next available date for each person
  • Used in scheduling to find optimal dates
Capacity planning reports (coming soon):
  • Team capacity vs demand
  • Hiring signals (sustained over-capacity)
  • Utilisation forecasts

​
Capacity and Scheduling

Capacity is tightly integrated with scheduling:

​
Conflict Detection

When scheduling new work, CharleOS checks if there’s available capacity:
Scenario: Scheduling 2 hours of work on a day with 3 hours available.✅ No conflict—work fits within capacity.The system schedules the work and updates capacity indicators.

​
End Date Calculation

When you schedule work, CharleOS automatically calculates the end date based on:
  1. Start date - When work begins
  2. Estimated minutes - How long the task should take
  3. Assignee’s daily capacity - How much they can do per day
  4. Already scheduled work - What’s already on their plate
  5. Leave and holidays - Days they’re unavailable
Example:
  • Start date: Monday, March 1
  • Estimated: 12 hours (720 minutes)
  • Daily capacity: 6.5 hours (390 minutes)
  • Already scheduled: 2 hours/day (120 minutes)
  • Available per day: 390 - 120 = 270 minutes
Calculation:
  • Day 1 (Mon): 270 minutes allocated, 450 remaining
  • Day 2 (Tue): 270 minutes allocated, 180 remaining
  • Day 3 (Wed): 180 minutes allocated, complete
  • End date: Wednesday, March 3

​
How Capacity Is Used for Planning

​
1. Utilisation Tracking

Capacity is the denominator in utilisation calculations: 
Utilisation = Billable Minutes ÷ Available Capacity × 100
See Utilisation for details.

​
2. Resource Planning

Capacity helps answer:
  • Who has bandwidth for new work? Look at scheduled vs available capacity
  • Do we need to hire? If team is consistently over-capacity for 4+ weeks
  • Can we take on this project? Check team capacity vs project needs

​
3. Forecasting

Capacity enables forward planning:
  • Project future capacity based on known leave
  • Identify busy and quiet periods
  • Plan hiring or contractor needs in advance

​
4. Schedule Health

Capacity metrics show schedule quality:
  • Gaps: Days with less than 50% capacity scheduled (under-utilised)
  • Overloads: Days with greater than 100% capacity scheduled (over-scheduled)
  • Balance: Good distribution of work across the team

​
Common Capacity Scenarios

Problem: Someone has 200% capacity scheduled.Causes:
  • Unrealistic estimates
  • Too many concurrent tasks
  • Unexpected urgent work added
Solutions:
  • Reschedule some work to later dates
  • Redistribute work to team members with capacity
  • Re-estimate if original estimates were too optimistic
  • Push back on new work until current load is manageable
Problem: Team is greater than 85% capacity for 4+ consecutive weeks.This indicates:
  • High demand (good problem to have!)
  • Potential hiring need
  • Risk of burnout if sustained
Actions:
  • Consider hiring or contractors
  • Review and optimize processes
  • Ensure realistic estimates
  • Protect team from over-commitment
Problem: Team member has less than 40% capacity scheduled.Causes:
  • Between projects (pipeline gap)
  • New starter ramping up
  • Blocked by client approvals
  • Seasonal quiet period
Solutions:
  • Assign internal projects or improvement work
  • Training and skill development
  • Help with other team members’ workload
  • Business development activities
Problem: Someone has 2 weeks leave next month.Impact:
  • Available capacity drops from ~130 hours to ~65 hours
  • Existing scheduled work may need rescheduling
  • Other team members may need to cover
Planning:
  • Review scheduled work before leave
  • Reschedule non-urgent items to after return
  • Delegate urgent items to teammates
  • Ensure handoff documentation exists

​
Capacity Priority vs. Workload Reality

Important distinction:Capacity priority (which tasks get allocated first) is different from workload importance (which tasks should actually be done first).The priority algorithm helps with allocation—it doesn’t tell you what to work on. You still need to prioritize actual work based on:
  • Client importance
  • Deadlines
  • Business value
  • Dependencies
Capacity is a planning tool, not a task prioritization system.

​
Tips for Healthy Capacity Management

Leave buffer capacity for:
  • Urgent work that comes up
  • Tasks taking longer than estimated
  • Meetings and interruptions
  • Mental breaks and context switching
Aim for 70-80% scheduled capacity, not 100%.
When leave is booked:
  • Review scheduled work for those dates
  • Reschedule or delegate proactively
  • Don’t wait until the last minute
Leave planning affects team capacity significantly.
Capacity gives you objective data to push back on unrealistic requests:“We’re at 90% capacity for the next 3 weeks. We can start this on [realistic date] or we need to reschedule something else.”
If one person is at 120% and another at 40%, redistribute work. Don’t let some people burn out while others are under-utilized.

Utilisation

Capacity defines available time—utilisation measures how much is billable

Schedule

Learn how to use the schedule view to manage your capacity

Scheduling Work

See how capacity affects scheduling and conflict detection

Annual Leave

Understand how leave reduces available capacity