Utilisation Rate
For professional services and consulting businesses, the percentage of available billable hours that are actually billed to clients — the primary driver of services revenue and capacity efficiency.
What it shows
Utilisation rate reveals how efficiently a services organisation deploys its human capital. Low utilisation means the firm is carrying costly unbillable bench time; too-high utilisation risks burnout and declining delivery quality — both damage revenue.
Formula
Utilisation Rate = Billed Hours ÷ Available Billable Hours × 100. Target: typically 70-80% for client-facing consultants. Track weekly to catch trends early.
Tracked in these industries
Professional Services & Consulting
Consulting and professional services firms generate revenue through billable hours, project milestones, and retainer agreements — requiring RevOps to instrument utilisation rates, SOW pipelines, and resource capacity constraints that directly cap top-line growth.
HRTech & Staffing
HR technology and staffing companies operate on placement fees, contractor spread models, and SaaS subscription revenue — requiring RevOps to track time-to-fill as pipeline velocity, bill rate vs. pay rate margin as deal quality, and recruiter quota structures fundamentally different from SaaS ARR models.