CALCULATORS · FIELD SERVICE KPIS
Technician Utilization Calculator: Formula and Worked Example
Technician utilization is the share of paid working time that gets billed to a customer. Enter billable hours and paid hours for the same people and the same period, and the calculator returns the rate.
How to use the calculator
- Choose the people and the period: one technician for a week, or a whole team for a month.
- Add up the billable hours, the hours charged to customers, and enter them under billable hours. Decimals are fine, so 7.5 works.
- Add up the paid hours worked for the same people and the same period. Leave out paid vacation, sick and holiday hours.
- Read the rate under the form. It updates as you type. An empty field asks for a value and never counts as zero.
The formula
- In words: utilization = billable hours ÷ paid hours worked
- In symbols: U = B ÷ P, shown as a percent (× 100)
The glossary entry divides billable hours by available hours. Available hours here are the paid hours a technician worked, so paid vacation, sick and holiday hours stay out of the denominator.
Some teams also count training or internal projects as productive time. This calculator counts billable hours only, which makes the result a billable utilization figure.
Billable hours cannot be more than paid hours, so the calculator flags that case and never shows a result above 100%. If paid hours is zero there is nothing to divide by, and the calculator says so instead of showing 0%.
Worked example: 104 billable hours out of 158 paid hours
A team was paid for 158 hours of work in a week and billed 104 of them. Utilization is 104 ÷ 158, or 65.82%.
| Billable hours | 104 |
|---|---|
| Paid hours worked | 158 |
| Paid hours not billed | 54 |
| Utilization | 65.82% |
The 54 hours that were paid but not billed might be travel, parts pickups, admin or waiting. The rate does not say which. It shows only how much paid time reached an invoice.
Five more billable hours in the same week would make it 109 ÷ 158, or 68.99%.
What moves the number
Either hours figure moves the rate, and so does the rule for what counts as billable.
- Travel and gaps between jobs: paid time spent driving or waiting for the next job lowers the rate.
- Admin and parts runs: time spent on paperwork and picking up parts is paid but usually not billed.
- What counts as billable: callbacks and warranty work that you do not invoice reduce billable hours even though the technician was working.
- Matching the two fields: billable hours and paid hours must cover the same people and the same period, or the rate is meaningless.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate technician utilization?
Divide billable hours by paid hours worked for the same people and period, then show the result as a percent. With 104 billable hours out of 158 paid hours, that is 104 ÷ 158, or 65.82%.
Which hours count as paid hours?
The hours technicians were paid to work. Paid vacation, sick and holiday hours are paid but they are not hours a technician could bill, so they stay out. This matches the available hours used in the glossary definition.
Why can utilization not go above 100%?
Billable time is part of paid time, so it cannot be larger than paid time. If billable hours come out higher, the two fields probably cover different people or different periods, or paid hours were undercounted. The calculator asks you to check them instead of showing a result.