How much of our team's time is billable?
№ 097 · Utilization rate trend
Definition
MetricBillable utilization (billable hours divided by total available hours), tracked as a trend
Unit% of available hours
Line of (billable hours divided by available hours) per role. 70-80% target. Above 90% means burnout risk. Build from timesheet billable splits. Below 60% means undersold. Example: Senior 78% average, spike to 96% in Q3 (burnout signal incoming).
Benchmarks
| Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|
| 60% or below; A&E as a segment sits here on the Deltek definition | 66-69% (industry average 66.4% in 2025, a record low, down from 68.9% in 2024 and a 73.2% high in 2021) | 75%+ (SPI optimal threshold; Level 5 maturity firms reach 81.2%) |
Global billable professional services, SPI definition (billable hours over total available hours, roughly 2,000-2,080 hour US basis, 1,800 EU), 2024-2025 fiscal data; agencies typically measure delivery staff only, which raises the number · Denominators differ (2,080 vs 1,800 available hours; delivery-staff-only vs whole firm), so cross-firm comparisons need the definition stated. Sustained utilization above roughly 85% is a burnout and attrition signal, not a win. Deltek's A&E figure uses direct labor over total hours, a stricter definition than SPI's.
| Category | Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital marketing agencies (delivery staff) | below 60% | 65-75% | 75%+ |
When it looks bad
The trend steps down for three or more consecutive quarters while headcount holds flat, and the gap between scheduled utilization and delivered utilization widens at the same time.
Utilization slid from 71% to 63% over four quarters at flat headcount; at a $150 average rate that is roughly $250k of paid capacity per 10 FTEs that was never sold.
What to do about it
- Attack time-to-match first: shorten the lag between a consultant coming off a project and starting billable work; Saibon estimates each recovered utilization point at EUR 2,500-4,000 per consultant per year.
- Set utilization targets by role, not one blanket number (producers 75-85%, leads lower for BD and management), and review weekly for 15 minutes; blanket targets hide both bench time and burnout.
- Automate or simplify time capture; TMetric's 250-agency dataset shows 47% of firms lose up to $500k a year to untracked hours, which depresses measured utilization and future scoping accuracy.
- Sell into forecast troughs with pre-scoped productized offers that can start within days, instead of discounting core services when the bench appears; the bench is a scheduling problem before it is a pricing problem.
Sources
- Deltek (SPI Research data) Billable utilization fell to 66.4% in 2025, the lowest in SPI survey history, down from 68.9% in 2024 and 73.2% in 2021; 75% is the optimal threshold; revenue per billable consultant still rose to $210k deltek.com ↗
- Rocketlane (SPI Research data) 66.4% sits 3.6 points below the 70% minimum healthy benchmark and 8.6 below the 75% HPO level; Level 5 maturity firms reach 81.2% utilization rocketlane.com ↗
- SPI Research (co-published with Kantata) 2024 data (n=403): utilization 68.9%, third consecutive annual decline; low utilization identified as the primary driver of EBITDA falling to 9.8% get.kantata.com ↗
- Deltek A&E firms (2025 data, ~900 firms): utilization declined to just under 60% on the Clarity definition while operating profit fell to 16.7% deltek.com ↗
- Deltek A&E median utilization around 60% in 2023 (direct labor over total hours); tracked as the core efficiency KPI for architecture firms deltek.com ↗
- Supervisible (citing Agency Management Institute data) Agency ranges citing AMI data: creative 58-68%, digital marketing 65-75%, dev/tech 72-82%; agencies above 70% report materially higher net profit; above 85% flagged as burnout risk supervisible.com ↗
- iota-finance (Promethean Research affiliated) Producers should run 75-85% billable weekly; agency-wide annual utilization incl. non-billable staff lands around 50-60%; utilization named the hidden driver of margin iota-finance.com ↗
- Saibon Group Healthy consulting band 74-84%; each recovered utilization point worth roughly EUR 2,500-4,000 per consultant per year; fastest lever is cutting time-to-match from bench to billable saibongroup.com ↗
- TMetric Across 250+ agencies: 47% of firms lose up to $500k a year to untracked hours; weekly 15-minute utilization reviews surface problems before they hit deadlines and margin blog.tmetric.com ↗