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Forecast & Utilization rate
Forecast & Utilization rate

Forecast, utilization, availability, and capacity rates in Planner. What do the colours/colors mean? Calculation of employees & teams.

Camilla Ahgren avatar
Written by Camilla Ahgren
Updated over a month ago

Note! that only users with manager permission within your company are able to see this information.

💡Use the table of contents to get to the right section.

To easily get an overview of utilization for the respective team in the company. or, the Forecast Overview can be used as a kind of “heat map”. This overview is a part of the Utilization Overview in Cinode.


Overview of Forecast

  • Utilization

  • Availability

  • Capacity

The utilization and availability forecast can be viewed from an individual- and team level as well as cumulative for all chosen teams. By clicking on an arrow by the user’s name, extended information is shown.

You can display per month or per week. If the user works 100% and starts working in the middle of the week (in this case below Wednesday), the utilization rate for that week will show 60% which is three out of 5 days.

The display mode can be viewed per Definitive bookings and Definitive bookings + preliminary bookings.

Use the filter option to find your requests view: click on the "funnel" to toggle on and off filter options.

The colours of the projects show the following:

Green: assigned projects
Light green: option of extension
Orange: oral agreement
Blue: preliminary booked projects
Grey: vacation


Summary line


At the bottom of the page is a summary line that shows; Total: Team and Weighted: Company.

Average: Calculates the average occupancy rate for all teams.

Example: Total: Team 75" means the occupancy rate is 75% if you count on an average for all teams.

Weighted average: Calculates the weighted utilization rate according to how many employees each team includes.

Example 1: if you have two teams, one which has two employees and the other 1000, the occupancy for the team with two employees would weigh as much as the team with 1000 employees if it´s not weighted on the number of employees in each team.

If the team with two employees has an occupancy rate of 50% and the team with 1000 employees has an occupancy rate of 100%, the average occupancy rate would be 75%.

If you instead weight the team according to how many employees each team includes,

The team with two employees will get a weight of (2/1002) and the team with 1000 employees a weight of (1000/1002).

The weighted utilization rate in percent would now be: 50X (2/1002) + 100X (1000/1002) = 99,9%


Filtering
The page consists of four filters:

Display as:

  • Week - weekly visibility

  • Month - monthly visibility

Bookings

View only definitive bookings or include also preliminary bookings.

Team
Here you can choose what teams the utilization data will be shown. If you choose a parental team, all teams will be included automatically. Delivery rate

Week/month
With this filter, you are able to choose what time format the utilization information will be grouped. It is possible to choose between week and month.


How is the level of utilization calculated for an employee in Cinode

We base our utilization level calculations on daily data and the following aspects pertaining to the individual:

  • Availability on an applicable day

  • Utilization for the applicable day

Availability
To calculate availability for a specific day, we use the following information:

  • Is the employee expected to work on this day, and in that case, how much?

This information is based on the calendar the applicable employee is connected to. The calendar shows if the day in question is a bank day or not, and the extent of full-time in percentages, for example, 50% for a half-day (in the current version we use a default calendar with Swedish bank days and holidays).

  • Employee availability and team %

The employment level indicates the part of a full-time workday an employee is expected to work. Team % indicates the percentage of the employment level the consultant is expected to be available as a consultant.
An example of an availability calculation for an employee on the 9th of July 2017.

  1. Lisa has an employment rate of 100% (of full-time work)

  2. Lisa is allocated to Team Alpha as a consultant for 50% of her employment rate.

  3. Lisa is booked on an assignment for 50%

Lisa’s available time as a consultant in Team Alpha is 100% x 50% = 50%
Lisa’s utilization level is 50% / 50% = 100% during the applicable period.


How are utilization levels for employees aggregated in a team

The shown utilization on a team level is a cumulative value based on the weighted utilization for each team member and the chosen time unit (week or month). The weight consists of the availability (% of full-time) an employee represents in the total availability for a team.

Below is an example of how availability is calculated for an employee in a team he/she is a member of:

  1. Lisa has an employment level of 50%

  2. Lisa is a member of two teams:

In the team “Performance”, she is expected to use 50% of her time
In the team “Test leader”, is expected to use 40% of her time

That means that Lisa’s availability for each team is:

Team Performance

50 % x 50 % = 25 %

Team Test leader

50 % x 40 % = 20 %

Utilization level for team members

Utilization for an employee in a specific team is based on the extent of the roles he/she has been added during the relevant day. The extent of a role is always defined as x % of full-time.

You calculate the utilization level by using the team member’s availability and the team member’s utilization in one or more roles:

Example:

  1. In “Team Performance”, Lisa is added for two roles; one role at 15% and one role at 10% -> utilization in this team = 25%

  2. In “Team Test leader”, Lisa is added for one role at 10% -> utilization in this team = 10%

For example for calculating the utilization level for a team member
To calculate utilization level you use a team member’s availability and utilization:

Σ Extent of roles ⁄ Availability for employees in the team = Utilization level (%)

For Lisa, this means the following utilization levels in each team:

Team Performance:

(15+10) % ⁄ 25 % = 100 %

Team Test leader:

10 % ⁄ 20 % = 50 %

In this team, it means that she is fully utilized for that day in Team Performance,

Lisa would be under-utilized by 50% for that day.

Utilization level for team members

Utilization for an employee in a specific team is based on the extent of the roles he/she has been added during the relevant day. The extent of a role is always defined as x % of full-time.

You calculate the utilization level by using the team member’s availability and the team member’s utilization in one or more roles:

Example:

  1. In “Team Performance”, Lisa is added for two roles; one role at 15% and one role at 10% -> utilization in this team = 25%

  2. In “Team Test leader”, Lisa is added for one role at 10% -> utilization in this team = 10%

For example for calculating the utilization level for a team member
To calculate utilization level you use a team member’s availability and utilization:

Σ Extent of roles ⁄ Availability for employees in the team = Utilization level (%)

For Lisa, this means the following utilization levels in each team:

Team Performance Team Test leader (15+10) % ⁄ 25 % = 100 % 10 % ⁄ 20 % = 50 %In this team, it means that she is fully utilized for that dayIn this team, Lisa would be under-utilized by 50% for that day.


Weighted value for calculating an aggregated utilization level per team

To avoid a situation where a team member who is not a big part of a team reduces the utilization level of that team, each team member’s contribution to the team's total utilization level is weighted.

Example:
1. “Team Test leader” has three team members:
a) Lisa, who is working 10% for the team
b) Johan, who is working 80% for the team
c) Jasmin, who is working 100% for the team

2. Each team member has had their utilization level calculated
a) Lisa’s individual utilization level in the team is 50%
b) Johan’s individual utilization level in the team is 80%
c) Jasmin’s individual utilization level in the team is 100%

3. The weight for each team member is then calculated:
a) Lisa’s weight in the team is calculated as 10/190
b) Johan’s weight in the team is calculated as 80/190
c) Jasmin’s weight in the team is calculated as 100/190

4. The weighted utilization level for each team member is calculated:
a) Lisa: (10/190) × 50 ≈ 3%
b) Johan: (80/190) × 80 ≈ 34%
c) Jasmin: (100/190) × 100 = 53%

5. The aggregated utilization level for the team can be summarized like this:
3% + 34 % + 53 % = 90 %


The colours in the report

In the 'Utilization > Forecast' section, you can see how teams and their members are being used, represented by colored levels calculated from various factors. The color-coded report acts as a 'heat map' for a quick overview of team utilization across the company. At the page's bottom, you'll find a summary that combines these values for selected teams during a specified time, with a weighted calculation based on all team members.

The utilization level calculation is based on a couple of different aspects.

  • What parameters do we have to apply to our employees to calculate availability?

  • Read more about the required parameters to calculate utilization for an individual.

  • How do we calculate Absence?

For a detailed explanation of how we calculate utilization for individual teams, you can read our in-depth article on the topic.

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