What is capacity planning for accounting firms?
Capacity planning for an accounting firm is matching the hours staff have available to the work that is due, week by week, so deadlines are met without overloading some people while others are idle. It uses job budgets, due dates and each person's availability to show who is over or under capacity.
Also calledresource planningworkload planningresource management
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- Compares
- Hours available vs work due
- Built from
- Job budgets and due dates
- Used for
- Assigning work and hiring
How capacity planning works
Each recurring job, such as a monthly bookkeeping run, a VAT return or a year-end set of accounts, has a budget of hours and a due date. The practice system spreads those budgets over the weeks before each deadline and compares the total for each person and team with their available hours after leave and non-chargeable time. The result shows bottlenecks ahead of busy periods such as tax deadlines, and lets managers reassign work, move due dates where possible or bring in help. Comparing actual time against budgets each month improves the next year's plan. Capacity planning also informs pricing and hiring: a firm that is always over capacity is often under-pricing. Karbon includes time budgets and capacity views in its practice management workflow.
Common questions
Why do accounting firms need capacity planning?+
Because work is concentrated around deadlines. Planning shows overloads weeks ahead, when work can still be moved or help brought in, rather than when deadlines are at risk.
What data does capacity planning need?+
A budget of hours and a due date for each job, each person's working hours and leave, and actual time recorded so budgets can be corrected.
How does capacity relate to utilisation?+
Capacity is the hours available; utilisation is the share of them spent on chargeable work. Planning aims for high but sustainable utilisation without missed deadlines.
Practice software with capacity planning
Part of Accountio’s accounting technology coverage · Glossary
