Occupation rate (utilization)
Occupation rate measures all productive time, billed plus internal, divided by available time. Unlike billability, it counts internal tasks, so a consultant can be fully occupied yet under billed.
Definition
The occupation rate, often called utilization rate, divides productive time by theoretically available time. Productive time covers everything a consultant actually works on: client work that gets billed plus internal work such as proposals, training, or team meetings. The result shows how much of the working week people spend doing something useful for the firm.
The term is genuinely ambiguous in French practice. Some firms use it as a synonym of billability, others as a headcount ratio of consultants on assignment over productive staff. A number without its formula is meaningless, so every firm should write down which formula it means and apply it consistently.
Formula
Occupation rate = (billed time + productive internal time) / available time x 100
Example: A week of 5 available days with 3 billed plus 1 internal gives 4/5 = 80% occupation, while billability is 3/5 = 60%.
Why it matters
Occupation answers a question billability cannot: is everyone actually working? A team at 60% billable and 95% occupation is busy, just not on paid work. That gap is your internal load, and it tells you whether to price better, delegate, or cut low value tasks. Tracking only billability hides this, because idle time and internal work look identical when you count billed hours alone.
How to improve your occupation rate
- 1
Write down which formula your firm uses, time based or headcount based, and keep using it so numbers stay comparable over time.
- 2
Separate internal time from idle time in timesheets so occupation and billability can both be computed from the same entries.
- 3
Review the gap between occupation and billability monthly, because internal heavy teams hide bench risk until it becomes a margin problem.
How Okouro shows it
Okouro timesheets distinguish billable time from internal time, so occupation and billability both compute from the same validated data. Dashboards show the two rates side by side and the gap between them, which makes internal load visible. A free plan is available to start.