Technician Utilization Calculator
By BRIX Editorial Team · Updated
Technician utilization is the share of paid hours a tech spends on customer jobs: hours on jobs ÷ paid hours. Efficiency is hours billed ÷ hours on jobs. A tech paid 45 hours a week who works 27 on jobs is 60% utilized; billing 30 hours makes them 111% efficient.
- Efficiency (billed ÷ job hours)
- 111.1%
- Productivity (billed ÷ paid hours)
- 66.7%
- Paid but unbilled hours per tech per week
- 15
- Billed revenue per tech per week
- $4,500
- Extra job hours per tech per week to hit target
- 6.75
- Added billed revenue per year at target
- $225,000
Your techs spend 60% of paid time on jobs. Getting to 75% means 6.8 more job hours per tech a week. At your current efficiency that's 7.5 more billed hours each, worth about $225,000 a year across 4 techs, with no new hires.
Key takeaways
- Utilization = hours on customer jobs ÷ paid hours.
- Efficiency = hours billed (or flat-rate hours sold) ÷ hours on jobs. Over 100% means the tech beat book time.
- Productivity = hours billed ÷ paid hours = utilization × efficiency. It's the number that drives revenue.
- A few extra job hours per tech per week is often worth more than a price increase, and needs no new hire.
What is technician utilization?
Technician utilization measures how much of the time you pay a tech for is spent working on customer jobs. The rest goes to driving, parts runs, waiting on dispatch, shop time and callbacks. Because you pay for all of it, every unbilled hour has to be covered by the hours you do bill. See technician utilization and billable hours for definitions.
Utilization = J ÷ P Efficiency = B ÷ J Productivity = B ÷ P
- P
- paid hours (clock-in to clock-out)
- J
- hours clocked on customer jobs
- B
- hours billed: flat-rate book hours sold, or hours invoiced on time and materials
How to calculate technician utilization
- 1
Pull paid hours from payroll.
Use a few normal weeks, not the busiest week of summer. Include overtime.
- 2
Pull hours on jobs from timesheets.
Only time clocked to a customer job counts. If techs don't clock in and out by job, start there; you can't manage what you can't see.
- 3
Pull billed hours from invoices.
On flat rate, add up the book hours of every task sold. On time and materials, add up hours invoiced.
- 4
Divide.
Job hours ÷ paid hours is utilization. Billed hours ÷ job hours is efficiency. Billed ÷ paid is productivity.
- 5
Price the gap.
Extra job hours needed to hit your target × efficiency × your bill rate × techs × weeks is what the gap costs you each year.
Where do unbilled hours go?
In the example, each tech has 18 paid hours a week that aren't on a job. Here's an illustrative breakdown and the fix for each.
| Where the time goes | Hours per week | How to win it back |
|---|---|---|
| Driving between jobs | 7 | Tighter zones and routing; booking jobs near each other |
| Supply-house and parts runs | 4 | Better truck stock; parts ordered before the job |
| Waiting on dispatch, gaps in the schedule | 3 | Answering every call; filling cancellations fast |
| Shop time, loading, meetings | 2.5 | Short morning huddle; load trucks the night before |
| Callbacks (unbilled return trips) | 1.5 | First-time fixes; checklists before leaving the job |
| Total | 18 |
Utilization by trade
| Trade | Biggest drain on billable time | Lever |
|---|---|---|
| HVAC | Seasonal swings: idle shoulder months, overbooked peaks | Maintenance agreements to fill spring and fall |
| Plumbing | Drive time and parts runs on emergency calls | Truck stock and zoned dispatch |
| Electrical | Return trips for permits, inspections and parts | Pre-job material lists; inspection scheduling |
| Pest control and lawn care | Route density | Selling neighbors on the same route |
| Garage door | Wrong parts on the truck for the door | Photos and model numbers collected at booking |
| Cleaning | Travel between homes and gaps from cancellations | Tight zones and a waitlist to fill gaps |
Common utilization mistakes
- Counting drive time as job time. It's paid, and it might be billed through a trip fee, but it isn't time on the job. Track it separately so you can see it.
- Confusing utilization and efficiency. A tech can be 90% utilized and still slow (low efficiency), or fast but sitting idle (low utilization). You need both numbers.
- Chasing 100%. Some non-job time is necessary: training, truck maintenance, safety. Set a realistic target from your own best weeks.
- Measuring the team, not the tech. The average hides the tech who needs coaching and the one who should be training others.
- Not pricing for it. Your hourly rate has to be built on billable hours, not paid hours. See the contractor hourly rate calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate technician utilization?
Divide the hours a tech spends on customer jobs by the hours you pay them for. A tech paid 45 hours who spends 27 on jobs is 60% utilized. Use timesheets clocked by job, not estimates.
What is the difference between utilization and efficiency?
Utilization measures how much paid time is spent on jobs. Efficiency measures how much the tech bills for the time spent on jobs: on flat rate, book hours sold ÷ hours actually worked. A fast tech can be over 100% efficient while still poorly utilized if the schedule has gaps.
What is a good technician utilization rate?
Set a target from your own best weeks rather than an industry figure, since trade, service area and job mix change what's possible. Then track each tech against it weekly. Every point you add spreads the same wages and overhead over more billed hours.
What is technician productivity?
Productivity is billed hours divided by paid hours, which equals utilization times efficiency. It's the single number that ties a tech's paid time to revenue, so it's the best one for comparing techs.
How can I improve technician utilization?
Answer every call so the schedule stays full, zone and route jobs to cut drive time, stock trucks to avoid parts runs, collect model numbers and photos when booking, and reduce callbacks. Track it weekly so you see the effect.
Should drive time be billable?
Drive time is paid, so it has to be recovered somewhere: in a trip or dispatch fee, built into flat-rate prices, or in your hourly rate. Either way, track it separately from job time so you can see and reduce it.
Related
- What Is Technician Utilization?Technician utilization is the share of paid hours spent on customer jobs. Learn the formula, how it differs from billable efficiency, and how to raise it.
- What Are Billable Hours?A full-time tech is paid about 2,080 hours a year but bills far fewer. See where the hours go and how to set an hourly rate that covers cost and profit.
- What Is Dispatching?What dispatching is in field service, how to assign the right tech to the right job, the board rules that cut drive time, and mistakes that cost you calls.
- What Is First-Time Fix Rate?What first-time fix rate means, how to calculate it, what a second trip costs, and how trades shops raise it with better intake, truck stock and dispatch.
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