Capacity / Was the time used?
Give the released time a real job.
Hours are capacity. Follow where they went and what useful work or actual avoided spending resulted; an unassigned hour has no financial credit here.
- Additional useful work
Verify that extra accepted work was actually completed.
- A cost that stops
Identify a real expense avoided; a fixed salary does not fall by itself.
- Count it once
The same hour cannot produce extra work and also disappear from payroll.
Open the detail
Keep the setup, assumptions and checks in view.
Was the time used?
Was the time used?
Did released time become useful work? Follow the hours to a named job and count what passed review. Hours released are not automatically revenue.
6 h assignedTo queued client onboarding
Write down which released hours were assigned, and to what work. Queued work matters here: these hours went to something already waiting.
2 onboardings completedCount only work that passed review
Count finished outputs such as proposals, onboardings, reports and follow-ups. Time counts once it produces finished work, so an onboarding that is started but unfinished stays out of this number.
4 h still availableA remainder, not necessarily waste
The example says only that these hours were not assigned this week. Before calling them wasted, ask whether suitable work was waiting. If it was not, the limit may be demand, not effort.
6 ÷ 10 = 60% of released hours used
Count the gain onceHours and finished work describe one gain
The 6 hours and the 2 onboardings are the same effort seen two ways: time spent, then what it produced. Report them side by side and never add them together as two benefits.
Any financial result is a later and separate check. It depends on useful redeployment, demand, quality and cost.
Capacity is room to grow. Name where the 10 h or 40 h in the setup examples goes, such as client onboarding or delivery, and count the finished work each week.
- What changed?See how the 10 hours were measured
- What limited the upside?See why freed hours may have nowhere to go
Original checks and worked weekHours assigned and work completed, with the source calculation
Was the time used?
Hours assigned and work completed
- Write down which released hours were assigned, and to what work.
- Count finished outputs such as proposals, onboardings, reports and follow-ups.
- Count only work that passed review. Time counts once it produces finished work.
Illustrative example · one week
10 h released6 h used
Assigned to queued client onboardingStill available
6 h assigned to queued client onboarding · 2 onboardings completed · 6 ÷ 10 = 60% of released hours used
Capacity is room to grow. Decide where the freed hours go, then track what that work actually completed.
For the setup examples · name where the 10 h or 40 h goes, such as client onboarding or delivery, and count the finished work each week.