A practical self-assessment for professional services teams. Understand where your delivery visibility gaps are, what they're costing you, and which metrics to focus on first.
Takes around 5 minutes. No login required.
Professional services firms that can see delivery clearly — utilisation rates, budget burn, project health, profitability — consistently outperform those that can't. They overrun less, bill more accurately, resource more efficiently and present better data to clients and leadership.
This health check will show you exactly where your team stands across four pillars: delivery visibility, utilisation, profitability and reporting efficiency.
Tick each one you can confidently say “yes” to. Your score updates live.
Pillar 1
Pillar 2
Pillar 3
Pillar 4
Your live score
0/12
Limited visibility
Significant delivery visibility gaps. Profitability and utilisation decisions are likely based on instinct rather than data.
Your delivery visibility is in good shape. Focus on refining and optimising your existing reporting.
You have some data, but gaps are likely costing you in overruns, inefficiency or reporting effort.
Significant delivery visibility gaps. Profitability and utilisation decisions are likely based on instinct rather than data.
If you can answer these four questions at any point in time, you have baseline delivery visibility.
Formula
Billable hours ÷ Available hours × 100
Target
70–80%
Why it matters
Below 60% means wasted capacity. Above 85% consistently means burnout risk.
Formula
Hours logged ÷ Total budget hours × 100
Target
<80% at project midpoint
Why it matters
If you're above 80% at 50% of the project timeline, escalate immediately.
Formula
(Revenue – Delivery cost) ÷ Revenue × 100
Target
30–50% for most agencies
Why it matters
Below 20% means delivery costs are eating most of your revenue.
Formula
Minutes to produce a monthly utilisation report
Target
<5 minutes
Why it matters
If it takes hours, data capture is broken — not just reporting.
Hourglass gives you all four metrics — utilisation, budget burn, project margin, and instant reports — out of the box, from day one. Free plan available.