Capacity calculator

Capacity Calculator

Assesses whether a CSM's portfolio is manageable by computing the weighted workload across all accounts. Raw account count is a poor measure of capacity -- a CSM with 30 enterprise at-risk accounts is more loaded than a CSM with 80 healthy SMB accounts. This skill computes the actual demand.

How to Use

Provide:

• Your account list with: name, ARR, segment/tier, health status, renewal proximity, and any special circumstances (active escalation, expansion in progress, onboarding)
• Your available hours per week (typically 35-40 after internal meetings and admin)
• Any upcoming capacity constraints (PTO, projects, training)

Capacity Model

Step 1: Compute Per-Account Demand

Each account consumes a different amount of CSM time based on its characteristics:

Base demand by segment:

Segment	Base Hours/Month	Rationale
Enterprise	8-12 hours	Multi-stakeholder, strategic, deep engagement expected
Mid-Market	3-5 hours	Regular cadence, moderate complexity
SMB	1-2 hours	Light touch, digital-first with periodic check-ins
Scaled/Tech-Touch	0.5 hours	Automated primarily, engage on signal only

Demand multipliers:

Factor	Multiplier	Rationale
Health: Strong	0.7x	Less intervention needed. Standard cadence
Health: Healthy	1.0x	Baseline management
Health: At Risk	1.5x	Additional investigation, intervention, monitoring
Health: Critical	2.5x	Save play, frequent touchpoints, escalation management
Renewal in 90 days	1.3x	Renewal preparation, commercial conversations, stakeholder engagement
Active escalation	1.5x	Escalation management, internal coordination, customer communication
Onboarding (first 90 days)	1.5x	Intensive engagement, training, milestone tracking
Expansion in progress	1.2x	Commercial preparation, stakeholder engagement

Per-account demand = Base hours * Product of applicable multipliers

Step 2: Compute Total Portfolio Demand

Sum the per-account demand across all accounts. Compare to available capacity:

Metric	Computation	What It Means
Total monthly demand	Sum of all per-account demands	How many hours your portfolio requires
Available monthly capacity	Available hours/week * 4.3	How many hours you have
Capacity utilisation	Total demand / Available capacity	How loaded you are
Buffer	1.0 - Capacity utilisation	How much room you have for the unexpected

Step 3: Classify Capacity Status

Utilisation	Status	Interpretation
<70%	Underloaded	Room for more accounts or deeper strategic work on existing accounts
70-85%	Healthy	Sustainable workload with buffer for surprises
85-95%	Stretched	Manageable but no buffer. Any new escalation or at-risk account will push into overload
95-110%	Overloaded	Not sustainable. Something is being dropped -- usually the proactive, strategic work that prevents future crises
>110%	Critical	Unsustainable. Active harm to accounts is occurring through neglect. Immediate rebalancing or support needed

Step 4: Identify Rebalancing Opportunities

If overloaded, the skill identifies:

Lever	How	Trade-Off
Move accounts to a peer CSM	Transfer lowest-ARR, healthiest accounts that require the least relationship continuity	Relationship disruption on the transferred accounts
Shift accounts to scaled/tech-touch	Move healthy low-ARR accounts to a lower-touch model	Reduced relationship depth. Monitor for health changes
Defer strategic work	Delay account strategy, multi-threading, and proactive initiatives	Short-term relief at the cost of long-term portfolio health
Request temporary support	Ask for a colleague to take on escalation management or QBR prep for specific accounts	Coordination overhead. Customer may interact with an unfamiliar CSM
Make the headcount case	Use the capacity data to justify additional hiring	Timeline: 2-6 months to hire, onboard, and ramp a new CSM. Not a quick fix

Output Format

## Capacity Assessment: [CSM Name]
**Date:** [date]

### Portfolio Summary
| Segment | Accounts | Base Demand (hrs/mo) |
|---------|----------|---------------------|
| Enterprise | [n] | [hours] |
| Mid-Market | [n] | [hours] |
| SMB | [n] | [hours] |

### Demand Modifiers
| Factor | Accounts Affected | Additional Demand (hrs/mo) |
|--------|------------------|--------------------------|
| At Risk | [n] accounts | +[hours] |
| Critical | [n] accounts | +[hours] |
| Renewal <90 days | [n] accounts | +[hours] |
| Onboarding | [n] accounts | +[hours] |
| Active escalation | [n] accounts | +[hours] |

### Capacity Status
- Total demand: [hours/month]
- Available capacity: [hours/month]
- Utilisation: [%]
- Status: [Underloaded / Healthy / Stretched / Overloaded / Critical]
- Buffer: [hours/month available for unplanned work]

### Top Demand Accounts
[5 accounts consuming the most CSM time, with demand breakdown]

### Recommendations
[Rebalancing suggestions if overloaded, or strategic opportunities if underloaded]

Using This for Headcount Justification

The capacity model produces the evidence a CS leader needs to make a hiring case:

Data Point	What It Shows
Utilisation >95% sustained for 2+ months	The team is structurally overloaded, not just having a busy month
At-risk accounts not getting intervention time	Revenue is being left unprotected because CSMs do not have capacity to run save plays
Proactive work at zero	Multi-threading, account strategy, and adoption planning are not happening because all time goes to reactive work. This is a leading indicator of future risk
New accounts cannot be properly onboarded	Growth is creating churn risk because new customers do not get the onboarding attention they need

Frame the ask as: "At current utilisation, we are deferring [X hours/month] of proactive work that protects [EUR Y] in ARR. A new hire at [cost] would recover [Z] hours of capacity and reduce the unprotected ARR."

Quality Gates

• Are the segment classifications accurate? An account labelled "SMB" that actually requires mid-market engagement will undercount demand
• Are the multipliers applied honestly? Tempting to downplay the demand of at-risk accounts to make the number look manageable. The model is only useful if it reflects reality
• Does the buffer account for realistic variability? A month with zero surprises is fiction. 15-20% buffer is the minimum for a sustainable portfolio
• If overloaded, is the rebalancing recommendation specific? "Reduce workload" is not a recommendation. "Transfer 5 SMB accounts (EUR 35k combined ARR, all healthy) to scaled motion to free 8 hours/month" is

Principles

• Account count is a vanity metric. Capacity is a function of ARR-weighted, health-adjusted, event-modified demand -- not the number of logos on the list. 40 accounts is not a meaningful statement without knowing the mix
• Chronic overload is a management failure, not a CSM resilience test. A CSM operating at 110% utilisation for 3 months is not performing heroically -- they are being set up to fail. The capacity model makes this visible
• The capacity model is an argument, not a complaint. Presenting utilisation data with revenue impact and risk quantification is a business case. Saying "I am too busy" is a complaint. The model produces the former
• Underloaded CSMs are an opportunity, not a problem. If utilisation is below 70%, the CSM has room for deeper strategic work, more accounts, or both. Use the capacity data to make that case as well