Six ways to compute it

The numerator and the denominator are both choices, and between them the choices are worth thirty-seven points.

Six Definitions of the Same Ratio

One person, one year, 1,250 chargeable hours, six denominators, six figures between 60 and 97 per cent. All of them defensible.

Nine categories of hour that sit on the boundary of billable, and the consequence of each ruling.

The bottom of the ratio decides more than the top does. Seven things that may or may not count as available time.

An hour recorded, billed and then waived still counts in most definitions. The gap between the ratio and revenue has a name.

Published benchmarks compare numbers built from unpublished definitions. What survives the comparison and what does not.

A firm moved internal meeting time out of the denominator and reported an eight-point improvement. The work did not change.

The rules exist somewhere in most firms. Putting them in front of the people whose figures depend on them changes what gets recorded.