Skip to content
ProFinda Learning

Building reports that get read · lesson 2 of 4

Building a utilisation report step by step

In this lesson

  • Build a utilisation report from data selection through to a shareable view
  • Choose sensible groupings and a comparison baseline before formatting anything

A utilisation report answers a simple underlying question - how much of people’s available time is being used on billable or planned work - but a first attempt often turns into a wall of numbers because the grouping and baseline were never decided before the formatting started.

Decide before you build

Two decisions matter more than any visual choice: how you are grouping people, and what you are comparing utilisation against. Get these wrong and no amount of chart styling will make the report useful.

  1. Choose the time period. Weekly is usually too noisy for a recurring report; monthly, rolling over a quarter, is the common default that smooths short-term variation without hiding a real trend.
  2. Choose the grouping. By team, by grade, or by practice area - pick the one your reader actually manages against, not the one the data makes easiest to slice.
  3. Choose the baseline. A target percentage, last quarter’s figure, or both. A utilisation number with nothing to compare it to tells the reader almost nothing.
  4. Build the underlying view. Select the data source, apply the time period and grouping, and add the baseline as a reference line or column before any formatting.
  5. Sanity-check one figure. Pick a team or person whose utilisation you already know roughly, and confirm the report shows something close to what you expect before trusting the rest.
  6. Format last. Only once the figures check out should you adjust visual presentation - chart type, colour, layout - for the audience this report is built for.

Why the baseline matters most

A report showing “utilisation: 74%” with nothing else is not yet informative. Is 74% good? Against an 80% target, it is a shortfall worth discussing. Against a 65% target, it is ahead of plan. The comparison, not the raw figure, is what lets a reader decide whether anything needs their attention, which is the entire purpose of building the report.

Sanity-checking before you trust it

Before sharing a first version of any report, find one figure you can verify independently - a team you know well, a person whose recent project you can recall - and check the report’s number against your own sense of reality. Grouping errors and date-range mistakes are common on a first build, and they are far easier to catch on one familiar figure than after the report has already been circulated.

Key takeaways

  • Decide the grouping and the comparison baseline before touching visual formatting
  • A utilisation figure is only meaningful next to a target or a prior period
  • Build the view, check it against a number you already trust, then format
PreviousNext