How to Use This Tool
Convert ticket demand, handling time and shrinkage into staffed FTE capacity. Estimate customer support FTEs from ticket volume, average handle time, productive hours, occupancy and nonproductive shrinkage.
The decision this tool supports
Ticket counts do not translate directly to headcount when meetings, leave and a sustainable occupancy target reduce productive handling time. This page keeps the decision bounded to required support ftes and the supporting outputs shown beside it. Support Staffing does not import an account, infer a market rate, or silently substitute an industry average.
Inputs and units
The Support Staffing calculation uses Tickets per week, Average handle time, Paid hours per FTE, Target occupancy, Shrinkage. Keep all money values in one currency and all time, distance, mass, energy or volume entries in the unit printed beside the field. Mixing Support Staffing scopes can produce a plausible number with the wrong meaning.
- Tickets per week is entered in tickets.
- Average handle time is entered in minutes.
- Paid hours per FTE is entered in hours/week.
- Target occupancy is entered in %.
- Shrinkage is entered in %.
Formula and worked check
Handling hours = tickets × minutes per ticket ÷ 60; productive FTE hours = paid hours × (1 − shrinkage) × occupancy. 1,800 weekly tickets at 12 minutes require 360 handling hours; 24 productive hours per FTE imply 15.00 FTEs. The Support Staffing default is an executable known-answer case, not a benchmark or recommendation. Change one input and verify that the direction of required support ftes still matches the stated relationship.
How to interpret the result
Round the FTE result according to shift coverage and service-level needs; the decimal is workload capacity, not a complete roster. The additional Support Staffing outputs expose the denominator, comparison, capacity or reverse value needed to audit the primary result instead of presenting one unexplained number.
Assumptions
- Average handle time includes after-contact work.
- Shrinkage and occupancy are separate reductions.
- Weekly demand is representative of the planning period.
Save the Support Staffing input values and date with any material decision. A later Support Staffing rerun is reproducible only when the same assumptions and units are available.
Limitations and safety boundary
It excludes arrival peaks, channel concurrency, skill routing, service-level queueing and schedule coverage by interval. Support Staffing is an estimate and cannot replace a contract, local code, licensed professional, calibrated measurement, lender statement or platform report where one governs the decision.
Source and privacy
The Support Staffing definition or rule was checked against U.S. Small Business Administration — Manage your finances on 2026-08-26. Recheck U.S. Small Business Administration — Manage your finances when a specification or policy behind Support Staffing can change. Support Staffing arithmetic runs in this browser tab; ecech does not receive the values through a calculation API.
Sources & assumptions
Tool Spec v2 · verified 2026-08-26. Platform rules and fees can change; the editable inputs remain authoritative for your account.
Official references
- U.S. Small Business Administration — Manage your finances (checked 2026-08-26)
Model assumptions
- Average handle time includes after-contact work.
- Shrinkage and occupancy are separate reductions.
- Weekly demand is representative of the planning period.
- It excludes arrival peaks, channel concurrency, skill routing, service-level queueing and schedule coverage by interval.
