---
title: "Get started with capacity planning - Office Hours session"
slug: "get-started-with-capacity-planning-office-hours-session"
description: "This document provides a summary of the \"Getting Started with Capacity Planning\" Office Hours session, with timestamps to help you navigate to specific segments in the recording."
updated: 2025-05-22T17:21:05Z
published: 2025-05-22T17:21:05Z
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.fullcast.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Get started with capacity planning - Office Hours session

This document provides a summary of the "Getting Started with Capacity Planning" Office Hours session, with timestamps to help you navigate to specific segments in the recording.

**Overall purpose of the session:** To introduce Fullcast users to the capacity planning features, demonstrating how to model headcount and quota to achieve revenue goals, and understand the inputs, outputs, and capabilities of the system.

[Embedded content](https://www.youtube.com/embed/KCo5QTvjEYg)

**Key Segments:**

- **Introduction and agenda (00:01:23 - 00:02:20)**
  - Welcome and introduction of speakers.
  - Overview of the session: demo of primary models, configuration, capabilities, and Q&A.
- **Setting the stage for capacity planning (00:02:44 - 00:04:37)**
  - The core question: "How many reps do you need, and how much quota should you assign them to get to your revenue goals?"
  - Overview of key inputs: current headcount, seasonality, attrition, backfill time, average quota, attainment rate, ramp profiles.
  - Overview of outputs and the iterative process of tweaking inputs (e.g., adjusting ramp, attainment, quota, hiring plan).
- **Introduction t****o the Fullcast Platform and Scenarios Tab****(00:05:39 - 00:06:56)**
  - Orientation to the interconnected Fullcast platform (Plans, Capacity Models, Teams).
  - Navigating to the "Scenarios" tab for headcount planning and capacity modeling.
  - Explanation of using folders for different fiscal years and "what-if" scenarios.
- **Overview of****Capacity Mo****dels (Scenarios vs. Models tab) (00:07:01 - 00:08:04)**
  - Distinction between the "Scenarios" tab (holistic view with costs/revenues) and the "Models" tab (where capacity models are built).
  - Introduction to building up a capacity plan with smaller, interconnected models (Pipeline, Waterfall, GRR, Carried Quota, Effective Headcount).
  - Focus on the two primary models for capacity planning: Carried Quota and Effective Headcount.
- **Deep dive: Carried Quota model (00:08:04 - 00:11:17)**
  - Purpose: Determines what quota to assign reps month-by-month and how many reps (in person-months) are needed.
  - Inputs:
    - Attainment factor.
    - Average monthly quota for a fully ramped rep (can be manual or derived from existing Fullcast data like targets and team headcount).
    - New revenue required (can be manual or distributed based on seasonality, referencing other metrics).
  - Outputs: Carried quota (what to assign) and required reps.
- **Deep dive: Effective Headcount model (00:11:21 - 00:16:36)**
  - Purpose: Models current team, attrition, hires, and compares to required headcount to find gaps.
  - Inputs:
    - Current headcount (pulled from Teams module).
    - Attrition projection (can leverage HRIS integration for historical data).
    - Hire lead time.
    - Required effective headcount (output from the Carried Quota model).
  - Outputs: To-be-hires, to-be-replaced.
  - **Details page (00:13:02):**
    - Breakdown: Current heads (from Teams module reflecting org structure), attrition, replacement reps (offset by hire lead time), new hires (suggested to fill gaps).
    - Total headcount (current - attrition + hires).
    - Comparison to Required Headcount, leading to the "Gap."
    - Goal: Reduce the gap to zero or positive by adjusting new hire records (moving start dates).
    - Impact of ramp profiles on individual contributions (person-months).
- **Granularity and flexibility of models (00:16:36 - 00:18:48)**
  - Models can be high-level (whole organization) or granular (specific regions like AMER, EMEA, or teams like Enterprise vs. Commercial).
  - Ability to have different revenue goals and models for different segments.
  - No limit to the number of models or scenarios that can be created.
- **Leveraging existing Fullcast data (00:19:25 - 00:20:15)**
  - Reiteration that if Teams, Ramp Profiles, and Targets are already populated in Fullcast, much of the setup work for capacity planning is already done.
  - Example: Deriving average monthly quota from existing target assignments.
- **The power of assumptions and "lego block" approach (00:20:58 - 00:24:26)**
  - Concept of building scenario plans by stacking models ("Lego blocks").
  - Using the "Assumptions" feature: Define variables (e.g., attainment rate, seasonality) in one place and reference them across multiple models.
  - Allows for easy tweaking of assumptions (e.g., changing attainment from 70% to 80%) and seeing propagation through all linked models.
  - Example: Stacking MQL costs, conversion rates to project revenue, then feeding that into the Carried Quota model.
- **Prerequisites for effective capacity planning (00:24:33 - 00:27:41)**
  - Confirming the need for:
    - Teams module setup (structure, people allocated to teams).
    - Roles and associated Ramp Profiles.
    - Productivity Profiles (seasonality of business/revenue inflow, which can differ by role/segment).
  - Clarification on "Productivity" vs. "Quota" – productivity reflects expected actual generation considering attainment.
- **Ramp profile impact on productivity and revenue contribution (00:27:41 - 00:29:17)**
  - Explanation of how a rep's ramp status (e.g., 50% ramped) translates to their expected productivity and quota attainment (e.g., expected to hit 50% of quota).
  - Demonstration of how individual rep contribution in dollars increases over their ramp period.
- **Data input sources (such as Workday integration) (00:29:24 - 00:30:51)**
  - Discussion on using external data sources like Workday files for actual start/end dates of hires.
  - Current Workday integration is in beta/POC stage; customers interested should contact their CSM.
  - Future plans for more integrations to pull in data like attrition assumptions or expenses.
- **Handling manager quotas and over-assign (00:30:51 - 00:34:07)**
  - Using the "Attainment Factor" and "Average Monthly Quota" in the Carried Quota model to build in buffer/over-assign (e.g., goal is $3M, but assigned quota is $4.1M due to attainment settings).
  - Separately, the Targets module can be used to craft manager quotas as a percentage of their team's roll-up.
- **Handling multiple quota types (00:34:07 - 00:37:18)**
  - Capacity planning models primarily focus on a single primary revenue/headcount driver.
  - For tracking multiple comp plan items (e.g., ARR, variable, consumption), the Targets module allows creating targets on different metrics.
  - Distinction: Scenario Planner is more "tops-down" for headcount; Targets module is more "bottoms-up" for detailed quota setting against territories or people.
  - Possibility to build different capacity models referencing different target types for comparison.
- **Tips & tricks for Effective Headcount Details page (00:37:26 - 00:41:31)**
  - Changing timeframes (quarterly, annually) for better views.
  - Managing changes: System detects changes (e.g., people moved in Teams module) and flags them (yellow circle) for deliberate action to add/remove TBHs/TBRs, rather than automatic changes.
  - Three-dot menu options:
    - Show/hide managers.
    - Move TBHs to specific territories/teams based on identified gaps.
    - Distribute TBHs/TBRs automatically based on metrics or equal distribution (person-based).
- **Building plans for different roles (e.g., CSMs) (00:41:36 - 00:43:24)**
  - Yes, capacity plans can be built for CSMs or other roles with different rules/quotas.
  - Process is similar: use their specific "quota" (e.g., renewals, bookings), attainment, and ramp profiles to determine how many CSMs are needed.
- **Current limitations: territory/account-level data (00:43:41 - 00:45:00)**
  - Important expectation setting: Currently, account-level information and territory potential are NOT integrated into the capacity planning module.
  - The focus is on linking Teams, quota (targets), and the capacity models.
  - Connecting territory potential to headcount planning is a recognized future direction.

## Related

- [Add a Model to a Scenario Plan](/add-a-model-to-a-scenario-plan.md)
- [Create a scenario](/create-a-scenario.md)
- [Video: Introduction to capacity planning](/introduction-to-capacity-planning-in-fullcast.md)