Capacity planning is a vital aspect of contact centre and BPO workforce management. It ensures the right number of staff are available to meet customer demand, service levels, and business goals.
But what tools are available to help with this?
So we decided to put together the responses when Claire Walton asked our Community of industry professionals for advice on this:
I am looking for details on Capacity Planning templates where I can input:
- Forecasted calls
- AHT
- FTE
- Abandoned calls target
- Utilisation percent
and it calculates the required FTE for any given period.
Two Capacity Planning Templates
1. Use an Erlang Calculator
Your best approach would be to use the Call Centre Helper Erlang Calculator.
It does all of the above including abandoned calls.
The Erlang Calculator also has a weekly planner.
You Could Use a Monthly Forecasting Spreadsheet
It is also possible to use a monthly forecasting spreadsheet to assist with your call centre’s capacity planning, demand and call volume forecasting processes.
We have a Monthly Forecasting Excel Spreadsheet Template that is free to download which produces reports you can use for capacity planning purposes.
Free Download – Excel Forecasting Template
Alternatively click here to try our online forecasting tool
Contributed By: Jonty
This article was made possible due to the great community of experts we have at Call Centre Helper, to get involved just join our LinkedIn Community and and if you aren’t already make sure you are following us on LinkedIn to see our latest content.
Author: Jonty Pearce
Reviewed by: Megan Jones
Published On: 12th Apr 2022 - Last modified: 12th May 2025
Read more about - Call Centre Questions, Capacity, Full Time Equivalent (FTE), Workforce Management (WFM)
