In many organisations, the capacity plan is a file. It is accurate on the day someone updates it, then it drifts: an engagement eventually extended by email, a holiday booked in another tool, a contract end nobody noticed. Bench time is discovered on the Monday the employee has no assignment left, and a workload peak on the day emergency subcontracting becomes the only option.
AlibeeZ approaches the problem the other way round: the capacity plan is not a document someone maintains, it is a view computed from data the software already holds. The panel above illustrates it: six employees, eight weeks, and an alert at the bottom.
What the capacity plan shows
Each row is a person, each column a week. Each cell tells you where that person stands that week:
- Staffed: the week is covered by an engagement.
- Partial: only part of the week is committed.
- Uncovered: no engagement or assignment fills the week.
- Leave: approved leave takes up the week.
In the illustration, two employees, AL and PB, have nothing from week 15. The note turns that into a decision: three weeks left to reposition them. That is precisely what the capacity plan is for in AlibeeZ: turning an engagement end date into time to act.
The projection reads week by week, per person, per team or per entity. It covers the present and the months ahead: the same view shows your teams’ availability now and six months out, as well as the progress of current projects.
Where the data comes from
A capacity plan is only as good as what it reads. The AlibeeZ one relies on three sources, all already in the platform:
- Committed engagements: what is signed and under way.
- Recorded assignments: who is placed on what, from when, and for what share of their time.
- Approved leave: absence management is a separate module, but it feeds the capacity plan continuously. Approved leave updates the plan immediately, with no import.
If you already use an absence tool, it can play that part instead of the module. With Lucca, for example, joiners, leavers and approved leave flow down into AlibeeZ, where they block the capacity plan and the timesheet. Training days follow the same path: a request approved in AlibeeZ creates the session in Dendreo, and the days come back into the capacity plan, so nobody is staffed while away.
Because this is the same data that drives timesheets and invoicing, there is no second version to reconcile. Utilisation, consumed effort and margin all come from the same base.
An uncovered period becomes a decision to make
An empty cell in a spreadsheet warns nobody. In AlibeeZ, uncovered periods surface as a decision to make, not as a surprise.
Alerts that reach the right person
Alerts are set on a threshold, an event or a deadline, and you choose who receives them. They appear on the AlibeeZ home screen, the one your teams see when they log in. An alert such as “Aurora: nobody staffed in October” can go straight to whoever handles staffing, rather than being found at the monthly review.
Three ways to handle a gap
- Reposition: an engagement ending is visible weeks ahead, which leaves time to find the next one. That part happens in the staffing view.
- Tell sales: with a CRM such as Pipedrive, the capacity plan feeds back real availability, so sales does not sell a skill that is already committed.
- Recruit: when the need cannot be met internally, a gap in the capacity plan can become a job ad published through Xtramile, with applications coming back into recruitment tracking.
The same logic works the other way round. A workload peak building over several weeks shows up before it turns into emergency subcontracting.
Several entities, several countries
A working week is not the same length everywhere. AlibeeZ structures the organisation by entity, currency and country, with the working days and public holidays of each location. An employee’s availability in Lyon and another’s in Brussels are each computed on their own calendar.
The capacity plan reads consolidated, for leadership, or entity by entity, for managers. Historised tags also let you cut it along your own axes: business unit, office, practice.
To share an indicator more widely, the automatic export to Looker Studio or Power BI lets you publish, for instance, the bench rate reviewed weekly by managers, fed by the very data that also produces the invoicing.
What it changes
The benefit is not one more dashboard. It is the delay between an event and the decision it calls for:
- an engagement ending visible weeks ahead, with time to reposition rather than record the loss;
- available capacity that already accounts for booked leave, with no re-keying;
- one number per question, because the capacity plan, timesheets and invoices read the same base.
Going further: the capacity plan tells you who will be free, and the article on margin and forecast shows what staffing choices do to profitability. For the wider steering picture, read about the three key indicators for organisations.
Frequently asked questions
What data does the AlibeeZ capacity plan run on?
On committed engagements, recorded assignments and approved leave. That data already lives in AlibeeZ, or in your absence tool if it is connected, so there is no file to keep up to date on the side.
Do I have to use the AlibeeZ absence module?
No. The absence module feeds the capacity plan continuously, but an absence tool you already use, such as Lucca, can play that part: approved leave flows down into AlibeeZ and blocks the capacity plan.
How far ahead does the capacity plan project?
It projects workload week by week over the coming months, from recorded engagements and assignments. Your teams’ availability reads the same now as six months out.
Can several entities or countries be tracked?
Yes. Each location has its own working days and public holidays, and the capacity plan reads consolidated or entity by entity, per team or per person.