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It impacts effective utilization but not full.
No they don’t. Maybe in your particular service line but it’s not a firm wide thing
Full utilization is hours charged to clients / 40 (doesn’t account for time off), whereas effective utilization is hours charged to client / 40 minus non-work hours (PTO, holiday, sick, etc.). Effective utilization is what’s looked at, not full.
So in week 1 if you spent 24 hours on client work, 8 on admin/unassigned, and 8 taking a sick day, your full utilization would be 24/40= 60% but your effective utilization is 24/40-8= 24/32=75%.
they look at both metrics
US goes by full utilization even though they don't say it out loud. So it does impact it.
Should have specified for assurance.
You found out wrong. It actually HELPS with utilization because it decreases the denominator (under the effective utilization metric which is what’s used despite the misunderstandings of some colleagues in this thread).
FSO Assurance monitors full utilization - fact.
Great, but OP specifically asked about tax.
If you’re worrying about utilization you’re wasting time, realistically it’s almost never looked at for performance purposes. It’s more used to gauge the overall productivity of a given practice and justify increasing headcount.
It’s never been a topic of conversation in the 40+ round tables / counselor connects I’ve been on. If it’s an issue where your util is a significantly low outlier because there are performance issues causing people to not staff you on their jobs - these issues have already been identified and the metrics are a trailing indicator. In the context of taking vacation, utilization really doesn’t matter.
In tax, staff utilization goal is 95%, senior is 89%
If memory serves, staff was something like 96% effective and seniors 92% or 94%. Its been a few years since I was at EY
What would be an acceptable amount of unlimited PTO days for a staff/senior to take if they are unassigned? I’m around 20 and would like to be around 30 total
I believe in their official communication when they announced unlimited PTO, the recommended amount for staff/senior to not exceed is 2 weeks.