See how many design hours you're short each month.
Count your design work and your team's real hours, and walk into your next budget conversation with a number you can back up.
Your result will look like: 312h needed − 240h in-house = 72h short
Free, no email needed.
Work out your number
Step 1: Count your monthly design needs
Pick a recent typical month and enter everything you made, plus any briefs that got pushed to a later month.
| What you're producing | New designs a month | Adaptations a month (resizes, versions) | Total hours |
|---|---|---|---|
Static social post 1 post, 1 size | × 1h | × 0.5h | = 0h |
Social carousel 1 carousel, up to 5 slides | × 3.5h | × 1.5h | = 0h |
Paid ad 1 static ad, 1 size | × 1h | × 0.5h | = 0h |
Email design (EDM) 1 email, up to 6 sections | × 4h | × 2h | = 0h |
Presentation Per 10 slides | × 7h | × 3.5h | = 0h |
Campaign artwork (main design) 1 main design | × 5h | × 1h | = 0h |
Flyer or poster 1 single-sided layout | × 2.5h | × 1h | = 0h |
Brochure 1 four-page brochure | × 7.5h | × 3h | = 0h |
Document page (report, fact sheet, sales sheet, case study) Per page | × 1.5h | × 0.5h | = 0h |
Event signage or collateral 1 banner or simple sign | × 1h | × 0.5h | = 0h |
Website banner or graphic 1 graphic, 1 size | × 1h | × 0.5h | = 0h |
Short video edit 15 to 30 seconds, your footage | × 5h | × 2h | = 0h |
| Total | Production hours: | = 0h |
An adaptation is a resize, a new version of an existing design, or a post in a set that reuses one design. The hours are typical for standard work, from reading the brief to checked final files, based on our own production.
Why we add a 20% working margin
On top of the hours above, the 20% covers rounds of changes, research for new kinds of work, switching between jobs, and extras asked for after approval.
Step 2: Count your real in-house hours
Enter the designers on your team, and we work out their real hours. Use Add a person for anyone else in-house who designs, with the hours they give you each month. No designers in-house? Leave this at zero.
| Who | How many | Real hours each | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-time designers | × 120 | = 0h | |
| Part-time designers | × days/wk |
÷ 5 × 120 | = 0h |
| Real monthly in-house hours | = 0h | ||
Where the 120 comes from
Step 3: See your number
Your workload changes through the year, so we also show a slow month at 0.8 times your need and a busy month at 1.5 times. Change either to match your year.
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Your design capacity summary
Keep your result
Your numbers stay in this browser unless you email them to yourself.
What your number means
Find the one that matches your result.
A few hours short
That's less than a monthly plan is built for. A freelancer or one-off help can cover it.
Less than one full-time designer
A full-time hire would sit partly idle, and freelancers leave the chasing and checking to you. A monthly plan covers it, with no one to recruit and no designer to manage.
A full-time designer's worth or more, every month
Hiring can make sense here. Weigh the full cost first, then the months it takes to recruit and who will manage them. When to Outsource Design vs Hire In-House does the maths. A subscription can fill the gap while you recruit, then stay on for the peaks and the mix of work one person can't cover.
Only short in the busy months
You don't need more people all year. Add hours for the peaks, and keep your plan small the rest of the time.
Turn your number into a plan.
Bring your number to a 15-minute call with Stephen, and we'll show you which plan covers it and what it costs each month.
Book a callLast updated October 2026. Full-time hours and leave follow the National Employment Standards (Fair Work Act 2009). We plan our own team every quarter on the same 20% margin and 80% design time.