Technician utilisation rate is the share of a technician's available working hours that is billed to customers. The formula is billable hours divided by available hours, multiplied by 100. A technician with 38 available hours and 26 billable hours has a utilisation rate of about 68%. For Australian air conditioning businesses, the figure is shaped mostly by travel time, gaps between bookings, admin and cancellations, and it can be improved by changing how jobs are scheduled.
TL;DR
- Utilisation rate = billable hours ÷ available hours × 100, measured over a consistent period such as a week.
- TaxFitness reports that the top 20% of Australian air conditioning, refrigeration and heating businesses bill 70% to 80% of technician working time.
- No business bills 100% of paid hours. Travel, quoting, training and leave need room in the target.
- The largest gains usually come from grouping jobs by area, filling gaps, reducing cancellations and cutting paperwork between visits.
- Utilisation is read alongside job quality, rest breaks and revenue per hour, not on its own.
Table of Contents
- What technician utilisation rate measures
- How to calculate technician utilisation rate
- What is a reasonable utilisation rate in Australia
- What lowers utilisation
- How to improve technician utilisation
- Tracking utilisation without harming quality or wellbeing
- Perspective
- Software that supports a higher rate
- FAQ
- Sources
What technician utilisation rate measures
Utilisation rate describes how much of a technician's paid or available time produces revenue. It is a measure of time use, not of skill or speed. A cleaner can work quickly and still show a low rate if half the day goes to driving, waiting for access or answering calls.
It differs from productivity in one respect. Productivity asks how much work is completed in a given time, for example splits cleaned per day. Utilisation asks how much of the available time was spent on work the customer pays for. A technician who completes a service in 45 minutes instead of 60 is more productive, but utilisation only changes if the freed 15 minutes is filled with another billable job.
For a sole trader the same idea applies. The owner is the technician, and the available hours are the hours the owner is prepared to work in a week. Hours spent on quoting, invoicing and returning calls are real work, but they are not billable.
How to calculate technician utilisation rate
The calculation has three steps.
- Define available hours. This is the time a technician is expected to be working. A common starting point is the rostered week, such as 38 hours, minus approved leave, public holidays and scheduled training.
- Define billable hours. This is time spent on jobs the customer is charged for, usually on site. Whether travel between jobs counts depends on the business, and the definition needs to stay the same from week to week.
- Divide and convert. Billable hours ÷ available hours × 100.
Worked example
A technician is rostered for 38 hours in a week with no leave.
| Item | Hours |
|---|---|
| Rostered hours | 38 |
| On-site cleaning (billable) | 24 |
| Travel between jobs | 8 |
| Admin, quotes and calls | 4 |
| Waiting, cancellations and gaps | 2 |
| Utilisation rate | 24 ÷ 38 × 100 = 63% |
If travel is treated as billable because it is built into the price, the rate would be 32 ÷ 38, or 84%. Both figures are valid, but they are not comparable with each other. The choice must be made once and recorded.
Three common measurement mistakes
Canopy lists three pitfalls in measuring utilisation:
- Wrong denominator. Available time is not every hour in the day. Holidays, training, admin and genuine slack belong in the calculation.
- Confusing busy with billable. A technician can be active all day with activity that is not chargeable.
- An impossible target. Nobody bills 100%, so targets need room for non-billable work.
What is a reasonable utilisation rate in Australia
The published Australian figure comes from TaxFitness, which reports in a February 2025 article that the top 20% of Australian air conditioning, refrigeration and heating businesses achieve billable hours of 70% to 80% of technician working time, alongside a first-time fix rate of 85% or higher.
Those businesses include installation, repair and refrigeration work. An air-con cleaning operator works differently: jobs are shorter and more predictable, booked in advance, and usually done in homes and small commercial sites. The 70% to 80% range is a useful ceiling to aim towards, not a requirement.
A practical way to set a target:
- Measure the current rate for four to eight weeks using a fixed definition.
- Set the first goal at 5 to 10 percentage points above the current figure.
- Review the goal after the busy season and again after the slow season, because summer and winter will produce different results.
What lowers utilisation
Most lost hours fall into a small number of categories.
Travel
Travel is the largest non-billable item for most mobile trades. Two jobs 40 minutes apart in opposite directions cost more than the same two jobs booked in the same suburb. Service areas that are too wide, with customers across a whole metro region or regional centres such as the Sunshine Coast, Rockhampton or Townsville, add driving time that cannot be recovered.
Gaps and double handling
A 90-minute hole between two bookings is rarely filled. Short gaps are common when customers choose their own times with no rules about travel time. Double bookings cause the opposite problem: one job runs late, the next is rescheduled and the technician loses time on both.
Cancellations and no-shows
A cancelled booking with no notice leaves a gap that is hard to fill the same day. Missed reminders and unconfirmed appointments are common causes.
Missed calls
A technician on a ladder cannot answer the phone. Enquiries that go to voicemail are often lost to the first business that replies, so the calendar stays emptier than it needs to be. The same call, taken later, takes time out of a different job.
Admin
Writing quotes, creating invoices and chasing payments after hours or between jobs can take several hours a week. Time spent on these tasks is non-billable, and in a small team it is usually taken from either billable hours or the owner's own time.
Slow season demand
In cooler months demand for aircon cleaning usually falls. Utilisation drops because there are fewer bookings, not because of inefficiency. This makes it more important to compare rates with the same season in the previous year.
How to improve technician utilisation
Schedule by area and travel time
Grouping jobs by suburb or service zone on set days cuts driving. Scheduling rules that account for the distance between jobs, the time needed for each service and a daily capacity limit prevent days that are overfilled or half empty. Where a business has more than one technician, assigning each to a zone reduces overlap.
Rest and travel rules also matter. A schedule that reaches 85% on paper but ignores breaks and driving limits leads to late finishes and fatigue. The MyAirCare guide on scheduling technicians without burnout covers Australian rest and travel considerations.
Let customers book online
Online booking available at any hour captures requests that would otherwise be missed during a job. If the booking page applies the same rules as the office calendar, such as service areas, time per job and daily limits, customers fill the calendar in a way that suits the route. This removes the call-backs and message threads that take up admin time.
Reduce gaps with reminders
Automated reminders before an appointment reduce no-shows and last-minute changes. When a cancellation does occur, a booking system that shows the open slot makes it easier to offer it to a waiting customer. Reminders after a service can also prompt repeat bookings, which fills future calendars. Air-con cleaning is typically repeated at regular intervals, so a follow-up pattern keeps demand steady. Businesses in other trades use preventive service schedules in the same way, setting recurring visits so that the calendar is partly filled before the season starts.
Use options-based quoting
A quote that offers a basic, standard and full service lets the customer decide at once. This shortens the back-and-forth that consumes admin time and can lift the value of each hour. The guide to options-based quoting for air-con cleaners sets out how this works.
Cut paperwork between visits
Quotes, invoices, on-site payments and before and after photos handled on a phone at the job remove the evening admin block. A standard aircon service checklist makes documentation faster and consistent.
Fill the slow season
A lower rate in winter can be offset by marketing to commercial customers, property managers and past customers, and by adding services. Attracting the right customers also matters, since low-value jobs far from the base reduce the return on each billable hour. See the article on finding quality clients for approaches.
Tracking utilisation without harming quality or wellbeing
Utilisation is a signal, and it needs context. Canopy recommends consistent definitions and denominators, and reading the figure against a sensible benchmark, capacity and workload. It also warns that impossible targets can encourage padded time entries and burnout.
Visionary360 suggests reviewing utilisation daily or weekly as a KPI, with triggers: a figure that is too high or too low is a prompt to rebalance workload or adjust staffing. It also recommends same-day time entry so the data stays accurate.
A simple review routine for a small business:
- Record billable, travel and admin hours each week.
- Calculate the rate using the same definition every time.
- Compare it with the same period last year and with the 70% to 80% range.
- Check it against quality measures such as repeat bookings, complaints and rework.
- If the rate is very high for several weeks, review rest breaks and capacity before taking on more jobs.
Perspective
We built MyAirCare from experience running an air conditioning cleaning business, and the same pattern appeared repeatedly: the hours lost were rarely lost on the tools. They were lost in the van, on the phone and at the kitchen table at night.
For that reason the platform is built around the causes of low utilisation. Online booking runs 24/7 and follows scheduling rules for service areas, travel time and daily capacity, so the calendar fills in a way that suits the route. Automated reminders reduce no-shows and encourage repeat business. Quotes, invoices and on-site payments sit in the mobile app, which is designed to remove the after-hours admin block.
We think utilisation should be treated as a way to protect an operator's time, not to squeeze it. A realistic target, set with travel and rest in mind, is easier to hold than an aggressive one, and it supports a business that owners can run for years under their own brand.
Lewis
Software that supports a higher rate
MyAirCare offers a free plan, supported by booking fees, and MyAirCare Pro at A$199 per month. An AI phone agent is available at A$29 per month and is designed to deal with the missed calls described above. Plans include online scheduling, automated reminders, Stripe payments, customer management, quotes and invoices, branded booking pages and a mobile app with before and after service documentation. Current inclusions are listed on the MyAirCare pricing page.
For those weighing the cost of software against fees on bookings, the article on aircon software costs for Australian cleaners compares the options. Operators who want a broader view of tools can also read about the best field service apps. Those starting out can see the full range at MyAirCare.
FAQ
What is technician utilisation?
Technician utilisation is the proportion of a technician's available working time that is spent on billable work. It is expressed as a percentage. It shows how much of the paid day earns revenue, as opposed to travel, admin and waiting.
How do I calculate utilisation rate?
Divide billable hours by available hours and multiply by 100. For example, 24 billable hours out of 38 available hours gives 63%. Keep the definitions of billable and available hours the same each period so that results can be compared.
What is a reasonable utilisation rate?
TaxFitness reports that the top 20% of Australian air conditioning, refrigeration and heating businesses reach 70% to 80% of technician working time billed. A figure of 100% is not realistic, because travel, training, leave and admin need time. A business can set its goal a few points above its current rate.
How can an air-con cleaning business improve it?
The main changes are grouping jobs by area, setting scheduling rules for travel time and daily capacity, using reminders to reduce no-shows, and moving quotes and invoices to a mobile system. Each reduces time that is not billed. Progress should be checked against the same season in the previous year.
Sources
- How the top 20% of air conditioning, refrigeration and heating businesses perform (TaxFitness)
- How to Measure Technician Utilisation Correctly (Canopy)
- MSP Service Manager KPIs: What to Review Daily, Weekly, and Monthly (Visionary360)