Sales Capacity Calculator: Headcount Planning
Sales capacity is the revenue your team can bring in: ramped reps × quota × attainment, plus new hires while they ramp, minus attrition. Enter your team, quota, ramp time and attrition to see this year’s capacity, the gap to your revenue target and how many more reps to hire now. Free.
Use your own figures: the average share of quota your reps reached, how long a new rep takes to reach full productivity and how many reps left last year. Results update as you type, and the figures stay in this browser until you start over.
Sales capacity example
A team has 10 ramped reps and 3 new hires starting now. The quota is $600,000, reps reach 80% of it on average, new hires ramp over 4 months and 15% of reps leave each year. The target is $7 million.
| Part | Capacity |
|---|---|
| 10 ramped reps | $4,800,000 |
| 3 new hires, 87.5% of the year | $1,260,000 |
| 1.95 reps leaving | −$468,000 |
| Capacity, 79.89% of target | $5,592,000 |
The gap to $7 million is $1,408,000. A rep hired now brings $420,000 this year, so the team needs 4 more hires today, although 15 fully ramped reps would be enough in a steady state.
Sales capacity formulas
- One ramped rep: annual quota × attainment.
- Capacity: ramped reps + new hires × share of the year ramped − leavers × half a year, each at one rep’s figure.
- Hires needed now: gap to target ÷ what one new hire brings this year, rounded up.
Plan quotas and pay with it
Set each rep’s share of the target with the sales quota calculator, check the plan against your pipeline with the sales forecast calculator, and write down how reps are paid with the commission plan template.
Frequently asked questions
What is sales capacity?
It is how much revenue your sales team can realistically bring in over a period: the number of productive reps times what each one actually sells. Comparing it with the revenue target shows whether you have enough people or need to hire.
How do you calculate sales capacity?
Multiply each fully ramped rep’s quota by the attainment you expect, add new hires for the part of the year they are productive, and take off the reps you expect to lose. Ten reps at a $600,000 quota and 80% attainment bring $4.8 million.
How many sales reps do I need?
Divide the revenue target by what one ramped rep brings in a year: $7 million ÷ $480,000 is 15 reps. Because new hires take months to ramp and some reps leave, you usually need to hire more than the simple division suggests, and earlier.
How does ramp time change the plan?
A new rep sells little at first. With a 4-month linear ramp, someone hired today is productive for 87.5% of the year; with a step ramp, for only 66.7%. The later in the year you hire, the less of the target that person can cover.
What attainment and attrition should I use?
Your own: the average share of quota your reps reached and the share of reps who left over the last year or two. These vary widely between companies, so a figure from elsewhere can mislead the plan more than help it.
Is what I enter stored or sent anywhere?
No. The calculation runs in your browser and the figures are saved only in this browser so you can come back to them. Nothing you enter is sent to SalesBond or anyone else. Click Start over to clear it.
Related tools: sales quota calculator, sales forecast calculator, commission plan template. More on sales and running a sales team on the SalesBond blog and the home page.
Official sources
- Salesforce: Sales capacity planning — quota, attainment, ramp and attrition in a capacity plan.
- Wikipedia: Employee turnover — measuring the share of employees who leave.
Updated on Nov 7, 2026. This calculator is for information only and is not tax, legal or payroll advice. A plan for one year from today; it assumes new hires start now and leavers go evenly through the year.
