--- title: "What is an FTE-month? · DeliverySheet" description: "An FTE-month is one full-time person working for one month: a coarse capacity unit that sums across teams and converts to cost in one multiplication." canonical_url: "https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/fte-month" meta: author: "Tan Gravam" "og:description": "An FTE-month is one full-time person working for one month: a coarse capacity unit that sums across teams and converts to cost in one multiplication." "og:image": "https://www.deliverysheet.com/_og/s/o_793efb74bb021983.png" "og:image:alt": "FTE-month — DeliverySheet glossary card" "og:image:height": "600" "og:image:type": image/png "og:image:width": "1200" "og:title": "What is an FTE-month? — DeliverySheet glossary" "twitter:description": "An FTE-month is one full-time person working for one month: a coarse capacity unit that sums across teams and converts to cost in one multiplication." "twitter:image": "https://www.deliverysheet.com/_og/s/o_793efb74bb021983.png" "twitter:image:alt": "FTE-month — DeliverySheet glossary card" "twitter:title": "What is an FTE-month? — DeliverySheet glossary" --- > Index of every page on this site: [llms.txt](https://www.deliverysheet.com/llms.txt) [← All terms](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary) **Glossary ** # **What is an FTE-month?** An FTE-month is one full-time person working for one month — a capacity unit that is comparable across teams and, where cost is recorded, is the multiplier a cost forecast would use. Unlike story points, which are deliberately team-local and have no monetary meaning, FTE-months can be summed across teams and multiplied by a monthly cost. They are coarse on purpose: the granularity broadcasts its own error bar. ## **How to calculate FTE-months** Gross capacity first: headcount multiplied by the months in the period. A team of six over a quarter has 6 × 3 = 18 FTE-months. Then subtract what is already spoken for — the support rotation, run-the-business work, booked holidays, the standing meeting load — and an interruption reserve if you have no data yet (twenty per cent is a defensible opening claim). What remains is the honest line: the capacity that can actually be promised. Sizing a demand works in the same unit: two people for two months is 4 FTE-months, whichever two people it turns out to be. One decimal place at most — an FTE-month estimate with two significant figures is claiming a precision the unit deliberately does not have. ## **When to use FTE-months — and when not to** Use them at the altitude where a promise is being made to someone outside the team: commitment decisions, quarter plans, budget conversations. That is where the unit's three properties pay: it sums across teams, it converts to money in one multiplication, and its coarseness keeps the conversation honest. Do not use them inside a sprint. Task-level work is better served by whatever relative sizing the team already calibrates against its own history — the units answer different questions, and neither replaces the other. [The essay behind “FTE-month” →](https://www.deliverysheet.com/blog/fte-months-capacity-unit) [Topic: Capacity and what to measure →](https://www.deliverysheet.com/topics/capacity) ## **Related terms ** - [Allocation vs consumption](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/allocation-vs-consumption) Allocation is what people are committed to; consumption is what they spent. Delivery governance measures allocation and deliberately does not measure consumption. - [Capacity planning](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/capacity-planning) Capacity planning establishes what each team can honestly promise for a period — gross FTE-months minus what is already spoken for — and commits demands against that line in priority order. - [Capacity line](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/capacity-line) A capacity line is a team's honestly available capacity for a period, stated in FTE-months — the constraint that commitments are walked down against, in priority order, until it is spent. This definition comes from building **DeliverySheet** — it takes a vague work request to a clear delivery decision, so the shape, owner, capacity, dependencies and open questions are on the table before anyone commits people or a date. $189/month per workspace, unlimited members. 7-day free trial — card required, cancel before it ends and you're not charged. I answer the support email myself. [**Start 7-day trial **](https://www.deliverysheet.com/login?next=/app) [**All terms **](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary) [**See pricing **](https://www.deliverysheet.com/pricing) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DefinedTerm","@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/fte-month#term","name":"FTE-month","description":"An FTE-month is one full-time person working for one month — a capacity unit that is comparable across teams and, where cost is recorded, is the multiplier a cost forecast would use.","url":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/fte-month","inDefinedTermSet":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary#termset"} ``` ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/#website","@type":"WebSite","description":"Turn raw work requests into structured, decision-ready demands before you commit people, budget, or a date. 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