> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.forepost.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Headcount

> What-if model for capacity. Tells you when to hire and what it costs.

The Headcount tab is a live what-if model. Drag the sliders, watch the breach date and the cost shift. The same maths drives [Horizon's](/help/horizon) capacity card and the *Capacity headroom* signal on the [Watchlist](/help/watchlist).

## The six inputs

| Slider                       | Range        | What it controls                                                |
| ---------------------------- | ------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Weekly ticket volume**     | 100-3,000    | Today's inbound rate.                                           |
| **Weekly growth rate**       | 0-30%        | How fast volume is growing per week.                            |
| **AI deflection rate**       | 0-90%        | Share resolved without human touch.                             |
| **Current agents**           | 1-20         | Headcount on the line.                                          |
| **Target utilisation cap**   | 65-90%       | The ceiling you don't want to cross. 80% is a sensible default. |
| **Annual salary (new hire)** | £20k - £100k | Used to compute fully-loaded cost.                              |

Defaults seed from your current workspace numbers, so you start from your real state.

## The four outputs

|                  | What it tells you                                                           |
| ---------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Breach date**  | When team capacity will be exceeded at the current trajectory.              |
| **Hire by**      | 8 weeks before breach, the lead time to source, sign, and ramp a new agent. |
| **Monthly cost** | Salary × 1.25 / 12. (The 1.25 covers benefits + tax + tools.)               |
| **Annual cost**  | Salary × 1.25, fully loaded.                                                |

If volume isn't growing, the breach date returns "no breach" and capacity is treated as stable.

## The 28-week chart

Three lines projected forward 28 weeks:

* **Volume** (blue), tickets that will hit human queue, deflection-adjusted.
* **Current capacity** (red dashed), what the existing team can handle at target utilisation.
* **+1 hire capacity** (green dashed), the same line if you add one agent today.

Two vertical markers: a black dashed *Hire by* line and a red dashed *Breach* line. The instant the volume line crosses *Breach*, you're past target utilisation and CSAT starts degrading downstream.

## The AI Business Case

Below the chart, **Generate case** produces a board-ready, three-paragraph argument for the hire. It uses the exact numbers from your sliders, current state, breach week, hire-by week, cost, and argues the cost of *not* hiring. Plain prose, no bullets. Copy-button ready.

Voice is the standard Forepost voice, direct, sharp, named numbers.

## When the case won't generate

Same gate as everything else AI-driven: workspace below the [completeness threshold](/reference/honest-no-data) → templated refusal, no Anthropic call. Fill in the missing fields in Settings, then come back.

## How the maths works

Documented separately in [Capacity model](/reference/capacity-model). The short version: target utilisation × per-agent throughput × team size = team cap. Project forward against deflection-adjusted volume. The crossover is the breach date.