Realization rate
Realization rate is the share of delivered hours an agency actually gets paid for, expressed as a percentage. An agency can run high utilization and low realization at the same time, which is the usual reason a fully booked team produces thin margins.
Utilization measures how busy the team is. Realization measures whether being busy converted into revenue. Tracking only the first is why over-servicing stays invisible until the annual accounts.
The gap between the two is made up of scope that grew without a conversation, rework from unclear briefs, and account management that was never quoted.
How Hydra uses it
Hydra treats a high-utilization, low-realization agency as a pricing and scope problem rather than a capacity problem, which changes what gets fixed first.
Covered in depth
Why your agency is busy and still not profitableRelated terms