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 profitableNot sure which of these is capping you?
Six questions, two minutes, and the diagnostic names the one constraint worth working on first.