How to calculate the billable minutes needed to hit target
Multiply your paid minutes by your target, then subtract the treatment minutes you have already delivered.
The billable minutes needed to hit a productivity target are your paid minutes multiplied by the target. Take away the treatment minutes you have already delivered and you have the minutes still to bill. That figure tells you whether the rest of the day has room for them.
In the worked example below, 240 treatment minutes by 13:00 leaves 143 minutes still to bill. You can check that figure against the afternoon's bookings.
How to calculate billable minutes needed
Billable minutes needed = paid minutes × (target ÷ 100)
Then subtract what you've already delivered:
Still to bill = minutes needed − minutes delivered
Paid minutes are your shift length with any unpaid break taken out. The therapist productivity calculator does both steps and shows the minutes needed for target and the minutes still to bill.
Worked example
Example: an eight-hour shift from 08:00 to 16:00 with a thirty-minute unpaid break and an 85% target. It's 13:00, the break is taken, and you've delivered 240 minutes of treatment.
- Paid minutes: 480 − 30 = 450
- Minutes needed for the day: 450 × 0.85 = 382.5, shown as 383
- Already delivered: 240
- Still to bill: 382.5 − 240 = 142.5, shown as 143 minutes
At 45-minute treatments, 143 minutes means four more patients. Four takes you to 240 + 180 = 420 minutes, or 420 ÷ 450 = 93.3%. Three takes you to 375 minutes, or 83.3%, which is short of 85%. Two takes you to 330 minutes, or 330 ÷ 450 = 73.3%. You know which of these applies at 13:00 rather than at the end of the shift.
Converting minutes into patients
If your day is already booked, start from the other end: calculate productivity from your schedule.
The minutes still to bill only help once they are turned into bookings. Divide the minutes by your usual slot length.
| Still to bill | At 30 min slots | At 45 min slots | At 60 min slots |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 minutes | 2 patients | 1.3 patients | 1 patient |
| 90 minutes | 3 | 2 | 1.5 |
| 120 minutes | 4 | 2.7 | 2 |
| 143 minutes | 4.8 | 3.2 | 2.4 |
| 180 minutes | 6 | 4 | 3 |
Round fractions up, because you can't treat 3.2 patients. In the example, 143 minutes at 45-minute slots means four bookings. Four reach 420 minutes, 37 more than the 383 needed. That margin doesn't cover a cancellation, because losing one patient leaves 375 minutes, or 83.3%.
How the minutes needed for target change mid-shift
Two things move the number during a shift, and they move it in opposite directions. Both assume your paid time ends when you clock out, as it does with hourly pay.
You stay late. Paid minutes go up, so the minutes needed go up too. An extra thirty minutes of paid time at an 85% target adds 30 × 0.85 = 25.5 minutes to the minutes needed. Staying late to finish documentation lowers your percentage, because it adds paid minutes without adding treatment minutes.
You leave early. Paid minutes drop and so do the minutes needed. Leaving thirty minutes early at the same target reduces the minutes needed by 25.5.
Leaving early can close a gap. Say you're 40 minutes short of the day's minutes needed, you have no patients left and an hour of the shift still to run. Each minute you leave early cuts the minutes needed by 0.85 of a minute, so you need to leave 40 ÷ 0.85 = 47.1 minutes early. Round that up to 48 minutes. This only works if your employer measures worked time rather than scheduled time, and leaving early has to be agreed. The guide to calculating your clock-out time works this through by the clock.
Starting from the documentation time you need
If you're trying to protect documentation time rather than chase a number, run the calculation from the other end. Decide how many minutes of documentation you need on the clock, subtract them from your paid minutes, and see what productivity the remainder supports.
Example: on a 450-minute day, protecting 45 minutes for notes leaves 405 minutes for treatment. Even if every one of those minutes is treatment, your maximum is 405 ÷ 450 = 90%. With a 90% target, every note written that day has to fit inside treatment time or happen off the clock.
Quick reference: minutes needed for target
Paid minutes multiplied by the target, with half minutes rounded up, as the calculator shows them.
| Paid minutes | 75% | 80% | 85% | 90% | 95% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 360 | 270 | 288 | 306 | 324 | 342 |
| 420 | 315 | 336 | 357 | 378 | 399 |
| 450 | 338 | 360 | 383 | 405 | 428 |
| 480 | 360 | 384 | 408 | 432 | 456 |
| 510 | 383 | 408 | 434 | 459 | 485 |
The productivity percentage conversion tables give the same figures for more shift lengths.
Building a buffer into the number
The billable minutes needed assume nothing else goes wrong during the day. One way to allow for late arrivals and slow transfers is to work to target plus three points.
Example: on a 450-minute day at 85%, the target needs 382.5 minutes, shown as 383. Target plus three is 88%, and 450 × 0.88 = 396 minutes. That is 13.5 minutes more than the exact 382.5, or 13 more than the 383 the calculator shows. Either is less than a third of a 45-minute slot. It covers a patient who arrives ten minutes late.
When the schedule can't get you there
Example: you need 143 more minutes and your afternoon holds two 45-minute slots. That is 90 minutes booked, so you are 53 minutes short before the afternoon starts.
Raise it at lunchtime with the figures: "I am booked for 90 minutes this afternoon and need 143 to hit target. I will land around 73% unless we can add someone." The 73% is 330 ÷ 450 = 73.3%. A sentence like that gives whoever manages the schedule a decision to make.
The weekly version of the same calculation
Run it across the week and you can plan with it. Multiply your weekly paid minutes by the target, subtract the minutes you've delivered so far, and divide by the days left. Done on a Monday evening, it shows whether the week as scheduled can reach target while the schedule can still change.
The weekly productivity calculator gives the percentage and the minutes you need on each remaining day.