Overview

Capacity Planning answers two questions every revenue leader has to defend in a plan review: can we hit the plan with the capacity we have? and what capacity would we need to hit it? It turns quota, ramp, forecast and pipeline data into a readout of the gap and the levers that close it. The Annual planning scenario above it walks through the same plan as a guided exercise.

Where to find it

Both surfaces appear on the Revenue Engine home only when the URL names the CRO or Sales Leader persona. Your role on its own isn’t enough.

Open /revenue-engine?persona=cro (or ?persona=sales_leader).
Scroll past the Operating View to the Annual planning scenario.
Scroll past the forecast and Stage Inspector row to Operating plan · Capacity Planning.

The workspace follows the period selected in the masthead, and changing its own Period changes the whole page.

The workspace at a glance

The title bar reads Operating plan / Capacity Planning, with the period, the current mode and, while it reloads, Refreshing. Below it, the executive summary sits on the left and the Scenario panel (Operating inputs) on the right. The planning groups table, levers and assumptions follow.

The two planner modes

The mode switch at the top of the Scenario panel flips the whole workspace between two questions:

Can we hit plan? (Plan fit): takes your target and existing capacity and tells you whether ramp-adjusted bookings cover it, and by how much.
What capacity do we need? (Capacity need): works back from the target to the productive AE equivalents, ramp-aware hires and support roles required.

Switching mode clears the scenario inputs, so the two questions never blur into each other.

Executive summary

The summary is the readout to lead a plan review with. Its pill shows the planner’s confidence: high, medium or low. The headline reads Bookings plan is short or Bookings plan is covered in Plan fit, and More productive capacity needed or Capacity supports target in Capacity need.

Plan fit tiles: Target (with the period), Attainable (with the attainment rate), Bookings gap (shortfall or surplus) and Pipeline gap (with current coverage).
Capacity need tiles: Target, Required AEs, Productive AE gap (with ramp-aware hires) and Pipeline gap.

Below the tiles, plain-language readouts call out where the shortfall sits, for example:

You are <amount> short of <period> target.
Enterprise needs <amount> of pipeline coverage.
Target needs 3 more productive AE equivalents, or 5 ramp-aware hires.
Support coverage sizes at 2 BDRs, 1 SEs, and 1 managers when ratios are supplied. If no support ratios are set, the counts read -.

Scenario controls

Adjust the inputs, then press Apply scenario to recompute, or Reset to return to the data-driven defaults. The refresh icon reloads the planner.

Period: the planning window, shared with the rest of the page.
Grouping: All sellers, Team, Sales role, Segment, Sales region or Market. Segment, Sales region and Market appear only when your data supports them (see below).
Region level (Sales region and Market only): Regions rolls up to top-level regions; Teams (Sales region) or Countries (Market) shows the groups under each region.
Bookings target: override the quota-derived target. The placeholder shows the current target.
Attainment: expected attainment rate, as a percentage.
Coverage target: required pipeline coverage, as a multiple.

In Capacity need mode you also get Average AE quota (leave it on Auto to use your data), New-hire ramp (the share of a full quota a ramping hire contributes, 50% by default), and the support ratios BDR:AE, SE:AE and Mgr:AE. The ratios start blank and accept a decimal (0.50) or a ratio (1:2).

When groupings appear

Segment: when segments can be resolved from segment fields, segment territories or segment teams.
Sales region: when at least one seller belongs to a sales team. See Teams & Roles settings.
Market: when at least one geographic market territory exists. See Territory Settings.

If the grouping you were using stops being available, the workspace switches back to All sellers.

Planning groups table

Planning groups breaks the plan down by your grouping, one row per group, with a pill counting the groups. Each row shows the group name and what kind of group it is. With a region grouping, an Unassigned group can appear for quota that belongs to no team or market.

Plan fit columns: Group, Target, Quota capacity, Ramp capacity, Attainable (with the forecast beneath), Gap, Coverage (with its target) and Pipeline gap. Gaps are coloured so the groups carrying the miss stand out.
Capacity need columns: Group, Target, Current prod AEs, Required AEs, AE gap, Ramp hires, Pipeline gap and Support roles (BDR / SE / Mgr).

Levers and assumptions

Below the table, two panels turn the diagnosis into decisions.

Levers

Up to five recommended moves, ranked by impact (the pill shows how many). Examples include Lift attainment, Build pipeline coverage, Pull ramp forward, Pull in best-case deals, Add productive capacity, Add productive AE capacity, Hire ahead for ramp, Rebalance capacity and Hold the operating plan. Each carries a short rationale, the number of planning groups it applies to, and its impact, or Fitwhen no change is needed.

Assumptions

The pill names the grouping, plus the region level for region groupings (for example sales region · Regions). Four facts follow: sellers included, planning groups, forecast coverage and the pipeline target. Then come up to three caveats, for example No reviewed coverage setting was found; pipeline coverage defaults to 3.0x. or a currency conversion note. Method and limitations opens the full list.

Region groupings add warnings ahead of the caveats when they apply:

Some quota counts toward no market: a rep’s quota counts toward a market only when the rep is assigned to that market’s territory. (Market)
Some quota-carrying reps have no sales team, so their quota is Unassigned. (Sales region)
Some groups have no sellers; their average AE quota is the org-wide average seller quota.

Quick start

Open /revenue-engine?persona=cro and scroll to Capacity Planning.
Check that Period matches the plan you are reviewing.
In Can we hit plan?, read the headline and the Bookings gap.
Switch Grouping to Team, Sales role or Sales region to find which group carries the gap.
Work the highest-impact lever first.
If the answer is “not with current capacity”, switch to What capacity do we need?, enter your support ratios and press Apply scenario.

Plan by region or market

Under Grouping, choose Sales region or Market.
Under Region level, choose Regions, or Teams / Countries for more detail.
Read the planning groups, including any Unassigned row.
Check Assumptions for region warnings.
Fix the data behind them: put reps on teams, or assign reps to market territories.

Annual planning scenario

The Annual planning scenario sits after the Operating View and before the forecast and Stage Inspector row. It appears with ?persona=cro or ?persona=sales_leader, or when you open it from the Annual Plan Logic module in the Learning Hub (its buttons include Open Planning Scenario, Open Capacity Scenario, Open Segment Scenario, Open Scenario Readout and Open Assumption Scenario). It has no close button.

Its heading asks Can we make the number, and what breaks first? The title bar shows the case (Base case holds, Base case needs operating action or Downside trigger is active) and the evidence status (Refreshing evidence, Evidence mapped or Planner evidence unavailable).

Five tabs: Pipeline math, Capacity fit, Segment truth, Scenario case and Assumption risk.
Six metric cards: Target (Selected period plan), Projected landing (with the gap), Required pipeline (opportunities needed at your ACV), Coverage (with its target), Capacity fit (with ramp-aware hires) and NRR / GRR (base retention pressure or base retention healthy).
Each card has a source pill: Live (your data), Estimated(derived from your data) or Demo fallback (an example value used where live data is thin). Read Demo fallback figures as illustrations, not your numbers.
A readout for the selected tab: its decision question, then What:, So what: and Now what:, then a Common trapand a Product action.
Six constraint cards, each with an amount, a source pill and a one-line explanation: Demand gap, Capacity gap, Mix gap, Timing risk, Retention risk and Assumption risk.

The decision question for each tab is:

Pipeline math: Is the annual plan constrained by raw pipeline, conversion, or deal-size mix?
Capacity fit: Does the plan miss because demand is weak, or because productive capacity cannot carry the number?
Segment truth: Which segment strengthens or breaks the headline forecast?
Scenario case: Should base, upside, or downside govern resource and board commitments?
Assumption risk: Which assumption needs evidence, owner, trigger, and next operating move?

Pick a tab and read the decision question and the What / So what / Now what readout.
Check the source pills; treat Demo fallback values as placeholders.
Press Open supporting surface → to go to the evidence: Pipeline math opens the Pipeline Health drill-down, Capacity fit and Scenario case scroll to the Capacity Planning workspace, Segment truth scrolls to the Operating View, and Assumption risk opens Diagnostics.
Press Refresh evidence to reload the planner figures, or Return to lesson to go back to the Annual Plan Logic module.

Loading, empty and error states

Loading. The workspace reads Loading capacity plan... on first load, and the title bar shows Refreshing while it recomputes.
Insufficient data. If the planner can’t find usable quota capacity for the period, it reads, for example, 4 quota-carrying sellers found. The planner needs usable quota capacity and assumptions for this period.
No planning groups. The table shows a No groups pill and No planning groups returned for this scenario.
No levers. No recommended levers returned for this scenario.
Planner unavailable. If the planner fails, a Planner unavailable message appears with a Retry button.

Troubleshooting

I don’t see Capacity Planning or the Annual planning scenario. Add ?persona=cro or ?persona=sales_leader to the Revenue Engine URL. A CRO role alone doesn’t show them.
Segment, Sales region or Market is missing from Grouping. Your data doesn’t support that grouping yet; see When groupings appear.
Coverage defaults to 3x. No reviewed coverage setting was found, so the planner uses 3.0x. Set your own in Coverage target.
Support roles read -. Enter BDR:AE, SE:AEand Mgr:AE ratios and press Apply scenario.
A large Unassigned group appears. Some quota-carrying reps have no team, or aren’t assigned to a market territory. Fix this in Teams & Roles or Territory Settings.
The Annual planning scenario shows Planner evidence unavailable. Press Refresh evidence. Cards that fall back to example values show Demo fallback.

To drag assumptions and watch the plan recalculate instantly, use the Capacity Scenario Planner.

Capacity Planning Workspace & Annual Planning Scenario