Agency AGI per FTE Calculator
The AGI per FTE calculator measures how much adjusted gross income your agency generates per full-time equivalent employee. Enter your annual revenue, the pass-through costs you re-bill at cost, and your headcount. It returns your AGI, your AGI-per-FTE ratio, and where that number sits relative to commonly-cited benchmarks.
Agency AGI per FTE Calculator
How much adjusted gross income your agency generates per full-time equivalent employee.
AGI per FTE
$117,000
Adjusted Gross Income: $585,000 across 5 FTEs.
Below benchmark
Below commonly cited targets. Either rates are low, utilisation is low, or headcount is ahead of revenue.
Benchmark bands based on agency-finance guidance commonly referenced in the industry. Your firm's context — service type, geography, ownership structure — affects what's achievable.
Breakdown
- Total revenue
- $680,000
- − Pass-through costs
- $95,000
- = AGI
- $585,000
- ÷ FTEs
- 5
- AGI per FTE
- $117,000
Unbilled hours are the most common reason AGI runs below where it should.
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How to read your result
AGI is not the same as revenue. Total revenue includes money you collect and immediately pass on to media platforms or subcontractors — it flows through your accounts but your team doesn't earn it. Strip those out and you get AGI: the revenue your people actually generate. That is the number you staff against.
AGI per FTE divides that figure by your headcount. It is the single most-cited efficiency metric in agency finance because it captures both sides of the operating equation: how much revenue the team generates and how many people it takes to generate it. A high-AGI-per-FTE firm is either pricing well, keeping utilisation high, or both.
How AGI per FTE is calculated
AGI = total revenue − pass-through costs. AGI per FTE = AGI ÷ full-time equivalent headcount. The pass-through deduction is critical: including media spend in revenue inflates the per-head figure and makes agencies look more efficient than they are. Exclude it, and you get a number you can actually benchmark.
A worked example
A five-person brand and content studio bills $680,000 annually. Of that, $95,000 is photography and illustration re-billed at cost to clients.
- Pass-throughs: $95,000
- AGI: $680,000 − $95,000 = $585,000
- AGI per FTE: $585,000 ÷ 5 = $117,000 — "Below benchmark"
The owner's instinct was that $680k for five people was fine. The AGI/FTE figure says the firm is generating $117k per head — below the $125–175k range cited in agency-finance guidance. The culprit, after investigation: one FTE on a recurring client whose retainer fee hadn't been raised in two years. A rate increase on one account would move the number materially.
The metric that separates revenue from productivity
Agency revenue is an incomplete story. A studio with three FTEs and $420k in revenue looks the same as one with $510k from the outside — but the first passes through $150k in media spend while the second passes through $40k. Their AGI is $270k and $470k respectively. AGI per FTE: $90k versus $157k. One is running thin; the other is running well. Total revenue hid the difference entirely.
AGI per FTE is especially important when considering a new hire. If current AGI doesn't support the additional FTE at target efficiency, you're adding headcount ahead of revenue. Check the utilisation rate calculator and agency hourly rate calculator for the full picture of where your rates and capacity stand.
Frequently asked questions
What is AGI per FTE for an agency?+
AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) in agency finance is total revenue minus pass-through costs like media spend and subcontractor fees billed at cost. AGI per FTE divides that figure by full-time equivalent headcount to measure how much net agency revenue each person generates.
What is a good AGI per FTE benchmark for an agency?+
Agency-finance guidance commonly cites a range of approximately $125,000–$175,000 AGI per FTE as healthy for a well-run small-to-mid-size agency. Below $100,000 per head often indicates pricing, utilisation, or staffing issues. Above $175,000 may suggest the team is running lean — watch for capacity constraints.
How is AGI different from revenue?+
Revenue includes all client billings. AGI strips out pass-through costs — media spend, third-party ad budgets, and subcontractor fees billed at cost — because those amounts flow through the agency without contributing to its internal productivity. AGI reflects only what the agency's own team generates.
What counts as a pass-through cost?+
Direct costs re-billed to clients at cost (no markup): media and ad spend, subcontractor fees when the subcontractor is billed directly through to the client at the same rate, licensing fees, and hard production costs. Costs where the agency adds a markup are revenue, not pass-throughs.
How many FTEs should I count?+
Count everyone whose time you pay for: employees, principals, and working owners. Convert part-timers to fractions (a 20-hour/week person = 0.5 FTE). Do not include contractors who are already excluded as pass-throughs.
How do I improve my AGI per FTE?+
Three levers: raise rates (most direct), improve utilisation (more billable hours per person), or reduce headcount relative to revenue. A fourth, longer-term path is shifting the revenue mix toward retainer work, which stabilises the denominator.
Is AGI per FTE the same as revenue per employee?+
Similar concept, different numerator. Revenue per employee uses gross revenue; AGI per FTE uses net agency revenue after pass-throughs. For agencies with significant pass-through costs, revenue per employee overstates productivity. AGI per FTE is the more accurate comparison.
Related tool
Agency Delivery Margin Calculator
AGI/FTE is the top-line view. Delivery margin by service line shows where in your practice that AGI is actually generated.
Track the hours that drive your AGI.
Ascend logs time against every client record as work happens, and generates invoices directly from those hours. The revenue your team earns is captured as it happens — not reconstructed at the end of the month. The free tier covers one client end to end.
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