What is this practice’s chair occupancy for one month?
Chair occupancy is the share of chair hours open for bookings that had a patient booked. For one month, add the booked hours across dentists and divide by their total hours open for bookings.
Start with your own diary export, not a target percentage.
What is the monthly rate?
Enter booked hours and hours open for bookings for the same month to see this practice’s chair occupancy.
The calculation uses the hours
you enter on this page.
- Your hoursEvery row uses your diary figures. The practice rate is weighted by hours open for bookings, not dentist headcount.
- MethodA booked patient counts even if they did not attend and the booking remains in the diary. This is booked occupancy, not attended occupancy.
- ScopeThe result measures chair time. It does not estimate revenue, ad conversions or enquiries, and it gives no national average.
How are the dentists’ hours combined?
Add the booked hours, add the hours open for bookings, then divide the totals. Averaging each dentist’s percentage gives equal weight to dentists with different open hours.
The monthly formula
RateTotal booked hours ÷ total hours open for bookings × 100
The practice rate is shown to one decimal place. If no hours were open for bookings, no rate can be calculated. If booked hours exceed open hours, the rate can exceed 100 percent; check the diary figures.
| Dentist | Booked hours | Open hours | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dentist A | 4 | 8 | 50.0% |
| Dentist B | 36 | 40 | 90.0% |
| Practice total | 40 | 48 | 83.3% |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Why is the result 83.3%?
In this arithmetic example, 40 booked hours divided by 48 open hours gives 83.3%. Averaging 50% and 90% gives 70%, which does not account for Dentist B’s longer open hours.
Source: the chair occupancy article’s method.
Total booked hours
÷ total hours open for bookings.
The longer diary carries more weight.
Where does the method come from? Read the definition and the monthly diary method.
What is chair occupancy rate?What should you check in the diary?
Use booked hours and bookable hours from the same month. Keep the meaning of both columns the same for every dentist.
Which hours belong in each column?
Booked hours are hours with a patient on the book; open hours are hours the chair could accept a booking.
Export the diary for one month. Enter each dentist’s booked hours and hours open for bookings for that same month. Remove lunch and do-not-book blocks from the open hours if the diary marks them. Decimal hours are accepted, so part of an hour can be included.
If you only have practice totals, enter them in one row and leave the other row empty. That division already gives the hours-weighted practice rate; do not average it again.
Does a patient who did not attend change this rate?
A patient who did not attend still counts in booked hours if their appointment remains on the book.
This calculator measures booked occupancy. It uses time with a patient booked, rather than time the patient attended or time billed. Keep that distinction when exporting the diary and when comparing results between months.
Attended occupancy is a separate measure that needs attended hours. Do not subtract a no-show percentage from this result or substitute billed hours for booked hours. The chair occupancy article, read 12 October 2026, defines the booked-hours rate used here.
Is the result a target or a revenue estimate?
No. The result describes the hours you entered for one month, not a target or a revenue estimate.
The page does not pre-fill a national percentage or label your result as good or bad. Compare months only when both use the same definitions of booked hours and hours open for bookings. Changes in the hours each dentist works affect the practice total, which is why those hours supply the weighting.
Time without a booking is not converted into dollars here. A result above 100 percent means booked hours exceed the open hours entered; check both columns against the diary.
Sources: where is the method explained?
Shoutout Digital: chair occupancy rate — definition and monthly diary method, read 12 October 2026.
Dentally Australia: practitioner utilisation dashboard — booked appointments as a share of the practitioner’s day, 13 June 2024.
Lucid Vitals: provider utilisation — discussion of dental utilisation benchmarks, 9 July 2026.
What can you discuss on a strategy session?
Bring your diary figures and the month they cover. Use the chair occupancy result as a starting point for discussing your practice’s marketing.