Struggling with overloaded techs and ticket chaos? This practical formula helps MSPs calculate how many Tier 1, 2, and 3 technicians they actually need.
Why Your Techs Are Drowning (And How to Stop It)
If you're running (or barely surviving in) a fast-growing MSP, chances are your support queue is starting to resemble a Hydra. Chop one ticket down, two more grow in its place. Meanwhile, your senior engineers are stuck resetting passwords, your projects are always “starting next quarter,” and your dreams of automation are buried under a mountain of tickets marked “urgent.”
Let’s be honest: if your Tier 3 techs are handling printer issues, you don’t need another motivational poster: you need a staffing model.
That’s where this comes in.
Start With the Basics: Ticket Volume × Time to Resolve
We’re going to hit you with a little math, but don’t panic... this isn’t calculus, and there’s no pop quiz.
Here’s the foundational formula:
Time to Resolve (in hours) × Ticket Volume (per week) ÷ 40 = Labor Hours Needed
Why 40? Because one full-time technician generally works 40 hours a week. This gives you the raw number of labor hours needed to handle your current volume. Easy, right?
Example:
If your Tier 1 team handles 200 tickets a week, and the average time per ticket is 0.5 hours:
0.5 × 200 = 100 hours
100 ÷ 40 = 2.5 FTEs (Full-Time Equivalents)
That means you need 2.5 Tier 1 techs to keep up. Spoiler alert: if you have just one, you're not “lean and agile”.. you’re drowning.
But Wait: Techs Aren’t Ticket Robots
Before you go out and start hiring fractional techs, let’s talk reality. No one works 100% of the time on tickets. There’s meetings, training, lunch (hopefully), internal projects, side quests like onboarding, and all the delightful interruptions MSP life throws your way.
A safe estimate?
70–80% utilization for frontline support techs. For project-focused or Tier 3 roles? Closer to 60–70%.
So now let’s revisit our example with a 75% utilization buffer:
100 ÷ (40 × 0.75) = 3.33 techs
Yeah, that’s right, you actually need 3.33 Tier 1 techs to keep up sustainably.
(We’ll get to what to do with the .33 of a human in a second.)
Break It Down By Tier: Because Not All Tickets Are Created Equal
Here’s where it gets interesting.
If you treat all tickets the same, you end up paying your Tier 3 tech $90k/year to reset passwords. Which is… not optimal.
Instead, split your volume by support level. Let’s say your ticket distribution looks like this:
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70% Tier 1
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25% Tier 2
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5% Tier 3
Apply the same formula per tier.
Let’s pretend:
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Tier 1 tickets: 200/week at 0.5 hrs each
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Tier 2 tickets: 70/week at 1.5 hrs each
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Tier 3 tickets: 20/week at 3 hrs each
Now calculate:
Tier 1:
0.5 × 200 = 100 hrs ÷ (40 × 0.75) = 3.33 FTEs
Tier 2:
1.5 × 70 = 105 hrs ÷ (40 × 0.75) = 3.5 FTEs
Tier 3:
3 × 20 = 60 hrs ÷ (40 × 0.7) = 2.14 FTEs
So you’re looking at 3.33 Tier 1s, 3.5 Tier 2s, and 2.14 Tier 3s. If you're currently running with one tech per tier, congratulations—you’re wildly understaffed and running a support miracle factory.
What to Do When You Get Weird Numbers Like 2.14 Techs
There are a few ways to deal with this, none of which involve cloning:
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Round up. Let’s not make the mistake of hiring “half” a tech and expecting a whole result.
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Hire part-time or contract. Especially useful for Tier 1 overflow or after-hours needs.
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Cross-train. Let your Tier 2 tech cover Tier 3 tasks when they’re light, and vice versa.
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Outsource the overflow. Use an outsourced helpdesk partner to handle fractional gaps or overnight coverage.
Remember, this model isn’t about perfection. It’s about predictable, sustainable workload. You’re not trying to hit a perfect tech-to-ticket ratio; you’re trying to stop lighting your team on fire every Monday.
Don’t Forget: Internal Work Counts Too
If you’re not factoring in time for internal improvements, documentation, automation, or, you know, just thinking… your team’s capacity is a lie.
Yes, tickets are the visible part of the workload, but so much MSP value comes from the invisible layers: updating SOPs, improving processes, reducing recurring issues.
So build in time for that. Add 10–20% overhead on top of your ticket model. That way, your techs don’t just survive the day, they actually make tomorrow better.
Presenting This to Leadership Without Causing a Riot
Now comes the fun part: walking into a meeting and telling your boss you need 8 new hires.
Don’t worry, we’re going to keep this professional.
Use their language:
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Business risk: Backlogs lead to SLAs missed and clients churned.
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Cost efficiency: Tier 1 techs cost less than Tier 3s doing Tier 1 work.
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Growth blocking: Without the right staffing, you can't scale services or win new clients.
Use visuals:
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Bar charts, workload breakdowns, and labor hour comparisons work wonders.
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A spreadsheet with your math = credibility.
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Bonus: calculate backlog hours to show deferred work growing like mold in a server room.