Bench time
What consultancies call paid time with no client to bill, and what it costs them.
Reviewed by Hassen Hattab, founder of BenchBee Updated
Bench time is the time an employed IT consultant spends between client projects: paid by their consultancy, billed to no one. A consultant in that period is “on the bench”, or “benched”. The consultancy keeps paying salary, benefits and overhead while no invoice goes out, so every bench day is a cost the firm carries alone. Across professional services firms, IT consultancies among them, billable utilisation fell to 66.4% in 2025, the lowest SPI Research has recorded, against the 75% SPI considers optimal.
Bench time, benched, bench resources: what the words mean
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Bench time | The days or hours a consultant is employed and available but not billed to a client. |
| On the bench, benched | The state of a consultant during bench time. “We have two Java developers on the bench.” |
| Bench resources | The consultants a firm has on the bench at a given moment. Some firms keep a “bench list” they share with sales or partners. |
| Utilisation | The share of a consultant's available time that is billed. Bench time is most of what pulls it down. |
| Non-billable time | Wider than bench time: it also counts training, pre-sales and internal work, which some firms report separately. |
In the US and India, “bench sales” also means recruiters who market consultants between projects to clients. The idea is the same: the consultant is employed, ready, and waiting for the next role. More on the people themselves: bench resources.
Why consultants end up on the bench
Projects end on a date. The next one rarely starts the day after. Client work comes in waves while permanent headcount grows in a straight line, so a consultancy is often overstaffed on one skill and short on another in the same month.
Four causes cover most bench time:
- Project gaps. A client phase closes before the next brief is signed.
- Skills mismatch. The open roles need Kubernetes; the available consultant knows Oracle.
- Sales lag. The pipeline fills in waves, and the bench fills between them.
- Over-hiring for one large account. The account shrinks, the team stays.
None of this means the firm is badly run. Even the largest consultancies carry a bench. The causes in depth: Why IT consultants sit idle between projects.
What bench time costs
A benched consultant costs their full employment cost for every idle day, plus the fees the firm would have invoiced.
Illustrative example: a consultant on a £65,000 salary, who costs the firm about £406 per working day once employer National Insurance, pension, benefits and overhead are added, and who is billed at £650 a day, spends 20 working days on the bench. The firm pays about £8,100 and invoices nothing. Had those days been billed, it would have invoiced £13,000.
Scale that to a team. At 66.4% billable utilisation, a third of available consultant time goes unbilled; at SPI's 75% optimum, a quarter does. The gap between the two is mostly the bench. The full calculation, with the costs firms forget: What bench time really costs an IT consultancy.
How consultancies reduce bench time
| Approach | What it does | Its limit |
|---|---|---|
| Better forecasting | Sees the gap coming weeks ahead | It does not create the next project |
| Internal projects and training | Keeps consultants busy and sharp | The time is still unbilled |
| Informal sharing with peers | Lends a consultant to a friendly consultancy for the length of the gap | Four or five firms you know, by WhatsApp, with no record |
| A bench-sharing network | Shows the consultant to every consultancy and agency looking for that skill | It only works if the companies are verified and the network is private |
More on each: How to reduce consultant bench time costs.
Bench time and the bench economy
One firm's bench is often another firm's missing profile, in the same week. The bench economy is the name for that market: every employed consultant between projects, matched to the roles other companies need to staff.
BenchBee is a private network built for it. Verified IT consultancies in the UK, Europe and the GCC list their benched consultants; peer consultancies and IT recruitment agencies post the roles they need to fill. Companies stay hidden until they choose to reveal themselves, and the two firms agree rates and contracts directly. BenchBee takes no commission. How it works, step by step: How BenchBee works. Why firms lend to each other: Why IT consultancies share talent with each other.
Recruiting for a client? Benched consultants are employed, vouched for by their consultancy, and available now. See how agencies post a role.
Frequently asked questions
What does bench time mean?
Bench time means the paid time an employed consultant spends between client projects, when no client is billed. The consultant is said to be “on the bench”.
What does bench resources mean?
Bench resources are the consultants a firm has on the bench right now: employed, available, and waiting for their next project.
Is a benched consultant a freelancer?
No. A benched consultant stays employed by their consultancy, with their salary, contract and employer unchanged. A freelancer is self-employed and between clients by their own choice.
What is a good utilisation rate for an IT consultancy?
SPI Research considers 75% of available time billed optimal; between 70 and 80% has historically maximised profitability, and above 80% burnout and attrition rise. Professional services firms averaged 66.4% in 2025, the lowest SPI has recorded.
Who pays for bench time?
The consultancy. Clients pay for days delivered, never for the days in between.
Can bench time be billed?
Yes, when another company needs that skill for the length of the gap. The consultant works on the other firm's project and stays on their own employer's payroll. That is how talent sharing between consultancies works.
Is bench time the same as non-billable time?
Not quite. Bench time is time with no client work at all. Non-billable time also includes training, pre-sales and internal projects. The cost to the firm is the same.
Utilisation: SPI Research, Professional Services Maturity Benchmark 2026 (2025 data, over 500 firms, reported by Deltek, 30 July 2026) and “The truth about billable utilization” (18 March 2025). The £65,000 / £650 example is illustrative, not a benchmark (same numbers as the cost article).
Your bench is paid time. It does not have to be unbilled time.
Free until 3 matches. No time limit. No credit card.