Capacity Truth Layer

Most project management tools show what work exists, not whether the agency can absorb it. The Capacity Truth Layer is the discipline of treating allocation data, not task counts, as the primary planning signal. Agencies that plan from task volume routinely overcommit because a board with 40 open cards looks identical whether those cards represent two hours or two weeks of work. The layer matters because retainer margin is decided at assignment time, not at invoicing time. A concrete example: Productive and Teamwork both surface resource planning and budget burn alongside project views, while Basecamp deliberately omits capacity forecasting, which is fine for a five-person studio and costly for a 30-person agency running twelve concurrent retainers. Before adding AI prioritization features, verify the tool can answer one question: who is over-allocated next Thursday, and by how many hours. If it cannot, the AI is summarizing a blind spot.