Time to Fill Calculator
Days to fill an engineering role from your own pipeline dates, and what the open seat costs
1. Dates from your own pipeline
Placeholder dates. Replace them with the dates from your applicant tracking system for one role, in order.
Time to fill
| Stage | Days |
|---|---|
| Requisition opened to First screen | 9 |
| First screen to First interview | 7 |
| First interview to Final interview | 13 |
| Final interview to Offer accepted | 12 |
| Offer accepted to First day | 21 |
2. What the open seat costs
An empty seat also saves the pay, so this prices the work left undone at what you would pay for it. It is a stand-in for the lost output, not a measured loss. See what leaving costs with the employee turnover cost calculator, and work out your recruiting spend with the cost per hire calculator.
3. Compare with AY Automate placement
AY's time shown is the published range, not a promise for your role; your timeline may be longer depending on scope. Placement is from $3K a month, so compare the monthly fee against the seat cost above.
The formulas
Stage days = later date - earlier date, in calendar days Time to fill = offer accepted date - requisition opened date Days the seat was empty = days empty before the requisition + (first day - requisition opened) Loaded pay per day = annual pay x (1 + benefits %) / 365 Open seat cost per day = loaded pay per day x share undone % + cover cost per day Open seat cost = days the seat was empty x open seat cost per day AY comparison = (your opened-to-first-day days - AY days) x open seat cost per day
How this works
Time to fill is plain arithmetic: the number of calendar days between two dates. Here it runs from the day the requisition opened to the day the offer was accepted. There is no single official definition, so some companies start the count at the first job post or end it at the first day of work. The tool shows both the offer-accepted count and the days to the first day, and each stage in between.
The seat cost uses US Bureau of Labor Statistics pay (OEWS, May 2025) for software developers or computer and information research scientists, plus the 42.9% BLS private-industry benefits average for June 2026, divided by 365 calendar days. The share of work left undone and any cover cost are your inputs, because the pay a seat saves while empty is not a measure of what the empty seat costs you.
Worked example with the placeholder dates (opened 1 September, first screen 10 September, first interview 17 September, final interview 30 September, offer accepted 12 October, first day 2 November): the stages take 9, 7, 13, 12 and 21 days. Time to fill is 41 days and the seat was empty for 62 days. Loaded pay is $148,100 x 1.429 / 365 = $579.82 a day, so 62 days cost $35,948.94. AY's published 4 weeks (28 days) is 34 days shorter, which is $19,713.94 of seat cost.
Sources (read November 12, 2026)
- BLS OEWS, May 2025: Software developers (15-1252), mean $148,100
- BLS OEWS, May 2025: Computer and information research scientists (15-1221), mean $153,930
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (benefits $14.07 per $32.82 of wages)
- AY Automate engineer placement (2 to 4 weeks, from $3K a month)
Need the seat filled sooner? AY Automate publishes: "Most placements take 2 to 4 weeks from the first call to the engineer's first day in your sprint." Placement is from $3K a month with a 90-day replacement guarantee. See engineer placement.
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