A full-time equivalent (FTE) is a measurement of how many employees are needed for a project. For example, an FTE of 1.0 represents a full-time employee, while an FTE of 0.5 represents someone who works half as much.

Accountants use FTE to estimate labor expenditures, while project managers use it to determine their team's workload. To get the monthly FTE for a project, divide the monthly hours needed for the project by an employee's full-time work hours in a month.