In order to be able to keep track of a provider's available places, an organization specifies a provider's capacity during enrolment.
The total number of clients that a provider facility can notionally accommodate at any one time is represented by its physical capacity. However, not all of these places may be available for use by the organization. The designated capacity can therefore be used to record the number of places that can actually be used. So, the designated capacity is the capacity of a provider that is available to the organization under normal circumstances. For example, a day care center might have a physical capacity for 12 beds but have allocated only 10 beds to the organization; therefore, the designated capacity for this provider will be 10.