Hourly and Day Rate Calculator

Who this is for

The rate your figures say you need. Enter the income you want, the costs of running the business and the hours you can realistically bill, and the calculator works out the hourly and day rate that covers them, with your own margin on top.

Freelancers and sole traders setting a rate for the first time, or reviewing one that has not changed in years, who want the number to come from their own costs rather than from what others charge.

What this helps you track

• The income you want to take from the business in a year
• Every business overhead, turned into an annual figure
• How many hours a year you can actually bill
• The hourly and day rate that covers it all, with and without your margin

How to use it

1. Enter your target annual income, the weeks you expect to work and the hours you work in a typical week.
2. Enter the share of those hours you can bill, from your own experience; admin, quoting and travel are usually not billable.
3. List each overhead with the amount and how many times a year you pay it; the annual cost is worked out for you.
4. Enter the hours in your working day and the margin percentage you want on top, both your own choices.
5. Read the rates in the summary, then compare them with what you charge now and what your market will bear.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Why not just divide my target income by working hours?

Because not every working hour is billable and the business has costs of its own. Leaving either out produces a rate that looks fine on paper and leaves you short at the end of the year.

What billable proportion should I use?

Your own. Look back at a few typical weeks and compare hours you invoiced with hours you worked. The sheet does not suggest a figure because it varies too much between trades and between people.

Should tax be one of the overheads?

Income tax is usually worked out on profit, so it is often simpler to set a target income that allows for it. How you treat it is up to you and the rules where you are.

What is the margin for?

A cushion above the break-even rate for quiet months, unpaid invoices or investment in the business. It is entered as your own percentage; leave it at zero to see the bare rate.