How the rate is worked out
The calculator divides what you need each month by the hours you can bill each month.
What you need is the income you want to pay yourself plus your business costs.
Billable hours a month are your working hours each week, times the share you can bill, times the weeks you work in a year, divided by twelve. With the figures above that is 32 hours, times 65%, times 46 weeks, divided by 12: about 80 hours a month.
$6,900 divided by 79.7 hours is $86.54, which rounds up to $90.
The number most people get wrong
It is the share of hours you can bill. A 40-hour week with 15 hours of admin and pitching is a 25-hour week to a client, and pricing as if it were 40 leaves a gap that no amount of work closes. The quickest way to find your real share is to track a couple of weeks and mark each entry billable or not.
Read more in How to track billable hours and Billable and non-billable hours.
See what you really earn per hour
Involets tracks your time, turns it into invoices, and shows your effective hourly rate: what you billed divided by the hours you worked. The same calculator is in its App Store, next to your real projects. Free for one person.
Setting an hourly rate
How do I work out my freelance hourly rate?
Add the income you want each month to your business costs, then divide by the hours you can actually bill in a month. Billable hours are your working hours, times the share of them that is client work, times the weeks you work in a year, divided by twelve. Round the answer up.
What share of my hours can I bill?
Fewer than you think. Admin, pitching, email, invoicing and learning are work, but no client pays for them. Many freelancers bill between half and three quarters of their working week. Track a fortnight honestly, mark each entry billable or not, and use your own number.
Should the income figure be before or after tax?
Before tax and after business costs: the money you want to pay yourself. Business costs go in their own box, so software, equipment, insurance and accounting fees are covered by the rate too.
Why round up to the nearest five?
A rate of $57.43 looks worked out to the cent, and it is. Clients read $60 as a price. Rounding up also leaves a small margin for the weeks that go worse than planned.
How do I check what I actually earn per hour?
Track your time and compare it with what you billed. In Involets, Reports shows your effective hourly rate: billed income divided by tracked hours, so fixed-price work and unbilled time show what they really paid. See Reports, explained.
Start with the timer. The invoice follows.
Make an account, start the clock, and send your first invoice when the work is done. Free for personal use; bring your team in when you are ready.