Hourly rate calculator
We made this calculator for freelancers to use as a guide to costs, billable hours and desired profit. Remember: your hourly rate should also account for factors like market demand and skill level, factors that we unfortunately couldn't fit into this calculator.
Takes 5-15 mins to complete.
Step One
Calculate your annual business costs
How much is your monthly office rent?
If you work from home you might add the cost of the area in your home used as an office.
How much do you spend annually on Travel?
How much do you spend per year on Computers, Furniture and Equipment?
How much do you spend each year on Software?
How much do you spend each month on your phone and Internet?
How much does your annual insurance cost?
Think about business, health and office insurance.
How much do you need to spend on Legal fees this year?
Legal fees tend to be one off blocks of expenses. Try to spread over 2-3 years to get amortized amount.
How much do you need to spend this year on Accountancy fees?
How much will your office supplies cost annually?
Think stationary, cleaning, postage, books, magazines and all those misc. items.
How much will you be spending this year on advertising and promotions?
Add up things like Google and Facebook ads, printing costs for physical ads and so on.
How much will you be spending this year on anything else?
For all those expenses that don't fit under any other heading like couriers, association fees etc.
$0 per year
Step Two
Calculate your annual personal costs
How much is your monthly rent/mortage?
What is your monthly budget for daily expenses?
All those day-to-day things like food and entertainment.
How much do you intend to save this year for your retirement account?
How much do you spend each year on occasional expenses?
These might include things like servicing your car, holidays and so on.
How much will you be spending this year on anything else?
Anything that doesn’t fit under the other headings.
$0 per year
Step Three
Calculate your billable hours
How many days a week do you work on average?
How many days on vacation do you need annually?
Make sure you are only counting days you would have otherwise been working. So if you work only on weekdays, you’d count all the weekdays you want to take for vacation.
How many sick and personal days do you need annually?
How many public and religious holidays will you be taking off annually?
0 days per year
How many hours do you work a day on average?
Add up ALL the hours you work, not just those on client projects.
Approximately what percentage of hours can you actually bill?
Non-billable hours might include work on the business, hours spent billing clients, time when you have no work etc.
0 hours per week
Step Four
Profit and taxes
Enter a dollar amount of savings/profit you’d like to make each year.
Profit is the money above what it costs just to run your business and live. How much extra cash do you wish to earn?
What's your tax rate?
Enter your approximate effective tax rate.
Your results
Your ideal rate is $0/hr
Your break-even rate is $0/hrWhy we made this
When we were starting out as freelancers ourselves, coming up with an hourly rate that felt right was really tough. So, we made this calculator for freelancers to use as a guide to costs, billable hours and desired profit. Icons by Eucalyp on Noun Project.
Learn more about what we do at usepastel.com