Personal Finance
Billable Hours Calculator
Enter available hours and utilisation to see billable hours and income at your rate.
Billable hours from capacity
Freelancers and agencies live or die on utilisation: hours you can invoice versus hours you are awake for the business. This calculator turns target income, working weeks and expected billable utilisation into a required hourly (or day) rate — or shows capacity from hours you already sell. Non-billable time (admin, sales, learning, illness) must sit in the utilisation assumption or you will underprice every proposal. Compare with freelancer minimum rate, effective hourly wage and salary to hourly for employment-shaped views. VAT, tax and pension still need wrapping around the headline rate before you celebrate. Planning only — not tax advice. Track actual billable ratios for a month before you trust a hopeful 80% utilisation figure copied from a thread. Retainers that look busy but deliver few hours still need this capacity check so the effective rate stays honest.
Worked example
You want £60,000 a year, work 46 weeks, and bill 60% of a 40-hour week → billable hours = 46 × 40 × 0.6 = 1,104. Required rate ≈ 60,000 ÷ 1,104 ≈ £54/hour before tax and VAT. At 40% utilisation the same income needs about £82/hour.
Limits and assumptions
Ignores tax, NIC, pension, sick leave beyond your week count, and payment delays. Utilisation is an assumption until you measure it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a realistic billable utilisation?
Many solo freelancers land around 50–70% once admin and sales are honest. Measure your own.
Should I price days instead of hours?
Convert using your standard day length, then sanity-check with freelancer minimum rate.
Do I include weekends in working weeks?
Only if you truly sell them. Most people use weekday capacity only.
How do retainers fit?
Divide retainer fees by hours actually delivered to see the effective rate.
What about unpaid invoices?
Raise the target income or effective rate to cover typical late-pay cash drag.