Design firms need clean billing math across roles, scopes, and rates. Everhour keeps project time tied to client work.
Track billable vs. non-billable time and see your real utilization rate and revenue potential in seconds.
Working hours in the period
Admin, meetings, internal work
Industry average is 75–80%
The calculator gives you the number — Everhour takes it from there.
One click and you're timing. Start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Everhour.
Set a budget, assign rates, and get alerted before you're over.
Measurement
Track your budget through time or costs
Every report you need — configured your way, always up to date.
Tracked hours flow straight into a polished invoice — no copy-paste, no manual math.
For a design firm, the calculation answers a direct billing question: how much client-approved labor is chargeable for a project, phase, or invoice period. The core result is the billable labor amount in U.S. dollars: billable hours multiplied by the agreed hourly rate. Outside purchases, stock assets, printing, media spend, or vendor costs belong in separate line items when the client agreement treats them separately.
This page also helps you test whether a project is drifting from the proposal. Design firms often mix fixed fees, retainers, and time-and-materials work. A billable-hours total shows the value of approved hourly work, while the same hours can reveal whether out-of-scope requests, extra revisions, or non-billable rework are consuming margin before the invoice is finalized.
The standard formula is simple: billable hours × agreed rate = billable labor amount. When a project uses different rates by role, calculate each role separately and add the results. Do not average rates unless the client agreement states a blended rate. Contract-defined rounding also matters because design contracts do not use one profession-wide increment such as 0.1 hour or 0.25 hour.
For example, a brand identity project includes 14 approved art director hours at $185 per hour, 31 approved designer hours at $120 per hour, and 9 approved production hours at $85 per hour. The labor total is $2,590 + $3,720 + $765 = $7,075 before any taxable charges, expenses, discounts, or write-downs. If the project has a fixed fee, this same total shows the implied hourly value of the work consumed.
AIGA guidance treats a standard hourly rate as an internal planning tool shaped by overhead, available client-project hours, and target profit. That matters for design firms because the invoice total is only one view. A project can bill correctly and still underperform when extra rounds, unclear approvals, or internal rework push total labor above the time assumed in the proposal.
Utilization gives the firm-level check: AIA defines utilization as direct labor divided by total labor, and lists a general architecture-firm benchmark range of 60% to 65% of total labor dollars. For design firms, the practical decision is whether low billable share comes from healthy sales, admin, and concept development time or from preventable non-billable production effort that should be scoped, approved, or billed differently next time.
A calculator is enough for a one-off invoice check when the hours are already approved, the rate table is clear, and the client agreement defines which work is billable. It also works for quick fixed-fee analysis: divide the fee by total labor hours to see the implied hourly return before expenses. For U.S. work, add a jurisdiction-specific tax input only when the service is taxable; there is no federal VAT/GST.
A managed workflow becomes necessary when several designers, project managers, and production specialists log time across phases or tools. Everhour can embed tracking controls inside supported project tools, sync project and task metadata, and keep time connected to timesheets and budgets inside the work process. That gives the billing handoff a record of who worked, where the time landed, and which tasks were client-chargeable.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
High Performer
G2
Summer 2026
Best Ease Of Use
Capterra
Summer 2026
Rated in the top time trackers across G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius — with consistent praise for ease of use, integrations, and support.
Design firms calculate billable labor by multiplying approved billable hours by the agreed hourly rate. If the project uses role-based rates, calculate each role separately and add the totals. If the contract uses a fixed fee, the same hours can be used to check the implied hourly value, but the invoice follows the fee terms unless approved out-of-scope work is billed separately.
Use the rate structure in the proposal or client agreement. A blended rate is simpler for retainers and broad project phases, but role-based rates show the different cost and value of creative direction, design, production, and project management. Do not replace role-based rates with an average during billing unless the client agreement authorizes that pricing method.
Design firms do not have one universal annual billable-hours quota. AIGA materials treat available client-project hours as a firm-level input for setting rates and budgets, not a profession-wide target. Architecture and design-related firms often track utilization, and AIA lists a 60% to 65% benchmark range for architecture firms, but each firm sets its own target.
Out-of-scope changes become billable when the client requests work beyond the agreed scope and the proposal or agreement allows additional time-and-materials charges. AIGA standard terms allow client-requested changes outside scope to be charged at the designer's standard hourly rate unless the proposal states otherwise. Record the request, approval, time, role, and rate before invoicing.
The United States has no federal VAT/GST and no single national sales-tax rate for professional time. Tax treatment is state and local, and services can be taxable, exempt, or taxed under a gross receipts system depending on jurisdiction. A U.S. billable-hours calculation needs a jurisdiction-specific tax input only when the service is taxable.
Everhour integrates with major project management and accounting tools, including Asana, ClickUp, Jira, Monday, Notion, Trello, QuickBooks, Xero, and others. Design teams can track time inside supported workflows while project and task metadata flows into Everhour, keeping billable entries tied to the same client work used for planning and delivery.
Everhour Billing & Invoicing converts tracked billable time and expenses into client invoices. It calculates invoice amounts from billable time, project or member rates, and billable expenses while excluding non-billable work, then can export invoices to QuickBooks Online, Xero, or FreshBooks.
Track approved design time inside project tools, keep task context attached, and carry billable entries into budgets and invoices. Everhour connects daily creative work to cleaner client billing.
14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime
