Freelance income depends on billable time, non-billable work, and collection timing. Everhour connects tracked hours to billing.
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.
The calculation answers a direct pricing question: how much client-chargeable work produced revenue for a period, project, or invoice. For hourly freelance work, the core amount is billable hours multiplied by the agreed hourly rate. Invoice totals may then change for discounts, reimbursable expenses, and taxes where applicable.
For freelancers, the second answer is often more important than the invoice amount. Total working hours include client calls, project work, proposals, accounting, revisions, and follow-up. Comparing billable hours with total worked hours shows whether your quoted hourly rate still supports the business after non-billable work.
Start by choosing the period you are measuring: one invoice, one project, one week, or one year. A weekly view is useful for workload discipline because freelance surveys commonly point to about a 40-hour workweek, while non-billable work still takes a material share of that time.
Do not price freelance work as if every working hour is billable. A common planning split is 60% billable and 40% non-billable, while a lighter-admin workload may use 75% billable and 25% non-billable. With 40 weekly hours, four unpaid weeks off, and 60% billable time, the annual billable-hours example is 1,152 hours.
For an hourly project, multiply approved billable hours by the agreed rate. For example, a freelance designer records 30 billable hours in a 40-hour week at $120 per hour. The pre-tax billable amount is $3,600, utilization is 75%, and the effective hourly rate across all worked time is $90.
Use three formulas together: billable hours × hourly rate for invoice value, billable hours ÷ total worked hours × 100 for utilization, and total revenue ÷ total hours worked for effective hourly rate. The United States has no federal VAT/GST or national sales-tax rate for billed professional time, so use a state and local tax input only when the service is taxable in the relevant jurisdiction.
Freelance work is not always billed hourly. Hourly contracts charge for actual time worked, while fixed-price contracts set the total project cost before work begins and work best when deliverables and scope are clearly defined. For fixed-price work, the calculator becomes an implied-rate check rather than a direct invoice builder.
For example, divide the fixed project fee by total hours worked to see whether scope creep reduced the real rate. If requirements change, underestimated time lowers your effective hourly rate unless the contract is renegotiated or a new scope is created. That check is useful before quoting the next similar project.
A one-time calculation is enough when you have one client, one rate, and a clean list of approved hours. It is also enough for a quick quote check, a fixed-fee postmortem, or a utilization snapshot before raising your rate.
A managed workflow matters when you invoice repeat clients, mix billable and non-billable tasks, add expenses, or need clean payment records. Everhour Billing & Invoicing converts tracked billable time and expenses into invoices, excludes non-billable tasks, applies client settings, and exports invoices to QuickBooks Online, Xero, or FreshBooks.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
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Add only client-chargeable time that matches the contract or approved scope, then multiply those billable hours by the agreed hourly rate. Keep non-billable work separate, including proposals, bookkeeping, internal planning, learning, and unpaid revisions. Add reimbursable expenses, discounts, and jurisdiction-specific taxes only after the billable labor amount is clear.
The client rate applies only to billable hours. Your effective hourly rate spreads revenue across all worked time, including admin, sales, accounting, project setup, and unpaid follow-up. If you bill 30 hours at $120 and work 40 total hours, the invoice value is $3,600 but the effective hourly rate is $90.
Yes. A fixed-price project does not invoice by the hour, but time tracking shows the implied hourly rate and reveals scope risk. If a fixed fee stays the same while requirements expand, every added hour reduces the effective rate. Use that result to renegotiate scope or price the next project more accurately.
No. The United States has no federal VAT/GST or single national sales-tax rate for billed professional time. Sales tax treatment is state and local, and some services are taxable while others are not. Use the jurisdiction-specific tax rule for the client, service, and business location involved.
The biggest mistake is treating total work time as billable time. A 40-hour week does not create 40 invoiceable hours when proposals, accounting, client care, and project management are included. Separate billable hours from total worked hours, then review utilization and effective hourly rate before judging whether the project was profitable.
Everhour Billing & Invoicing converts tracked billable time and expenses into invoices, calculates amounts from rates, and excludes non-billable tasks. Freelancers can set client details, customize invoice terms, and export invoices to QuickBooks Online, Xero, or FreshBooks with invoice status synced back to Everhour.
Track client work, mark non-billable tasks, add expenses, and generate invoices from approved time. Everhour Billing & Invoicing gives freelancers a cleaner handoff from hours to billing.
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