Everhour embeds time tracking in agency work tools, making approved client time easier to connect 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.
This calculation answers how much approved agency time is worth before any state or local tax, write-off, discount, or collection issue. For a time-and-materials invoice, the result can become the client charge. For a retainer or fixed-fee project, it shows whether the work consumed more agency capacity than the fee supports.
Marketing agencies often use billable-hour math even when the invoice is not purely hourly. Time data supports retainers, fixed bids, value-based work, scope reviews, staffing plans, and utilization targets. The practical question is not only "what should this invoice say?" It is also "did this campaign, sprint, or client account use labor profitably?"
The core formula is `unit rate × approved billable time`. The unit rate can be a role rate, person rate, department rate, blended rate, day rate, or contract-specific rate. Marketing and advertising agency guidance does not prescribe one profession-wide rounding increment, so rounding should come from the client agreement or internal time policy.
For example, a paid media launch includes 20 approved campaign-manager hours at $165 per hour and 14 approved analyst hours at $205 per hour. The campaign-manager line is $3,300.00, the analyst line is $2,870.00, and the pre-tax billable value is $6,170.00. If the service is taxable, add the correct state or local tax input separately.
A common agency mistake is treating utilization as the invoice total. Utilization shows how much available team capacity became billable work; it does not replace the client agreement. A production employee expected to bill about 30 hours per week can still have non-billable rework, internal meetings, or new-business time that changes margin without changing the client-facing rate.
Benchmarks give context, not an invoice rule. Reported marketing-agency utilization averages around 69%, while Agency Management Institute targets 75% billability and 65% utilization of all available hours. Use those numbers to review staffing and profitability. Use the contract, approved hours, and agreed rates to calculate what the client owes.
A one-off calculation is enough when you need a fast pre-tax estimate for a small change order, a campaign overage, or a retainer reality check. It is also enough when the time entries are already approved and the client's rate structure is simple.
A managed workflow matters when several people work across tasks, platforms, and billing categories. Everhour can embed tracking controls inside tools such as Asana, ClickUp, Jira, Monday, Notion, Trello, and GitHub, then sync project and task metadata into one reporting layer. That makes billable flags, budgets, timesheets, and invoice handoffs easier to audit.
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.
Count time that the client agreement defines as billable and that has been approved for billing. Common examples include campaign setup, creative production, account strategy, reporting, and client-requested revisions. Keep internal operations, sales work, training, and non-approved rework separate unless the contract assigns those hours to the client.
Yes. A retainer can use billable-hour math to test whether the fixed monthly fee covers the labor delivered. If a $9,000 retainer consumes 60 approved billable hours, the implied rate is $150 per hour before tax, expenses, write-offs, or collection delays.
Apply write-offs after calculating gross billable value from approved hours and agreed rates. Revenue leakage measures earned revenue not realized, so it should be tracked separately from utilization and collections. For marketing agencies, a 5.5% leakage benchmark gives a comparison point, but the actual write-off comes from project review and client billing decisions.
No. The United States has no federal VAT/GST or single national sales-tax rate for billed professional time. Tax treatment is state and local. If a marketing service is taxable in the applicable jurisdiction, add that jurisdiction-specific tax input after calculating the pre-tax billable amount.
Use the rate structure in the client agreement. A blended rate is simpler for estimates and retainers because every approved hour uses one price. Role-based rates are more precise when senior strategists, designers, analysts, and account managers contribute at different values. Do not mix methods inside one calculation unless the contract allows it.
Everhour integrates with major project management and accounting tools, embeds tracking controls in supported workflows, and syncs project and task metadata into reports. Agency teams can track time inside familiar tools while managers review billable time, budgets, and timesheets in one place.
Track approved agency hours where the work happens, connect them to project metadata, and move cleaner billing data forward with Everhour integrations.
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