Everhour tracks billable and non-billable time, while a customizable rate calculation turns income goals into USD pricing.
Find the right rate based on your annual expenses, desired profit margin, and available billable hours. Stop guessing.
Rent, software, gear, salary
Time lost to admin, marketing, etc.
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.
A customizable hourly rate calculation answers one practical question: the USD rate you need to charge per billable hour to support a target income. The answer changes when you edit overhead, self-funded benefits, tax reserve, or expected billable hours. That flexibility matters because a solo freelancer, a small agency owner, and a contractor replacing W-2 compensation rarely have the same expense load or utilization rate.
The result is a bill rate, not guaranteed take-home pay. U.S. self-employed pricing needs to cover desired income, ordinary and necessary business expenses, a benefits substitute, and federal self-employment and income-tax reserves before division by billable hours. A separate effective-rate view can compare final take-home against all hours worked, including admin, sales, and project gaps.
Use this formula: `(target income + overhead + benefits substitute + tax reserve) / billable hours`. For example, a consultant wants $108,000 of target income, expects $18,000 of overhead, budgets $24,000 for self-funded benefits, and sets aside $30,000 for taxes. The total annual requirement is $180,000. At 1,440 billable hours, the required bill rate is $125.00 per hour.
The billable-hours input controls the answer as much as the income target. A 2,080-hour employee calendar assumes 40 paid hours for 52 weeks. Solo freelancers often need a lower billable-hours base because sales calls, proposals, bookkeeping, training, and unpaid time off do not all turn into client invoices. A custom calculator should let you change that denominator directly instead of burying it in a fixed assumption.
Customization is useful when one flat hourly rate hides the real pricing decision. You may need a base advisory rate, a lower implementation rate, a rush premium, a project minimum, or a separate rate for on-site work. Multi-rate cards also help teams price different roles without blending senior strategy hours and junior production hours into one average that misstates margin.
Tax inputs also need room for judgment. A U.S. sole proprietor or independent contractor generally reports business profit or loss on Schedule C and uses Schedule SE for Social Security and Medicare taxes on self-employment income. For 2026 estimated tax, net self-employment profit is multiplied by 92.35%, then self-employment tax applies within the federal Social Security wage base and Medicare rules.
A customizable rate gives you a floor, then scope tests show whether the quote works. A $125 hourly target supports a $5,000 project only if the work stays near 40 billable hours. If the same project expands to 55 billable hours, the effective project rate drops to $90.91 before considering non-billable coordination, revisions, or collection time.
Use customization to test pricing choices before you send a proposal. A monthly retainer needs an assumed hour cap. A fixed-fee project needs a realistic delivery range. A value-based add-on needs a minimum rate floor so the project does not underpay the hours required. The calculation does not choose your market position; it shows whether the rate supports the economics you entered.
A one-off calculator is enough when you need a single quote, a salary-to-contractor sanity check, or a quick update to a rate card. Save the inputs that drove the answer: target income, overhead, benefits substitute, tax reserve, and billable-hours assumption. Those numbers explain the rate later when a client asks for a discount or a project needs a revised estimate.
A managed workflow becomes necessary when time entries, billable status, rate overrides, and invoicing all affect revenue. Everhour can keep billable and non-billable time separate through project billing status, task-level non-billable controls, custom task rates, and member-rate exceptions. That creates a cleaner handoff from rate planning to actual project billing.
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.
A complete hourly-rate input set includes target income, ordinary business overhead, a benefits substitute, tax reserve, and expected billable hours. U.S. self-employed workers also need to account for quarterly estimated taxes because contractor pay has no employer withholding for income tax, Social Security, or Medicare tax.
The billable-hours figure is the denominator in the formula, so every unpaid or non-billable hour increases the rate needed on the remaining billable hours. A 2,080-hour employee calendar usually understates a solo freelancer's required rate because admin, sales, training, and unpaid time off reduce invoiceable capacity.
A customizable calculator can handle different client rates if you enter separate assumptions for each rate card. Use one setup for advisory work, another for production work, and another for retainers or rush work. A single blended rate is useful for forecasting, but client quotes need the rate structure the client will actually see.
Tax reserve and overhead should stay separate. Overhead covers business expenses such as software, insurance, equipment, and professional services. Tax reserve covers federal self-employment and income-tax payments. Mixing them makes the rate harder to audit and makes it easier to cut the wrong line when adjusting the quote.
A customized hourly rate sets a financial floor, not the final market price. Public freelance rates vary by skill, client type, and positioning. A 2023 Fiverr survey found an average $93 hourly rate among U.S. independent professionals who charged hourly, while public marketplace profile bands can range from entry-level admin rates to specialized rates above $150.
Everhour supports billable and non-billable time through project billing status, task-level non-billable controls, custom task rates, and member-rate exceptions. Admin reports can show billable time, non-billable time, billable amount, and cost, so planned rates can be compared with actual billed work.
Set the rate, then track approved client time with billable controls, task-level exceptions, and admin reporting. Everhour connects custom rates to actual work and clearer billing.
14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime
