Everhour turns tracked billable time into invoicing workflows, while your hourly rate starts with a clear cost-plus calculation.
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.
An hourly-rate calculation shows the minimum USD rate that covers your target income, ordinary and necessary business expenses, self-funded benefits, and tax reserve before you divide by realistic billable hours. On Windows, the calculation itself does not change. Keep your expense sheet, tax notes, or client scope open in another window so you can check inputs before entering the final numbers.
The result is a pricing floor, not a public profile rate. A 2023 Fiverr survey of 738 U.S. freelancers found that project-based pricing was more common than hourly pricing, and Upwork's 2026 marketplace guide lists broad profile-rate bands. Those benchmarks add context, but your rate needs to recover your actual annual cost base.
Use this formula: `(target income + overhead + benefits substitute + tax reserve) / billable hours`. Target income is the personal income you want before business taxes. Overhead includes software, equipment, professional services, insurance, payment fees, and other ordinary and necessary business expenses. Benefits substitute covers costs a traditional employer would often subsidize, such as health insurance, retirement contributions, and paid time not worked.
For U.S. self-employed pricing, tax reserve belongs in the numerator because no employer withholds income tax, Social Security, or Medicare tax from contractor pay. A sole proprietor or independent contractor generally reports profit or loss on Schedule C, uses Schedule SE for Social Security and Medicare taxes on self-employment income, and pays estimated taxes quarterly.
Billable hours are the realistic annual hours you expect to charge clients, not total working hours. Remove admin, sales calls, proposals, internal planning, training, sick time, unpaid rework, and gaps between projects. A high billable-hour estimate lowers the rate on paper and leaves the shortfall in your bank account when the year runs below plan.
For example, set target income at $90,000, overhead at $16,800, benefits substitute at $12,600, and tax reserve at $27,600. The annual cost base is $129,000. If 1,290 hours are realistically billable during the year, the hourly rate is $100.00. At 1,100 billable hours, the same annual cost base requires $117.27 per hour.
For 2026 estimated tax planning, net self-employment profit is multiplied by 92.35%; that amount is subject to 12.4% Social Security up to the $184,500 wage base plus 2.9% Medicare. Additional Medicare Tax applies at 0.9% above $200,000 for single, head of household, and qualifying surviving spouse filers, $250,000 for married filing jointly, and $125,000 for married filing separately.
This reserve does not replace a tax return calculation. It gives your rate a defensible input before quarterly estimates, deductions, filing status, other income, and state taxes refine the final payment. The common mistake is pricing from desired take-home income alone, then treating tax and benefits as money left over after clients pay.
A one-off calculator is enough when you need a quick floor for a quote, a sanity check on a public profile rate, or a comparison between hourly and fixed-fee pricing. Save the page as a Windows browser shortcut if you revisit the same inputs during proposal work. Update the denominator any time your expected billable hours change.
A managed workflow becomes necessary when approved time needs to flow into client billing, invoices, and accounting handoff. Everhour Billing & Invoicing converts tracked billable time and expenses into invoices, calculates invoice amounts from rates while excluding non-billable tasks, and exports invoices to QuickBooks Online, Xero, or FreshBooks with status sync back to Everhour.
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.
Windows does not change the formula, currency, tax inputs, or billable-hour denominator. The same U.S. cost-plus calculation applies in any modern browser: add target income, overhead, benefits substitute, and tax reserve, then divide by realistic billable hours. Windows affects workflow only, such as keeping spreadsheets, contracts, and tax references visible while you enter figures.
Use separate windows for source data and the calculator instead of switching between hidden tabs. Keep your annual expense list, expected billable-hour schedule, and tax reserve notes visible at the same time. This reduces transposed numbers, stale billable-hour assumptions, and missed overhead items when you prepare a quote under time pressure.
Marketplace rates should not override the calculated floor. Fiverr's March 2023 U.S. freelancer survey reported a $93 average hourly rate among independent professionals who charged by the hour, and Upwork's 2026 guide lists broad public profile-rate bands. Those figures describe market context. Your minimum rate still comes from your own cost base and billable hours.
The denominator controls how many paid hours carry the whole annual cost base. A freelancer can work 2,000 hours in a year and bill far fewer after proposals, admin, revisions, training, sick time, and unpaid gaps. Use billable hours only. Total work time makes the rate look lower than the amount required to cover the year.
Include federal income-tax reserve and self-employment tax reserve. For 2026, self-employment tax applies to 92.35% of net self-employment profit, with 12.4% Social Security up to the $184,500 wage base and 2.9% Medicare. Additional Medicare Tax applies above the filing-status thresholds. State and local tax reserves need separate jurisdiction-specific inputs.
Everhour Billing & Invoicing converts tracked billable time and expenses into invoices. It calculates invoice amounts from rates, time, and billable expenses while excluding non-billable tasks, then exports invoices to QuickBooks Online, Xero, or FreshBooks with status details synced back to Everhour.
Track billable time against the rate you set, exclude non-billable work, and send approved invoice data into Everhour Billing & Invoicing for cleaner client billing.
14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime
