Everhour keeps cost and billable rates organized after you compare hourly options on paper or in a spreadsheet.
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A rate comparison sheet helps you compare hourly rates before you quote a client, update a rate card, or choose between hourly, project-based, and value-based pricing. The useful question is not only the posted rate. You need to see which rate covers target income, ordinary and necessary business expenses, self-funded benefits, and tax reserves after dividing by realistic billable hours.
For U.S. self-employed pricing, the result is a USD bill rate, not net take-home. A sole proprietor or independent contractor generally reports business profit or loss on Schedule C and uses Schedule SE to calculate Social Security and Medicare taxes on self-employment income. That tax wrapper matters because contractor pay has no employer withholding for income tax, Social Security, or Medicare.
Use this formula for each option on the sheet: target income plus overhead plus benefits substitute plus tax reserve, divided by billable hours. For example, set target income at $92,000, overhead at $20,000, self-funded benefits at $15,000, and tax reserve at $15,350. The total amount to recover is $142,350.
If 1,460 hours are realistically billable during the year, the required rate is $97.50 per billable hour. Keep billable hours separate from paid hours. A 2,080-hour employee calendar includes every paid work hour, while a solo freelancer loses time to admin, sales, proposals, training, and unpaid bench time. A printable sheet should show the billable-hour assumption beside every rate.
A printable comparison sheet fails when one row shows a bill rate, another shows effective rate, and another shows take-home. Label each column clearly. Bill rate is the client-facing hourly price. Effective rate divides actual take-home by all hours worked, including non-billable time. Net take-home is the amount left after taxes and business expenses.
Add columns for pricing context, not just math. A 2023 Fiverr survey of 738 U.S. freelancers found project-based pricing was more common than hourly pricing, while hourly pricing still remained widely used. Public marketplace profile-rate bands can also act as a directional sanity check, but they do not replace the cost-plus floor that keeps your rate financially workable.
A printable sheet is enough for a one-time quote, a rate-card review, or a quick client comparison before a proposal. It works best when the decision lives in one document and the assumptions do not change often. Keep the printed version dated so old rates do not get reused after taxes, benefits, or billable capacity changes.
A managed workflow becomes necessary when multiple people, projects, or client rates share the same rate card. Everhour separates cost and billable rates, supports per-person defaults and per-project overrides, preserves dated rate history, and can price billable work by project, member, or task. That structure keeps approved rates tied to actual time and billing reports.
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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A practical sheet includes rate name, target income, overhead, benefits substitute, tax reserve, billable hours, calculated hourly rate, market check, effective rate note, and quote type. Add a date column so you know which assumptions applied when the rate was approved. Separate billable rate from net take-home because they answer different questions.
Billable hours drive the denominator in the rate formula. The same income target produces a higher hourly rate when fewer hours can be billed. A solo freelancer using 1,400 to 1,500 billable hours is measuring a different business reality than an employee-style 2,080-hour calendar, which includes paid time that is not client-billable.
Yes, if the sheet supports U.S. self-employed pricing. For 2026 estimated tax, net self-employment profit is multiplied by 92.35%, then Social Security and Medicare rules apply. The 12.4% Social Security portion applies up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500, and Medicare has separate rules, including Additional Medicare Tax above filing-status thresholds.
Yes. Use the hourly rate as the cost-plus floor, then translate the project scope into estimated billable hours. A $4,875 project equals 50 hours at a $97.50 floor. The project quote can still reflect value, risk, or urgency, but the sheet shows whether the quote covers the time and cost base.
The common mistake is comparing rows built from different assumptions. One row uses 2,080 paid hours, another uses 1,460 billable hours, and a third omits tax reserve. The rates look comparable on paper, but each row answers a different question. Standardize inputs before choosing the rate.
Everhour separates internal cost rates from client-facing billable rates, with per-person defaults and per-project overrides. Rate changes can be dated, so older reports keep their original calculations while new work uses the approved updated rate.
Everhour can price billable projects by project rate, member rate, or custom task rate. That supports simple hourly projects, role-based client billing, and time-and-materials work where specific tasks need their own approved rate.
Turn the approved sheet into live billing rules. Everhour applies dated cost and billable rates to tracked work, helping teams preserve rate history and invoice from accurate billable amounts.
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