Freelance Rate Sheet
Work backwards from what you need, over the hours you can actually bill.
BFCBrilliance · bfcbrilliance.com/tools/freelance-hourly-rate-calculator
The arithmetic
- RATE
- (take-home ÷ (1 − tax) + costs) ÷ billable hours
- BILLABLE HOURS
- weeks x hours x billable %
- The four multipliers
- weeks off · unbillable time · tax · costs
- Realistic billable share
- 50-70% for most independent work
- Defaults give
- about $83/h against a naive $28.85
- That is
- nearly 3x salary ÷ 2,080
- ⚠ Billable % dominates
- 60%→100% drops the rate from ~$83 to ~$50
- ⚠ A day is not 8 billable hours
- at 60% it is under five
- ⚠ Pension and buffer
- invisible unless you add them to the target
Rate scenarios
| Scenario | Take-home | Weeks | Billable % | Costs | RATE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
My numbers
- Name
- Date
- Take-home needed
- Weeks I will work
- Hours a week
- Billable % (MEASURED)
- Business costs
- Tax set-aside %
- BILLABLE HOURS
- GROSS TO INVOICE
- MY RATE
- Day rate
- Market rate for my field
- Gap
- What I will change
Before setting a rate
- Billable share MEASURED over a fortnight, not estimated
- Weeks off counted honestly — including illness and quiet spells
- Business costs listed rather than remembered
- Tax set-aside confirmed with an accountant, not guessed
- Pension contribution added to the target if you want one
- Buffer for gaps and equipment added to the target
- Result compared against real market rates in your field
- Any gap closed by changing an INPUT, not by hoping
- Day rate checked against how many billable hours a day really holds
Salary ÷ 2,080 is the trap
It assumes every working hour is paid, holiday and sickness are free, an employer is covering half your contributions, and the business costs nothing. All four fail the moment you go freelance, and they compound — on typical assumptions the real rate is nearly three times that figure. Starting from the naive number is how freelancers end up working more for less.
The billable share is the lever
It moves the answer more than anything else: 60% to 100% takes the required rate from about $83 to about $50 on the defaults. It is also the number people guess highest on, because unbillable work does not feel like work until it is counted. Track a fortnight honestly before trusting your own figure.