Billable Hours Calculator
Plug in your hours and hourly rate. The calculator shows your billable total, utilization rate, and projected revenue.
Hourly Rate
Total Hours Worked
Billable Hours
Time Period
Revenue Projections
Projections assume consistent utilization. Before taxes.
Stop losing billable time
Hours44 logs your shifts as you work and shows your real earnings, not just the number on your invoice.
How to Calculate Billable Hours
Billable hours are time spent on work you can charge a client for. Everything else (admin, marketing, invoicing, professional development) is non-billable. The math is simple: multiply your billable hours by your hourly rate.
Total Billable Amount = Billable Hours x Hourly Rate
For example, if you worked 45 hours this week, billed 32 of them at $100/hr, and had $200 in expenses:
- Total Billable Amount: 32 x $100 = $3,200
- Utilization Rate: (32 / 45) x 100 = 71.1%
- Effective Hourly Rate: ($3,200 - $200) / 45 = $66.67/hr
- Non-Billable Hours: 45 - 32 = 13 hours
- Non-Billable Cost: 13 x $100 = $1,300
- Monthly Revenue: $3,200 x 4.33 = $13,856
- Annual Revenue: $13,856 x 12 = $166,272
Most firms bill in 6-minute intervals (legal and accounting) or 15-minute blocks (consulting). Some stick to full hours. If you wait until the end of the day to log time instead of tracking as you go, you'll likely miss 10-20% of billable work.
What your utilization rate actually tells you
Your utilization rate is the percentage of working hours that are actually billable. It matters more than most people realize: Scoro research found that a 10% bump in utilization can increase gross profit by up to 50%.
Targets vary a lot by role. Freelancers, developers, and consultants usually aim for 70-80%. Managers land closer to 35-50% because meetings and admin eat into their time. Law firm associates often top 85%, while senior partners sit around 60%. Staying above 85% week after week, though, is a fast track to burnout.
Utilization rate benchmarks by industry
| Industry / Role | Target | Typical Range |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer / Solo Consultant | 75% | 65-85% |
| Law Firm (Associate) | 85% | 80-95% |
| Law Firm (Partner) | 60% | 40-70% |
| Accounting Firm | 75% | 65-85% |
| Management Consulting | 75% | 70-80% |
| Marketing / Creative Agency | 75% | 70-80% |
| Architecture / Engineering | 80% | 75-85% |
| IT / Software Consulting | 75% | 70-85% |
| Executive / Manager | 40% | 20-50% |
How utilization affects your revenue
Here's what different utilization rates look like at $100/hr with a 40-hour week:
| Utilization | Billable Hrs/Wk | Weekly | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50% | 20 | $2,000 | $8,660 | $103,920 |
| 60% | 24 | $2,400 | $10,392 | $124,704 |
| 70% | 28 | $2,800 | $12,124 | $145,488 |
| 75% | 30 | $3,000 | $12,990 | $155,880 |
| 80% | 32 | $3,200 | $13,856 | $166,272 |
| 85% | 34 | $3,400 | $14,722 | $176,664 |
| 90% | 36 | $3,600 | $15,588 | $187,056 |
| 100% | 40 | $4,000 | $17,320 | $207,840 |
What counts as billable vs. non-billable?
Anything you can charge a client for counts as billable: consultations, project work, research, drafting, coding, design. If your service agreement says the task is chargeable, it's billable. The rest (internal meetings, business development, marketing, invoicing, bookkeeping) is not.
Non-billable time has a real cost: Non-Billable Cost = Non-Billable Hours x Hourly Rate. A freelancer at $100/hr who spends 10 hours a week on admin is leaving $1,000 on the table every week. That's $52,000 a year.
Ways to bill more without working more
- Track time as you work. Logging hours after the fact misses 10-20% of billable work, according to multiple time-tracking studies.
- Batch your admin. Block off dedicated client-work hours and push admin, emails, and bookkeeping into a separate window.
- Automate the boring stuff. Invoicing and scheduling tools (like Hours44) cut the admin time that chips away at billable hours.
- Set daily targets. A weekly goal is easier to hit when you break it into daily minimums.
- Check utilization monthly. If the number is trending down, you can adjust workload or pricing before it hurts.
- Raise your rate. Utilization consistently above 80%? You probably have room to charge more.
- Template repeatable work. If you do the same deliverable twice, build a template so the third one takes half the time.
6-minute increment reference chart
Lawyers and accountants bill in 6-minute increments (one-tenth of an hour). Here's what that looks like at common rates:
| Minutes | Decimal | At $100/hr | At $150/hr | At $250/hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 0.1 | $10.00 | $15.00 | $25.00 |
| 12 | 0.2 | $20.00 | $30.00 | $50.00 |
| 18 | 0.3 | $30.00 | $45.00 | $75.00 |
| 24 | 0.4 | $40.00 | $60.00 | $100.00 |
| 30 | 0.5 | $50.00 | $75.00 | $125.00 |
| 36 | 0.6 | $60.00 | $90.00 | $150.00 |
| 42 | 0.7 | $70.00 | $105.00 | $175.00 |
| 48 | 0.8 | $80.00 | $120.00 | $200.00 |
| 54 | 0.9 | $90.00 | $135.00 | $225.00 |
| 60 | 1.0 | $100.00 | $150.00 | $250.00 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about billable hours and utilization
What are billable hours?
Billable hours are time spent on work you can charge a client for: consultations, project work, research, drafting documents, and anything else in your service agreement. Non-billable hours are the rest (admin, marketing, team meetings, professional development).
How do I calculate my billable hours?
Start by tracking all your working hours, then sort them into billable and non-billable. Billable hours = Total Hours Worked minus Non-Billable Hours. Multiply that by your rate for the billable total. So if you worked 40 hours, 30 were billable at $100/hr, that's $3,000.
What is a good utilization rate?
It depends on your role. Freelancers, consultants, and developers usually aim for 70-80%. Managers tend to hit 35-50% because admin and meetings take up more of their day. Law firms expect around 87.5%. Across professional services, the average was 68.9% in 2024. Going above 85% week after week is where burnout starts.
What is the difference between hourly rate and effective hourly rate?
Your hourly rate is the number on your invoice. Your effective hourly rate is what you actually take home per hour once you account for all the hours you worked (billable and non-billable) plus expenses. If you charge $100/hr but only bill 30 out of 40 hours, your effective rate drops to $75/hr. Subtract expenses and it falls further.
How many billable hours should I aim for per week?
For freelancers and consultants, 25-35 billable hours out of a 40-hour week is typical (62-87% utilization). Attorneys at big firms often target 35-45 billable hours per week, with annual goals of 1,800-2,200 hours. A good rule of thumb: plan for 20-30% of your week to go to non-billable work.
Why do some professionals bill in 6-minute increments?
It comes from legal and accounting, where the hour is split into 10 equal units. Six minutes = 0.1 hours, which makes the math clean. Firms that bill this way tend to capture 15-20% more revenue than those using 15-minute or hourly increments, because less time slips through the cracks.
How do I increase my billable hours without working more?
Cut your non-billable time. Batch admin into a single block, automate invoicing, build templates for work you do repeatedly, and delegate what you can. The biggest win is usually the simplest: log time as you work, not at the end of the day. Most people lose 1-2 hours of billable work daily just by forgetting to track it.
What counts as non-billable time?
Anything you can't put on a client's invoice: internal meetings, business development, marketing, invoicing, bookkeeping, professional development, travel (unless the client pays for it), emails, proposals, and general admin. You can't bill for these, but you also can't skip them. They keep the business running.
Need More Than a Quick Calculation?
Hours44 tracks your shifts, calculates overtime automatically, and shows your real take-home pay.