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Time Tracking
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Free Hourly Rate Calculator

Freelancers often struggle with setting a profitable hourly rate. Harvest offers a free hourly rate calculator to help determine the right rate based on income and expenses.

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What should you charge per hour?

Most freelancers and consultants dramatically undercharge. This calculator accounts for what most people miss: non-billable time, taxes, and overhead.

$
Accounting for vacation, holidays, sick days
60%
Most freelancers can bill 50-70% of their time. The rest goes to admin, marketing, proposals, and learning.
$
Software, insurance, equipment, accounting, taxes beyond income tax, etc.
Your break-even rate $0
Recommended rate (+20% buffer) $0
Billable hours per week 0h
Equivalent daily rate $0

Start tracking your billable hours

Walk through the entire flow below. Start a timer, check your reports, and create a real invoice — all in three clicks.

Go ahead — start tracking!

One click and you're timing. Try it right here: start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Harvest.

  • One-click timer from browser, desktop & mobile
  • Works inside Jira, Asana, Trello, GitHub & 50+ tools
  • Duration or start/end — your call
  • Day, week & calendar views to stay on top of it all
  • Friendly reminders so no hour gets left behind
Acme Corp
Website Redesign
Homepage layout revisions
1:24:09
Content Strategy
Blog calendar planning
1:30:00
SEO Audit
Technical audit report
0:45:00
Brand Guidelines
Color system documentation
2:15:00
Logo Concepts
Initial sketches round 1
1:00:00
Today's total 6:54:09

Understanding Your Hourly Rate

To determine the right hourly rate, you must account for several factors beyond just your desired income. These include business expenses, taxes, and the number of billable hours you can work. According to industry data, freelancers often bill only 50-70% of their working hours, with the rest spent on administrative tasks. This means setting an accurate rate is crucial to ensure profitability.

The free hourly rate calculator is an invaluable tool for freelancers and business owners. By inputting your desired annual income and expenses, you can determine an hourly rate that covers all costs and leaves room for profit. For example, in the United States, the average hourly wage for professional services is around $44.02, illustrating the importance of aligning your rate with industry standards.

Accurate Invoicing for Hourly Work

Invoicing for hourly work requires a detailed approach to ensure clarity and compliance. Essential invoice fields include a unique invoice number, the issue and due dates, and a breakdown of tasks performed alongside the hours worked. It's also crucial to include tax information, such as the 10% GST in Australia or applicable sales tax in the US.

Harvest simplifies this process by allowing you to track billable hours and expenses accurately. This ensures that every invoice reflects the actual work performed, minimizing disputes. With its detailed reporting capabilities, Harvest helps freelancers and teams maintain transparency and build trust with clients.

Managing Billable and Non-Billable Hours

Effectively managing both billable and non-billable hours is essential for maximizing income. While billable hours directly contribute to revenue, non-billable hours are necessary for tasks like client communication and marketing. On average, freelancers in professional services bill 50-70% of their total hours, making time management crucial.

Harvest offers tools to track both billable and non-billable time efficiently. By setting flexible rates per project or person, you can ensure that non-billable hours are minimized, and billable hours are maximized. This balance helps you maintain a healthy income stream while fulfilling necessary business obligations.

Integrating Time Tracking with Invoicing

Efficient time tracking is key to generating precise invoices. Manual time entry often leads to errors, with studies showing that 80% of timesheets contain inaccuracies. This can result in significant revenue loss, estimated at 15-20% of billable income.

Harvest provides a seamless integration between time tracking and invoicing, ensuring that every minute worked is accounted for. The one-click start/stop timers and manual entry options allow you to log time accurately. This integration eliminates the risk of errors and ensures that clients are billed correctly, enhancing your professional reputation.

Free Hourly Rate Calculator with Harvest

See how Harvest's free hourly rate calculator helps you set profitable rates by factoring in income and expenses.

Harvest's free hourly rate calculator interface

Free Hourly Rate Calculator FAQs

  • To calculate your hourly rate from your salary, divide your annual salary by the number of work hours in a year. Typically, this is 2,080 hours for a full-time employee. A free hourly rate calculator can simplify this process by including expenses and desired income to provide an accurate rate.

  • When calculating your hourly rate, consider expenses such as office supplies, software subscriptions, travel costs, and any taxes owed. Including these ensures your rate covers all business expenses, leaving room for profit.

  • Tracking billable hours can be efficiently managed with tools like Harvest, which offers one-click timers and detailed reporting. This ensures accurate invoicing and maximizes revenue.

  • Tax implications vary by country and region. For example, in Australia, a 10% GST is applied to most goods and services. It's important to consult with a tax professional to ensure compliance and accurate tax calculations.

  • Yes, a free hourly rate calculator can often be adjusted for different pay frequencies, such as weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. This flexibility helps align your calculations with your billing cycle.

  • Accurate invoicing is achieved by using detailed templates and integrating time tracking with invoice generation. Harvest offers customizable invoices that reflect the time tracked, ensuring accuracy and transparency.

  • Harvest integrates seamlessly with popular tools like Asana, Trello, Slack, and QuickBooks, allowing you to streamline workflows and maintain accurate time and expense tracking across platforms.