About BillMyRate
By Andrew James Flores, Nathan Management · Updated September 23, 2026 · Editorial Standards
BillMyRate is a free calculator and set of guides for freelancers and independent service businesses who need to know the lowest hourly rate, or the lowest project price, that still pays for their year. There is no account or sign-up, and the arithmetic runs in your browser.
Who runs BillMyRate
Andrew James Flores owns and operates Nathan Management, a California-based business that builds and runs calculators and reference guides for independent professionals. BillMyRate is a Nathan Management property, and Andrew is responsible for everything published on it: the calculator, the guides and any corrections. Andrew prices and invoices his own service work and built this calculator to replace guesswork with a formula.
Why start from your own budget
Asking what everyone else charges gives you a number without the costs, hours and payment terms behind it. Two freelancers who both quote $75 an hour can end the year in very different places if one invoices 1,400 hours with every invoice paid in full, and the other invoices 900 hours and loses part of each payment to processing fees.
BillMyRate works from the other end. You enter the income you want before personal taxes, what the business costs to run, your benefits budget, the hours you can actually invoice, the weeks you will not bill, and how much of each invoice you expect to keep after write-offs and fees. From those, the calculator works out your hourly floor: the lowest rate at which that year's plan is funded.
What the calculator works out
- Hourly floor. The lowest hourly rate that covers your pre-tax income goal, operating costs and benefits budget after expected write-offs and payment fees. It is rounded up to the cent, because rounding down would leave the budget short.
- A rate you are testing. Enter a current or proposed rate to see the pre-tax income it produces over the same hours, and how far above or below your goal that lands.
- A quieter or busier calendar. The same plan at fewer and at more billable hours per week, so you can see how much a slow season moves the floor.
- Side-by-side plans. Keep up to three versions of your plan in view while you change assumptions.
- Project check. Turns estimated hours, an extra-time allowance and project-only direct costs into the minimum fixed price for one job.
- Your own copy. Print the plan, or download it as a plain-text file created on your device.
For self-employment tax and quarterly payments, see the self-employment tax and estimated tax guides.
A worked example
The calculator opens with the example inputs below, shown in the "Default plan" column. The "Second illustration" column keeps the same budget and hours but assumes 95% of invoices are eventually collected and payment fees take 3% of what arrives. Replace these with your own numbers in the calculator.
| Step and how it is calculated | Default plan | Second illustration: 95% collected, 3% fees |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Money the year must fundAssumed pre-tax income goal $75,000 + operating costs $5,000 + benefits $0 | $80,000.00 | $80,000.00 |
| 2. Share of each invoiced dollar you keepCollected share × (1 − fee share) | 100% | 92.15% |
| 3. Amount to invoiceStep 1 ÷ step 2 | $80,000.00 | $86,814.98 |
| 4. Billable hours25 hours a week × (52 − 4 weeks with no billing) | 1,200 | 1,200 |
| 5. Hourly floorStep 3 ÷ step 4, rounded up to the cent | $66.67 | $72.35 |
| 6. Pre-tax income at $80 an hour$80 × 1,200 hours × step 2 − $5,000 costs | $91,000.00 | $83,464.00 |
| 7. Compared with the $75,000 goalStep 6 − $75,000 | +$16,000.00 | +$8,464.00 |
| 8. Project check10 estimated hours + 20% extra time = 12 planned hours × the unrounded floor, plus $100 direct costs ÷ step 2, rounded up to the cent | $900.0012 × $66.6667… + $100 = $900.00 | $976.6712 × $72.3458… + $100 ÷ 0.9215 = $868.15 + $108.52, rounded up = $976.67 |
Nothing in the budget changed between the default plan and the second illustration, yet the floor rose by $5.68 an hour and the project minimum by $76.67. In the second illustration, $4,340.75 of invoices are never collected and $2,474.23 goes to payment fees, so invoicing $86,814.98 is what leaves $80,000.00 to fund the plan. That is why the calculator asks about collection and fees instead of leaving them out. Every step of the formula is published in the method section of the calculator page, so you can check any result by hand.
How to use the number
A common starting point for putting the floor to work:
- Count only hours you will invoice. Sales calls, admin and gaps between projects come out of billable hours, because the floor spreads the whole year's budget across the hours clients actually pay for.
- Enter each cost once. A software subscription belongs in operating costs; a cost that exists only for one job belongs in that project's direct costs. Percentage payment fees go in the fee field, and time off goes in the weeks with no billing rather than also being subtracted from weekly hours.
- Use the collection percentage for write-offs. Lower it for invoices you expect never to be paid, and leave it at 100 for invoices that are merely paid late.
- Check each quote against the floor before you send it. Divide any direct costs by the share you keep (step 2 in the worked table), subtract that from the price, then divide what is left by the hours including your extra-time allowance; if the result is below your unrounded floor (step 3 ÷ step 4, before rounding up to the cent), change the scope, the timeline or the price. The calculator's project check gives the lowest price, to the cent, that passes this test.
- Re-run the plan when something changes. A new insurance premium, a payment platform with different fees or a season with fewer available hours all move the floor. Keep the old version as a side-by-side plan so the difference is visible.
Where to go next
| If you want to know | Start here |
|---|---|
| Which costs belong in the budget, and how to find each one | Calculating your true business costs |
| How much the floor moves with hours, time off and benefits | Rate floor tables |
| What the floor looks like for different kinds of work | Rates by skill and rates in service trades |
| Whether a job should be hourly, a fixed project fee or a retainer | Hourly vs. project vs. retainer pricing |
| How to compare your floor with what others charge | Building a rate benchmark |
| How to raise rates with a client you already have | Raising rates with existing clients |
| How to invoice and set payment terms so you get paid | Invoicing and net terms |
| How self-employment tax and 2026 estimated payments work | Self-employment tax explained and 2026 estimated taxes |
The full list is on the guides page.
Privacy and advertising
The calculator's arithmetic runs in your browser, and its code does not send the numbers you enter to our servers or put them in the page address. Plans you keep side by side last only until you close or refresh the tab, and a download is a plain-text file created on your device. The site uses Vercel Web Analytics to measure page views. Google may display advertisements on this site; see the privacy policy for details.
Report a problem
If a result looks wrong, send the page address, the numbers you entered, the result you expected and the steps that produce it through the contact page. Example numbers work as well as real ones, so there is no need to share client records or personal financial details. Messages are read by Nathan Management, and replies usually arrive within three business days.