Freelance HourlyFloor Calculator
Use your own numbers to work out what's your floor (lowest you can go) to be able to cover your expenses. You can always go higher! Add your income target, a rough tax allowance, regular business costs, expected Billable Hours, and holiday days. The calculator turns those figures into a simple hourly floor you can use as a starting point when checking your rates and quotes.
Work out your hourly floor
Based on your numbers
Your hourly floor
Add your income target and Billable Hours to see the result.
Calculator unavailable. The assumptions and method are still shown below.
If you're not too sure about something, leave it blank. Blank inputs are not taken into account.
How the calculation works
The calculator turns each amount into a yearly figure, adds your income tax allowance and subtracts 8 hours for each holiday day from your Billable Hours.
Hourly floor = annual money to cover / adjusted annual Billable Hours
The result is rounded up to the nearest cent, so it gives you a practical floor to compare with a quote or rate card.
Assumptions and limits
What this includes: Your income target, income tax allowance, five business cost categories, Billable Hours, and holiday days.
What this leaves out: Local tax rules, market comparisons, project rates, project duration, briefs, phases, tasks, roles, timelines, quotes, proposals, saved values, history, accounts, and recommendations. If your Billable Hours already exclude holidays, leave Holiday days blank so they are not counted twice.
Worked examples
Here is the calculation with two simple examples. The numbers are there to show how the pieces fit together.
Brand designer
- Income target
- $4,000 / month
- Income tax
- 20%
- Business costs
- $1,000 / month
- Billable Hours
- 100 / month
- Holiday days
- 20
- Annual money to cover
- $69,600
- Adjusted annual Billable Hours
- 1,040
- Hourly floor
- $66.93 / billable hour
Illustrator
- Income target
- $3,000 / month
- Income tax
- 20%
- Business costs
- $80 / month
- Billable Hours
- 24 / week
- Holiday days
- 20
- Annual money to cover
- $44,160
- Adjusted annual Billable Hours
- 1,088
- Hourly floor
- $40.59 / billable hour
Sources
These references are useful background when you gather the income and cost numbers for your own calculation.
- Internal Revenue Service: What kind of records should I keep? - US self-employed recordkeeping context.
- HM Revenue & Customs: What records to keep - UK self-employed recordkeeping context.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Monthly budget worksheet - planning context for comparing income and expenses.
When a real brief arrives
Build the project plan behind the quote
This calculator gives you a personal hourly floor from your own assumptions. Roadbase takes the next step: paste a real brief or attach a PDF, then review and adjust an editable first draft of the phases, roles, hours, timing, expenses, assumptions, and quote.