What Are Billable Hours?
Billable hours are the time spent working on a client project that you charge for. Whether you're an agency, law firm, a consultant,
or a freelancer, calculating billable hours accurately is essential for proper compensation and business profitability.
For example, if you're a web designer working on a client's website,
the time spent designing layouts, coding pages, and implementing features would all count as billable hours. However,
the time you spend on administrative tasks, checking emails, or attending internal meetings would typically be considered non-billable.
Understanding what constitutes billable time is the first step in learning how to calculate billable hours for your business.
Why Calculating Billable Hours Matters
Calculating billable hours accurately is vital for several reasons:
1. Ensures fair compensation
When you calculate billable hours accurately, you ensure you're paid fairly for your work or pay your employees fairly.
2. Improves financial planning
Understanding billable vs. non-billable time ratio helps with forecasting revenue and managing business finances effectively.
3. Enhances client transparency
Detailed time tracking builds trust with clients by showing exactly what they're paying for. Similarly, if you pay your employees by the hour, time tracking ensures they get paid for every minute of their work.
4. Optimizes productivity
By tracking billable and non-billable hours, you can identify inefficiencies and focus more on revenue-generating activities.
5. Facilitates better project estimates
Historical time data that time tracking provides helps you create more accurate estimates for future projects.
Without a reliable system for how to calculate billable hours, businesses risk undercharging clients, misallocating resources, or creating friction in client relationships due to billing disputes.
Billable vs. Non-Billable Hours
Understanding the distinction between billable and non-billable hours is crucial for accurate time tracking and invoicing. Let’s see what type of work can be counted as billable and the opposite.
Billable hours include:
- Direct client work
- Client meetings and calls
- Project planning and research
- Revisions and edits
- Travel time (if agreed with client)
Non-billable hours include:
- Administrative tasks
- Internal meetings
- Professional development
- Marketing and sales activities
- Networking events
To understand with an example, imagine you’re an accountant. It means that the time spent preparing a client's tax return is billable,
while the time spent attending a training session on new tax laws would be non-billable.
Remember that finding the right balance between billable and non-billable hours is essential for business sustainability.
Too much non-billable time can harm profitability, while not enough can limit growth and professional development.
Step-by-Step Guide: How to Calculate Billable Hours
Step 1: Define billable activities and rates
Before you start tracking time, whether it is yours or that of your employees, clearly define what activities are billable for each project. Ideally this should be established in your client agreement or contract to avoid misunderstandings.
Next, determine the billable rates. These could vary based on:
- Type of service provided
- Team member expertise level
- Client type or project complexity
It goes without saying that having clearly defined rates ensures consistency in your billable hours calculation process.
Step 2: Choose your time tracking method
There are two main methods for tracking and calculating billable hours: manual and digital.
Manual methods:
- Paper timesheets
- Spreadsheets
- Basic time logs
Digital solutions:
While manual methods might seem simpler initially, they often introduce errors, are difficult to analyze, and become unwieldy as your business grows.
Digital solutions, on the other hand, provide automation, reporting capabilities,
and integration with other business tools and thus increase accuracy to the maximum.
Step 3: Track your time accurately
Regardless of which method you choose, remember that consistency is key when tracking time for billable hours calculation.
Some best practices for this include:
- Start and stop tracking in real time when possible
- Record detailed descriptions for each time entry
- Categorize time by project, client, and task type
- Separate billable from non-billable hours
- Track time in consistent increments (like 6, 10, or 15-minute blocks)
Step 4: Review and calculate your billable hours
At the end of your billing period, review your time entries to ensure accuracy and completeness.
Then, use this billable hours formula:
- Total Billable Amount = Total Billable Hours × Hourly Rate
For projects with varying rates use the following:
- Total Billable Amount = (Hours at Rate A × Rate A) + (Hours at Rate B × Rate B) + ...
If you're using time increments, convert minutes to the appropriate decimal format. For example, in a 6-minute increment system (tenths of an hour):
- 1-6 minutes = 0.1 hour
- 7-12 minutes = 0.2 hour
Step 5: Create accurate invoices
Using your calculated billable hours, create detailed invoices that include:
- Itemized list of tasks performed
- Hours spent on each task
- Applicable rates
- Total amount due
- Payment terms
Clear, detailed invoices help prevent client questions and disputes, leading to faster payments and better client relationships.
For accurate and effortless invoice generation, use a time tracker that comes with a built-in invoicing system, like WebWork.
It allows you to create two types of invoices, custom and hour-based, depending on which type you need.
How to Calculate Billable Hours with WebWork
WebWork simplifies the process of calculating billable hours with its comprehensive time tracking features.
Here's how to use WebWork to streamline your billable hours process:
1. Set up projects and clients
Start by creating projects for each client engagement:
- Go to the Projects section and click Create project
- Enter project details and assign team members
- Set project hourly rate
WebWork offers flexible rate settings at multiple levels:
- Project rates: Specific rates for particular projects
- Individual rates: Custom rates for specific team members
This flexibility ensures your billable hours calculation reflects the true value of work performed across different projects and team members.
3. Track time with precision
WebWork offers multiple time tracking options to suit different work styles:
- Desktop Time Tracker: Automatic tracking with screenshots for desktop work
- Mobile App: On-the-go time tracking for field work
- Browser Extension and Web Time Tracking: Track time directly from your browser
- Manual Entries: Add time entries for work performed offline
Simply select your project and task, click start, and WebWork will accurately track your billable time.
4. Generate comprehensive reports
WebWork's reporting features provide deep insights into your billable hours:
- Timesheet Reports: Detailed view of all time entries
- Billable Hours Reports: Focus on billable time only
- Project Profitability Reports: Compare billable hours to project budgets
- Team Productivity Reports: Analyze billable hours by team member
These reports make it easy to calculate billable hours accurately and identify opportunities to increase billable time.
5. Create professional invoices
Turn your tracked billable hours into professional invoices directly within WebWork:
- Go to Finances>Invoices>Create invoice
- Select the date range for billing
- Enter the client details
- Select whether you want project, member, task, and description to be included
- Click Generate and review the automatically calculated billable hours and amounts
- Click Save & share and select the method that works for you
This seamless process eliminates the risk of manual calculation errors and ensures you bill for all your valuable work.
Alternative Methods for Calculating Billable Hours
While specialized software like WebWork provides the most comprehensive solution for calculating billable hours, alternative methods exist for businesses with different needs or constraints.
The fundamental billable hours formula is:
Revenue = Billable Hours × Hourly Rate
For more complex scenarios involving different rates, the formula expands to:
Total Revenue = Σ (Hours × Rate) for each rate category
Using Excel for billable hours calculation
Microsoft Excel can serve as a basic billable hours calculator with a few simple formulas:
- Create columns for Date, Client, Project, Description, Start Time, End Time, Hours, Rate, and Amount
- Calculate hours using: =IF(F2-E2<0,F2-E2+1,F2-E2)*24 (handles time spanning across midnight)
- Calculate amount using: =G2*H2
- Sum the Amount column for total billable revenue
While Excel offers flexibility, it lacks the automation, tracking capabilities, and error prevention of dedicated time tracking software.
Industry-Specific Approaches to Billable Hours
Different industries have developed unique approaches to tracking billable hours based on their specific needs:
Legal services
Law firms typically:
- Track time in 6-minute increments (0.1 hour)
- Establish different rates for different activities (research, court appearances, etc.)
- Set billable hour targets for attorneys (often 1,800-2,200 hours annually)
Creative agencies
Design and marketing agencies often:
- Use blended rates for different team members
- Establish retainer agreements with set billable hours
- Track time against project budgets rather than by the hour
IT and development
Software development teams frequently:
- Track time against sprint cycles
- Use story points alongside billable hours
- Implement value-based billing for certain project components
Consulting services
Consultants typically:
- Track billable hours by deliverable or milestone
- Apply premium rates for specialized expertise
- Offer packaged services with predetermined billable hours
Understanding industry norms helps establish appropriate processes and selecting the right method for calculating billable hours in your specific field.
To make the matters easier for you, WebWork Time Tracker offers time tracking and billable hour calculation for any industry,
from marketing and IT to construction and transportation.
Best Practices for Tracking Billable Hours
To calculate billable hours accurately and maximize efficiency, follow these proven best practices:
1. Track in real time
Record time as work happens rather than reconstructing it later from memory. This ensures accuracy and prevents revenue leakage from forgotten tasks.
Using a time tracker is the best way to ensure that every minute of work is recorded automatically.
2. Be specific with descriptions
When tracking time on tasks, make sure you write detailed descriptions for each. Such time entry descriptions
help with justifying billed time to clients, analyzing where time is spent, and improving future project estimates.
3. Establish clear billing increments
Decide whether you'll bill in 6, 15, or 30-minute increments or actual time (to the minute).
To avoid disputes in the future, communicate this clearly to clients.
4. Regularly review billable vs. non-billable ratio
Aim for a healthy ratio of billable to non-billable hours:
- 70-80% billable time is often considered ideal for service businesses
- Below 60% may indicate inefficiency or excessive administrative burden
- Above 85% might suggest underinvestment in business development
5. Use automation where possible
Automate repetitive tracking tasks
with software like WebWork to reduce manual entry errors, capture all billable time automatically, and generate reports without additional effort.
6. Train your team
For efficient time tracking and billable hours calculation, ensure everyone in your team understands the following:
- What constitutes billable vs. non-billable work
- How to properly track and categorize time
- The importance of timely and accurate time entries
