Was that project actually profitable?
Freelancers routinely finish projects £500-£2,000 below where they thought they were. The fee looked fine, but the hours overran, there were expenses nobody tracked, and the "quick fix" at the end absorbed another day. This calculator takes your fee, your actual hours, your expenses and any subcontractor cost, and tells you the real hourly rate you earned — against your target.
Project profitability
Run it after every project
Three uses:
- Price the next version properly. If the effective rate came in below target, the fee was too low — not the client's fault.
- Spot the scope-overrun pattern. If you consistently overrun by 20-30%, your estimates are systematically optimistic. Add that buffer at quoting time.
- Decide whether to continue. A client that produces thin-margin projects repeatedly is a candidate for a rate increase, a scope-cap, or a graceful offboard.
What this calculator assumes
- Fee is ex-VAT. VAT isn't profit — it belongs to HMRC. See the Invoice Tax Reserve Splitter to break an invoice into VAT + tax + pension + take-home.
- Hours worked includes all project activity — delivery, client calls, revisions, admin tied to this specific project. Not generic business admin.
- Target rate is your minimum sustainable hourly rate from the hourly rate calculator or business planner. If you don't have one yet, use those first.
- Subcontractor cost is treated as a direct project expense — i.e. gross profit = fee − expenses − subcontractor. If you need to model the uplift margin from marking up a subcontractor's rate, use the business planner too.