Free Time Tracker
Log billable hours across projects and clients. Add entries below and see your total earnings update instantly.
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| Project | Task | Duration | Rate | Earnings | |
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How to Track Billable Hours as a Freelancer
Accurate time tracking is one of the most underrated habits for freelancers. Without it, you can't know whether a project was profitable, you risk under-billing clients, and you lose leverage when negotiating future rates.
The simplest system is to log time immediately after completing a task — not at the end of the day when memory is fuzzy. Break your work into task-level entries rather than logging a single block of hours for a project. This level of detail makes invoices more credible to clients and reveals which tasks actually consume your time.
Over time, your time logs become historical data. You'll know how long a homepage redesign takes, how long discovery calls run, and which client types require the most revision cycles. That data lets you quote future projects with much higher accuracy.
Setting Your Freelance Hourly Rate
Most freelancers undercharge early in their career. A common framework: figure out your desired annual take-home income, add taxes (typically 25–30% for self-employed), add business expenses, then divide by your actual billable hours per year.
Billable hours per year is not 2,080 (40 hours × 52 weeks). After accounting for admin time, business development, sick days, and vacation, most freelancers log 1,000–1,300 truly billable hours per year. Divide your total target income by that number to get your floor rate.
Your floor rate is the minimum — not the target. Specialized skills, faster delivery, and strong portfolios all justify charging above your floor. If you're booked out months in advance, your rate is too low.