Pricing a week of project work is harder than it looks, because a weekly rate has to cover far more than the hours you spend on that one project. It has to cover your whole year: the weeks you take off, the hours you spend on admin, and the gaps between clients. This builder turns a simple monthly income target into a weekly rate you can actually quote with confidence.
You only need three numbers to start. Your monthly income target is the amount you want to take home from your work each month. Your working weeks are the weeks in a year when you are actually available. And your billable share is the percentage of your working time that clients truly pay for. Change any number and the result updates at once, so you can test what happens if you take more holiday or win more billable work.
To use the tool, type each number into its box and press Calculate. The result appears below the button at once, and you can change any number and press Calculate again to test a new scenario. There is no account, no download and no payment, so you can try as many versions as you like before you quote a client. Start with your real numbers, not with round guesses, because the tool is only as honest as the inputs you give it.
How the maths works. It multiplies your monthly target by twelve to get an annual target, then divides that annual target by your billable weeks, which are your working weeks reduced by the share of time you cannot bill.
A worked example makes it concrete. With the starting numbers of monthly income target ($) 4000, working weeks per year 46, billable share (%) 70, the tool returns these results: Annual income target $48000.00; Billable weeks per year 32.20; Weekly project rate $1490.68; Daily rate (5-day week) $298.14. Try changing one input at a time from there, and watch which result moves the most, because that input is the one worth getting right in your real quotes.
Who this helps. This calculator is built for freelancers and consultants who price projects by the week. If you price work by feel or by copying what others charge, this tool gives you a number grounded in your own costs and time, which is a much stronger place to negotiate from.
Setting your numbers well matters more than the tool itself. Use last month of real records where you can: actual hours, actual travel, actual parts costs. Round numbers feel tidy but hide the truth, so prefer the slightly messy real figure. When a number is uncertain, run the tool twice, once with the low guess and once with the high guess, and quote from the middle of that range.
Practical tips. Set your monthly target from real costs, not from a wish, and include tax, holidays and quiet months in the number. Count only weeks you truly work, because holidays and admin weeks shrink the time you can actually bill. Be honest about your billable share, since most freelancers bill far less than one hundred percent of their time. Review the rate every quarter, because costs rise and a rate fixed last year quietly stops paying you enough. Use the daily rate as a sanity check when a client asks for day-rate work instead of a weekly price.
Common mistakes to avoid. Using a gross salary figure as the target while forgetting tax, software and insurance costs that come out of it. Counting fifty-two working weeks and ignoring holidays, sick days and weeks spent finding new clients. Assuming every working hour is billable, which makes the weekly rate look lower than it needs to be.
What this tool does not do. It gives an estimate from the numbers you enter, and it cannot know your local market, your skill level, or the exact scope of a job you have not described. Treat the result as a starting point for a quote, not as a promise of what a client will pay. This is general pricing help only, not professional financial advice, and for tax or legal questions you should speak to a qualified adviser.
Versión en español: Constructor de Tarifa Semanal para Proyectos
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