Pricing · 2026
Client Profitability Calculator
Your worst client is rarely your smallest. Enter the real hours, including the ones you never invoiced.
Meetings, scope creep, revisions, chasing payment, email.
- Gross profit
- $18,000
- Profit margin
- 90.0%
- Total hours invested
- 135
- Share of hours unbilled
- 25.9%
- Gap to your target rate
- -$16.67
- Verdict
- Below target — tighten scope
Transparent method
How this calculator works
- Subtract direct client costs from invoiced revenue to get gross profit.
- Divide gross profit by billed plus unbilled hours to get the effective hourly rate.
- Compare that rate with the target rate and quantify the gap.
What the result does not include
- General business overhead is not allocated unless entered as a direct cost.
- The verdict is a screening signal, not a recommendation to terminate a contract.
Common questions
What counts as an unbilled hour?
Anything you would not have done for any other client: status calls, revision rounds beyond scope, rewriting a brief they changed, following up on a late invoice. Track it for one month before running this and the number will surprise you.
When should I actually drop a client?
When the effective rate is far below target and the gap comes from behavior rather than pricing — because a rate increase will not fix a client who generates unbillable hours. Raise the price first; treat resignation as what happens when they accept the raise and the behavior continues.