Agency hourly rate calculator

Add up your yearly costs (salaries, payroll taxes, benefits and overheads). Divide by (1 minus your profit margin) to get the revenue you need. Then divide that by your team's billable hours a year: people × working hours × the share of time you bill.

Many agencies aim for 60 to 75% across the team. Designers and developers usually bill more of their time, while owners and account managers bill less because they spend it on sales, admin and clients.

Many small agencies aim for a 15 to 25% net profit margin. Below 10% leaves little room for a slow month or a client who pays late.

Usually because of unbilled time. If your team bills 60% of its hours, every billed hour also has to pay for the 40% spent on admin, sales and chasing clients. Billing a few more points of your time lowers the rate you need more than cutting most costs.

Multiply the hourly rate by the hours you bill in a day. This calculator uses 8 hours. If your team usually bills 6 or 7 hours on a full day, use that instead.

Either way, you need your hourly rate. It's the floor for every quote: estimate the hours a project or retainer takes, multiply by your rate, and price at or above that.

Mostly to admin, sales, internal meetings and back-and-forth with clients: chasing feedback, files and approvals. Dora takes the client side of that off your team. It briefs every request and gets work signed off inside a client portal.