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Freelance day rate calculator in Excel

A day rate is not “hourly × 8 and hope.” It should start from your personal hourly floor (after taxes and unpaid admin), then multiply by the billable hours you actually deliver in a workshop, shoot, or on-site day — with a half-day line that matches the same math.

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Start with the hourly floor

Before you invent a day rate, lock an hourly floor:

• Target annual take-home (what you want after business costs)
• Tax / self-employment cushion % (rough buffer — confirm with a preparer; not tax advice)
• Billable weeks per year and billable hours per week (admin and sales do not count)

Gray cells: required revenue ÷ billable hours = hourly floor. Everything else on the sheet should hang off that number so day and project quotes stay consistent.

Day rate from the same sheet

Input (yellow)	Typical use
Billable hours in a full day	6 for intensive client days; 8 only if you truly bill eight
Half-day length	Often 3–4 hours — not always “half of full”
Travel / setup buffer (optional)	Add hours or a flat premium for on-site days

Full day rate = hourly floor × billable hours in a day.
Half-day rate = hourly floor × half-day hours (or a fixed fraction you choose — document it in a note cell).

Keep the formulas visible. If a client asks “why $X for the day?”, you can show the same sheet you used to protect your take-home.

When a day rate beats pure hourly

• Workshops, shoots, installs, or travel days where context-switching kills true hourly tracking
• Clients who buy “a day of your attention” more cleanly than a pile of 0.25-hour lines
• You want a clear amount due on the invoice before scope starts drifting

Stay hourly when scope is fuzzy and change orders are frequent — but still derive the rate from the same floor so day and hourly quotes do not contradict each other.

Half-day and overtime traps

• Pricing half-days at 50% of a full day when your fixed costs (travel, setup) are the same — undercharges the short booking
• Using 8 × hourly when you only deliver 5–6 focused hours
• Quoting a day rate then accepting “just one more hour” without an overtime rule
• Leaving “TBD” on the client PDF after the calculator already produced a fee

From day rate to invoice

The calculator is for you. The client sees an invoice: deliverable (e.g. “On-site day — 6 billable hours”), quantity, rate, tax if any, amount due, due date. Copy the locked day or half-day number into your invoice workbook so the quote and the bill match.

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