What is an example of a billable hour?

Asked by: Tabitha Bayer  |  Last update: October 16, 2023
Score: 4.5/5 (51 votes)

Billable hours are quite simple; these are the ones you charge your clients for work directly done on their projects; for example, the hours of a developer working on a new webpage, administrative work, or other project activities.

What counts as a billable hour?

Billable hours are the amount of time spent working on business projects that can be charged to a client according to an agreed upon billing rate.

What are examples of billable?

Usual examples of billable hours could be:
  • Working on a client's project.
  • Service preforming activities.
  • All activity related to the client after signing the contract.
  • Project control and supervision.
  • Translation services.
  • Communication with the client directly connected to the project (calls, emails)

How many billable hours in a day?

This means a goal of approximately 7.7 billable hours per day — if you don't take a vacation, get sick or work weekends. Research shows that as much as two hours per workday is lost to non-billable tasks.

How do you fill out billable hours?

The standard process for calculating billable hours looks something like this.
  1. Set an hourly rate.
  2. Track every billable hour on a timesheet.
  3. Add up your billable hours.
  4. Multiply total billable hours by billing rate.
  5. Add fees or taxes to the client's invoice.

How to Bill Hours as a Law Firm Associate

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Do you include breaks in billable hours?

Non-billable hours also include activities that employees do for their own benefit, for example, taking a 5-minute break to freshen up, or eating. These activities are not directly related to work tasks but contribute to the employee's total hours.

How many billable hours are normal for a week?

But the reality is you're probably not billing a full 8 hours per day. We surveyed 100 companies and found that most service-based companies that bill hourly require employees to bill at least 31 hours per week. 52 weeks x 31 hours = 1612 required billable hours by most companies in one year.

What is the industry standard for billable hours?

Time is money—especially when it comes to how many billable hours in a year an attorney can accumulate. Thankfully, using a billable hours chart can help. Lawyers work hard, and they work a lot. Many firms expect attorneys to reach minimum billable hour requirements ranging between 1,700 and 2,300 hours per year.

What percentage of your hours should be billable?

On the other hand, if your billable utilization target is too low, you may not be producing enough billable work to meet your profit margins. Experts say ideal utilization rate for billable hours should be around 70-80%. This is where the company reaches the highest possible profit with an optimal hourly charge.

What is the average billable hours for a consultant?

The number of hours you billed for divided by number of hours out of the week (generally 40). Most consultancies will expect you to bill 70-95% of your 40 hours per week, depending upon the industry and your level of seniority.

What is considered non-billable hours?

Non-billable hours are any that are spent on administrative or overhead projects that are not directly related to client service. For example, sending emails to clients would count as billable time. However, upgrading your email software wouldn't count as directly servicing those accounts.

What defines not billable?

Non-billable work is defined as any work performed by an employee that cannot be billed to the client – even if it is related to a billable task. This type of work includes vacation time, sick leave, continuing education leave, holidays, personal business time, and other unclassified time.

How do you come up with a billable rate?

  1. How to Get Billable Rate.
  2. The calculation for your billable rate is:Cost per billable hour + overhead per billable hour x (profit margin)
  3. “Per Billable Hour” - What Is The Hour?
  4. What is The “Cost” in Cost/Billable Hour?
  5. Overhead Per Billable Hour.
  6. Before Moving on to The Profit Margin, Let's Remember...
  7. The Margin Piece.

What are some non billable tasks?

Non-billable hours are the work hours you spend which are not going to be directly charged to the client. Some examples of non-billable work hours are things such as team meetings, staff development/training, or networking and attending conferences.

Why are billable hours bad?

It forces us to make too many time- value judgments that too often are based purely on whether an activity is billable. It forces people away from real life and into a world where everything is billable (important), or not (not important). If it's not billable, it better be very important.

How do I bill a company for my time?

You'll need to specify how many hours you worked on the project, your hourly rate and the total for that project or part of the project. Make sure the invoice clearly states the payment methods you accept and the details for payment.

How many hours a week is 2000 billable hours?

For example, if you want to reach a goal of 2,000 hours annually, you would need to bill for roughly 40 hours each week, or eight billable hours a day.

Do you round billable hours?

Businesses that use billable hours charts are likely to round their billable time much more reasonably. For example, without a billable hours chart, professionals might round a seven-minute meeting up to 15 minutes.

How many hours do most lawyers bill?

The average billable hours for an attorney is 1,900 hours per year. This means that if you work 40 hour weeks, you'll be able to complete 2,080 billable hours in a year before taxes. If you work 50 hour weeks, then you'll be able to complete 3,000 billable hours annually before taxes.

Are bathroom breaks billable?

As long as you don't charge or collect an unreasonable fee for your time, bathroom billing should be fine. Assuming of course you are actually working. We all know that working on a client matter doesn't necessarily require drafting a memo. Sometimes, you're just mulling an issue and mentally working through solutions.

What expenses are billable?

Billable expenses are those taken on your client's behalf that will eventually be charged or passed on to the client or customer. Sometimes referred to as passthrough costs or reimbursable expenses, these expenses are typically ones that your business incurs while providing the goods or services to the client.

How do you calculate hourly charges?

Desired profit amount + desired salary + operating costs / number of income producing hours = your hourly rate.

What is a good billable utilization?

Many organizations aim for utilization rates around 80% and will measure billable utilization against a 2,000 hour per year target when benchmarking themselves against the market.

Do you still get paid for non-billable hours?

Billable hours are important, they're the money generators. But they're often only possible because you've spent non-billable time working on marketing your business and refining your sales pitch. Non-billable hours, however, don't earn you any direct income.

What are billable items?

The billable item represents an item that is to be billed. For example, a billable item can represent a call, text message or music download. Billable items originate in upstream systems.