Accountants Hourly Rate Calculator
Calculate an hourly rate that helps cover your target income, business overheads, profit margin and realistic billable hours.
Overview
Use this Accountants Hourly Rate Calculator to estimate a charge-out rate that supports your target annual income, business overheads, desired profit margin and realistic billable hours. It can help sole practitioners and accountancy firms set an average rate before adjusting for service level or client complexity.
How it works
The calculator first estimates your annual billable hours by multiplying working weeks by billable hours per week. It adds your target income and overheads, then increases this amount to allow for your chosen profit margin. Finally, it divides the required annual revenue by annual billable hours to calculate an average hourly rate. A lower number of billable hours will increase the rate needed to reach the same target.
How to use this calculator
- 1Enter the annual income you want the business to provide.
- 2Add your expected yearly overheads.
- 3Choose a profit margin for retained earnings and business growth.
- 4Estimate the working weeks and billable hours you can achieve.
- 5Review the suggested hourly rate and annual revenue target.
Example Calculation
Target annual income
$60,000
Annual business overheads
$15,000
Target profit margin
10%
Working weeks per year
46
Billable hours per week
25
Recommended hourly rate
$72.46
With 1,150 annual billable hours, a £60,000 income target, £15,000 of overheads and a 10% margin, the estimated hourly rate is about £72.46. The business would need annual revenue of about £83,333.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good hourly rate for an accountant?
A suitable rate depends on your experience, services, client base, location, overheads and the number of hours you can invoice. This calculator estimates a rate from your own financial targets rather than using a fixed market figure.
How many hours should an accountant treat as billable?
Only include time you can realistically invoice to clients. Deduct time for marketing, client onboarding, administration, training, internal meetings, holidays and other non-chargeable work.
Should I include tax in my hourly rate calculation?
Include business taxes or costs that form part of your overheads where relevant. Personal tax treatment varies, so the target annual income should be chosen with your individual circumstances in mind.
Why does the calculator include a profit margin?
A profit margin allows for business resilience, investment, unexpected costs and growth beyond simply paying income and overheads. You can set it to zero if you only want to cover those costs.
Can I use this rate for fixed-fee accounting work?
Yes. Use the hourly rate as a benchmark, then estimate the hours required for the work and add an allowance for scope, risk and value when setting a fixed fee.
Should every client be charged the same rate?
Not necessarily. The result is an average baseline. You may use different rates or fixed fees for advisory work, compliance services, urgent work, specialist tasks or clients with more complex requirements.
Explore Related Calculators
Assumptions and warnings
Assumptions
- The target annual income is treated as a business cost before personal income tax and personal deductions.
- All annual overheads are assumed to be covered by client revenue.
- The selected profit margin is calculated after target income and overheads are covered.
- Billable hours represent time that can actually be invoiced, not all time spent working.
- The result is an average rate and does not account for different services, client types or project complexity.
Warnings
- This calculator provides a business-planning estimate only and is not financial or tax advice.
- Review your pricing regularly as costs, workload, taxes and market conditions can change.