The £42,000 designer costs £63,623 and needs an £881 day to hit three times salary. Your rack rate says £700
Agency Rate and Cost Multiple Calculator
Employer National Insurance, pension and each head’s share of the overhead turn a salary into a cost per billable hour, and utilisation decides the rest. Put your salaries, overheads and target utilisation in and see the day rate your rate card actually needs to be.
Agency Rate and Cost Multiple Calculator
From salary to the day rate that actually carries the agency: the full cost, the billable hour, and the multiple your rack rate really achieves.
The three numbers under every rate card
The £42,000 fee-earner costs £63,623 once employer NIC, pension and the overhead share land: £55.61 per billable hour at 65 per cent utilisation. Rates built on salary alone subsidise every project.
The classic health test says a fee-earner should bill around three times salary. At 65 per cent utilisation that needs an £881 day; the demo £700 rack reaches 2.38 times, which is the polite version of underpriced.
Utilisation is the hidden lever: the same salary at 55 per cent needs a sharply higher rate than at 70. Set the rate card from cost and utilisation together, then defend it; the Utilisation and Recovery Calculator watches the other half.
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The rate build-up in Excel: cost to hour to day to multiple, editable end to end.
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