Billable Weeks
Billable weeks are the weeks in a year that you invoice. Subtract every week off, bank holiday, and lost week from 52. Pricing against 52 weeks hides the cost of the weeks you are away.
What it means
A year on paper has 52 weeks. A year you invoice against has fewer. Time off, bank holidays, illness and training come out. The smaller number is your billable weeks. Divide your annual requirement by that number, not by 52.
The gap between the two numbers is real money. If you built your rate on 52 weeks, every week you work is underpriced by that gap.
A business needs $52,000 a year cleared. Divided by 52 weeks, that is $1,000 a week. The owner takes 4 weeks off and loses 2 more to bank holidays. That leaves 46 billable weeks, so the real weekly requirement is about $1,130, well above $1,000.
Building a rate on 52 weeks. A booked-solid year then still falls short of the annual target, because the weeks off were priced at zero.
See also
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