Skip to content
BizBinder
Early access open Get early access

Popular in the binder

Can’t find it? Tell us what you were after →

Staying organized

Billable Weeks

The short answer

Billable weeks are the weeks in a year you actually invoice, out of 52 — every week off, bank holiday, and lost week already subtracted. Pricing against 52 weeks instead of your billable weeks hides the cost of the weeks you do not work.

What it means

A year on paper has 52 weeks. A year you actually invoice against has fewer, once time off, bank holidays, illness, and training are subtracted. That smaller number is your billable weeks, and it is what your annual requirement should be divided by, not 52.

The gap between the two numbers is not academic — it is the exact amount every week you do work is quietly underpriced by, if your rate was ever built on 52 weeks instead of your real billable weeks.

For example

A business needs $52,000 a year cleared. Divided by 52 weeks, that is $1,000 a week. The owner actually takes 4 weeks off and loses 2 more to bank holidays, leaving 46 billable weeks — so the real weekly requirement is about $1,130, not $1,000.

The mistake to avoid

Building a rate on 52 weeks and then wondering why a booked-solid year still falls short of the annual target — the shortfall is the weeks off, priced at zero instead of at the real line per billable week.

See also

Effective Hourly RateOverheadAnnual Shutdown

Where this shows up

Guide

Taking time off — price it before you book it

You are not paid for 52 weeks a year. A week off is not a loss to make up later — it is a cost your rate has to carry before you book it. Price the weeks off, pick the dates from your diary, tell people once, and decide what happens to an emergency.

 Free tool

Time off check

Type in what you must clear in a year, the weeks you want off, the weeks you already do not work, and what you have set aside, and see your billable weeks, the line per billable week, the 52-week gap, what the time off costs, and what to set aside for it.

Want this handled automatically?

BizBinder keeps quotes, invoices, deposits, and reminders in one binder, so using the right term is the least of it — the underlying habit runs itself.

A human reads every one. No newsletter, ever.

Filed

You are on the list.

A person reads every request. You will hear from us within one business day.

  1. 01 A person reads your note — not a queue.
  2. 02 You get an invite as spots open.
  3. 03 Your admin starts filing itself.

The free library is open while you wait. Nothing in it needs an account.

Open the free library →