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Staying organized

Non-Billable Time

The short answer

Non-billable time is every hour that goes into the business but never reaches an invoice. Quoting, admin, and answering messages outside a job are examples. It lowers your effective hourly rate.

What it means

A quoted rate is what a client pays for the hours they see. Non-billable time is the rest. It includes writing the quote and chasing a part. It also includes answering a message at the end of the day and catching up on invoicing. None of it is wasted and none of it is optional. Nobody pays for it directly.

It matters most when it grows quietly. An hour of evening admin here and an extra call there make the working week longer. No extra invoice follows. Overhead is the fixed cost of being in business. These hours are different. They are the day-to-day hours that never reach a job.

For example

A job is quoted and billed at $500. Getting there also took 40 minutes of quoting, two unbilled calls, and a Sunday evening on invoicing. All of that is non-billable time. It never appears on that $500, or on any other invoice.

The mistake to avoid

Tracking only the hours on a job and ignoring the admin and answering hours around it. The effective hourly rate for a week uses the billed hours and the non-billable hours added together.

See also

Effective Hourly RateOverheadResponse Time

Where this shows up

Guide

Working hours and boundaries — the hours you answer are the promise

A client cannot see your diary. They judge your hours by when you answer. Set the hours you work and the hours you answer as two windows. Say both in the three places a client looks. Price a real emergency in advance, and hold the line the first time it is inconvenient.

 Free tool

Working hours check

Enter the hours you intend to work, the hours you actually answer, and the admin hours outside both. The tool shows the gap between the week you meant to run and the week you run. It also shows what each one pays per hour.

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