The Tool Desk
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What 100–110 billable hours means in practice
The 160-hour month is an illustrative four-week planning month, not a claim that every calendar month contains the same number of working days. At that workload, 100 billable hours represent 62.5% of total working time; 110 represent 68.75%. The remaining time is not necessarily idle: it covers the work required to run a freelance business as well as leave and other nonbillable commitments.
For perspective, Teamwork.com’s 2023 agency report describes a 70:30 billable-to-nonbillable ratio as ideal, with 71% of surveyed agencies at that ratio. The report covers more than 3,600 agencies across marketing, web development, and creative work; it does not measure solo freelance developers. Use it as a directional reference, not a personal benchmark. Teamwork.com’s 2023 Agency Benchmark Report
Why all your working hours cannot be billable
Client delivery is only one part of freelance work. Time spent on sales, proposals, project planning, client communication, invoicing, bookkeeping, and professional learning may be essential but not chargeable to a client. Vacation, holidays, and personal time also reduce the hours available for delivery.
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SPI Research’s benchmark separates billable work from nonbillable project work, administration, education and training, and vacation, personal, and holiday time. That accounting framework is useful for understanding why a developer’s paid delivery hours should not be expected to fill every working hour. SPI Research reports
How to set a target that fits your work
- Choose your real working-time denominator. Start with the hours you expect to work in the month, then subtract planned leave and other time you do not intend to work. The 160-hour example is only a convenient starting point.
- Estimate your billable share. If you are testing a target around 100–110 billable hours in a 160-hour month, that is a share of roughly 62.5%–68.75%. Account for the time your business actually needs for sales, administration, training, and communication.
- Track delivery and business time separately. For several weeks, record client-billable work and nonbillable tasks in separate categories. A paper log or timesheet can work as a simple collection method; no particular tool or format is established as best.
- Recalculate from your own records. Divide billable hours by total working hours to find your billable share. Use the result to revise the next month’s target, taking account of leave, client commitments, pipeline work, and administrative load.
- Review the pattern over multiple months. A high-utilization month can be a short-term peak rather than a sustainable baseline. If you are consistently working excessive weeks to meet commitments, consider reducing scope or commitments, or revisiting your rates. If you have capacity but too little paid work, focus on the pipeline rather than assuming the target itself is the problem.
What published benchmarks can—and cannot—tell you
| Source and period | Published figure | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| Teamwork.com, 2023 agency report | 71% of surveyed agencies were at the report’s stated ideal 70:30 billable-to-nonbillable ratio. | Agency sample, not a solo-developer average. Source |
| Teamwork.com, 2023 agency report | Two-thirds of surveyed agencies logged time. | A report finding about agency practice; it does not show that a particular tracking method improves results. Source |
| SPI Research, 2015 report, reporting on 2014 | Independent professional-services organizations averaged 1,488 annual billable hours out of 2,080 total hours—about 71.5% by arithmetic. | Dated, organization-level benchmark; not a monthly quota for an individual developer. Source |
| SPI Research, 2015 report | The report described approximately 75% billable as balanced for professional-services organizations and cautioned against driving the figure above 80%. | Organizational guidance, not a universal recommendation for freelancers. Source |
| Teamwork.com, 2023 agency report | Agencies overestimated 61% of tasks. | Estimation context, not evidence for an individual monthly billable-hours target. Source |
Use the target as a planning tool, not a performance score
There is no established representative, current benchmark here for solo freelance software developers specifically. The agency figures from Teamwork.com and the older professional-services figures from SPI Research offer context, but neither establishes what an individual should bill. Your useful number is the one supported by your own time records and enough room for the nonbillable work your business requires.
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