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Billable vs non-billable hours calculator
Your billable split is billable hours ÷ total hours logged. Billable hours are the time a client pays for. Non-billable hours are everything else: internal meetings, admin, pitching, training and client work you couldn't bill.
Enter your team's hours to see the split, where the unbilled time goes, and what it costs you.
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When a spreadsheet stops working
A spreadsheet only knows this split after the timesheets are in. By then the month's revenue is already set. Kavaro is resource management software for agencies and consultancies. Each project has a billability setting, and the utilisation report splits each person's booked time into billable and non-billable, by week, person, domain and project, from the bookings already on the schedule. You see the gap while there is still time to move the work.
See next month's billable split before it happens: try Kavaro freeYour results
65.0% billable · 35.0% non-billable
BillableNon-billable
| Share of logged time | Hours | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Billable | 975 | 65.0% |
| Non-billable | 525 | 35.0% |
You're 150 hours short of a 75% target. At £95/h that's £14,250.00 a month, about £171,000.00 a year.
| Category | Hours | % of logged time | Cost at bill rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal meetings | 150 | 10.0% | £14,250.00 |
| New business and pitching | 120 | 8.0% | £11,400.00 |
| Admin and ops | 105 | 7.0% | £9,975.00 |
| Client work you couldn't bill | 105 | 7.0% | £9,975.00 |
| Training and development | 45 | 3.0% | £4,275.00 |
105 hours of client work weren't billed, worth £9,975.00. This is the category agencies most often underestimate.
What counts as billable vs non-billable time at an agency
Use the contract, not a habit. These are the usual agency examples.
| Billable | Non-billable |
|---|---|
| Client delivery | Pitching and new business |
| Client meetings on a retainer | Internal meetings |
| Billable revisions | Admin and ops |
| Training and development | |
| Unbilled overruns and write-offs | |
| Unbilled account management |
Travel, scoping and account management on a retainer are grey areas. Each one depends on the contract. If the statement of work does not say the client pays, treat the time as non-billable until someone agrees otherwise.
How to calculate your billable vs non-billable split
Non-billable hours = total hours logged − billable hours. Billable percentage = billable hours ÷ total hours logged. The cost of a gap is the hours you are short of your target, multiplied by the average bill rate.
Worked example, labelled as an example rather than a benchmark: 1,500 hours logged, 975 billable, so 525 non-billable and a 65.0% billable share. A 75% target on 1,500 hours is 1,125 billable hours. The gap is 150 hours. At £95 an hour that is £14,250.00 in the month, about £171,000.00 if the same month repeated for a year. Meetings 150 (10.0%), pitching 120 (8.0%), admin 105 (7.0%), unbilled client work 105 (7.0%), training 45 (3.0%). Nothing is left uncategorised.
Billable vs non-billable vs utilisation
Billable percentage on this page is billable hours ÷ hours logged. Utilisation, also spelled utilization in the US, is billable hours ÷ hours available. Available hours already take out holiday and other time off, so the two percentages answer different questions. A team can log a high billable share of the hours they recorded and still be under target utilisation if a lot of the week was never logged. Use the billable utilisation calculator for the capacity version.
Typical utilisation targets agencies set
The figures below are billable utilisation: billable hours ÷ available hours. They are not a "good" score for the logged-time split this calculator uses. The 75% in the form is an example target, not one of these published figures.
| Who | Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional services firms | 75% target; 66.4% actual in 2025 | Billable utilisation (billable ÷ available) | SPI Research 2026 benchmark, via Deltek |
| Delivery staff, UK agencies and consultancies | 70–80% | Billable utilisation | Alto Accounting, citing BenchPress and Synergist |
| Directors | 30–40% | Billable utilisation | Alto Accounting, citing BenchPress and Synergist |
Five ways to cut non-billable time without cutting the work that wins clients
- Treat pitching and training as investments with a budget. Cutting them to lift the percentage also cuts the work that brings the next client and the skills the current ones pay for.
- Give internal meetings a purpose and an end time. A standing meeting that nobody can describe in one sentence is usually the first place hours leak.
- Batch admin. Status updates, file tidy-ups and tool admin spread across every afternoon cost more than the same work in one block.
- Watch unbilled client work while the job is open. Overruns and write-offs are the hours agencies underestimate, and they only show up in a spreadsheet after the invoice has already gone out short.
- Put the non-billable budget on the same plan as delivery. If new business needs 120 hours this month, book it, instead of hoping it fits around client work.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between billable and non-billable hours?
Billable hours are time a client pays for. Non-billable hours are the rest of the time the team logged, such as internal meetings, admin, pitching, training and client work you could not bill. Billable percentage on this page is billable hours divided by hours logged.
Is travel time billable?
It depends on the contract. Some retainers include travel, some bill it at a reduced rate, and some treat it as non-billable. Agree it before the work starts.
Are internal meetings billable?
Internal meetings are non-billable unless the contract says the client is paying for that time. A client meeting on a retainer is usually billable.
What is a good billable percentage?
Published targets are for billable utilisation, which is billable hours divided by available hours, not by hours logged. SPI Research's 2026 professional services benchmark, reported by Deltek, puts the target at 75% and the 2025 actual at 66.4%. There is no single published "good" figure for billable hours as a share of logged time.
How do you track non-billable hours?
Log all worked time, not only the hours you plan to invoice. Split the non-billable hours into meetings, admin, pitching, training and unbilled client work, then review the split before the month closes.