For consultancies that sell the hours of allocated professionals, getting the price wrong is not only a risk — it is a shortcut to a loss. The cost of keeping an operation with a fixed structure goes far beyond salaries, and calculating it superficially can compromise the margin without anyone noticing.
In this guide, you will learn how to calculate the correct hourly value of a project, taking into account:
- All the real costs per consultant;
- The costs of the company's structure;
- The desired profit margin;
- And the tax applied correctly through markup.
With that, your consultancy gains predictability, competitiveness, and a healthy margin — without depending on luck.
Download the free hourly pricing spreadsheet
This article comes with a complementary spreadsheet created by the RabbitWork team to make it easier to calculate the hourly value in consultancies with an allocated team.
The spreadsheet lets you:
- Calculate the individual cost per hour of each consultant;
- Include the company's structure in the cost allocation;
- Simulate margin, tax, and idle time;
- See the total operating margin based on your team's real scenario.
👉 Click here to download the Excel spreadsheet
(Internal note: replace with the real download link on Drive or on the RabbitWork site)
You can use this tool to follow each step of the article, applying the calculations in practice.
Hourly selling-price calculator. Based on the consultant's monthly cost and the structure's cost, the spreadsheet calculates the ideal hourly value with profit margin and tax already applied through markup. Useful for setting prices safely and justifying commercial proposals.
Start by understanding the consultant's real cost
For professionals under the CLT employment regime, gross salary is only part of the cost. You also need to consider payroll charges, benefits, and work tools.
| Component | Monthly amount (example) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | R$ 6,000 | |
| Charges (INSS, FGTS, and so on) | R$ 2,500 | Legal obligations |
| Benefits (meal voucher, health, vacation, 13th-month pay) | R$ 2,000 | Talent retention |
| Tools, licenses | R$ 400 | Office suite, GitHub, Adobe, Slack, and so on |
| Equipment renewal | R$ 100 | Hardware depreciation every 3–4 years |
| Total monthly cost | R$ 11,000 |
Now divide that amount by an average of 160 working hours a month:
R$ 11,000 ÷ 160 = R$ 68.75/h
That is the base cost per hour of an allocated professional.
Allocate the cost of the structure (OPEX)
Your company has fixed costs that need to be spread across the projects:
- HR, finance, legal, and IT staff;
- Corporate software (management, timesheet, automation, CRM);
- Office, coworking, internet, electricity;
- Accounting and legal obligations.
- Marketing and sales
Let's say those costs add up to R$ 35,000 a month.
If the company has 10 consultants with a load of 160 hours/month, there are 1,600 hours available to sell per month.
R$ 35,000 ÷ 1,600 = R$ 21.88/h
That amount should be added to the consultant's cost.
In the spreadsheet, enter the structure cost and the total hours available to sell. The allocated cost per hour is added to the consultant's cost to get the total cost per hour.
Calculate the total cost per hour
Now we add the two blocks:
R$ 68.75 (consultant) + R$ 21.88 (structure) = R$ 90.63/h
That is the minimum hourly value for the project to pay for itself — still with no profit.
Add the desired profit margin
Here you define how much the company should earn per hour.
Let's assume a margin of 40% on the total cost:
R$ 90.63 × 1.4 = R$ 126.88/h
That is the amount needed to cover every cost and still generate 40% net profit before taxes.
Apply the tax using markup
After calculating your total cost and applying the desired profit margin, one essential adjustment is still missing: the tax on revenue.
Instead of adding that tax directly to the cost (which quietly eats the margin), the correct method is to apply what is called markup — an adjustment factor that makes sure the company keeps the planned profit even after paying taxes.
What markup is:
Markup is an index that corrects the selling price based on the tax percentage.
For example, if your company pays 15.5% on revenue, divide the amount with profit by 0.845 (that is, 1 − 0.155) to reach the final amount you should present in the proposal.
R$ 126.88 ÷ 0.845 = R$ 150.15/h
That is the final amount that should appear in the proposal to the client.
Full example, summarized
| Step | Amount/hour |
|---|---|
| Consultant cost | R$ 68.75 |
| Company structure | R$ 21.88 |
| Total cost/hour | R$ 90.63 |
| + Profit (40%) | R$ 126.88 |
| + Tax via markup (15.5%) | R$ 150.15 |
Allocation below 100%? That hits the margin directly
Even with a well-defined hourly value, the final result of the operation depends on how many hours are actually sold to clients. The company may have a highly capable team, but if part of the hour load is not being used on billable projects, the margin shrinks.
This is a point many people forget to consider: the cost of the consultants and of the structure keeps existing even when part of the team is not allocated.
It is worth stating clearly: vacation, leave, and holidays are already included in the consultant's monthly cost. What affects this calculation is idle hours from a lack of real allocation on billable projects, such as pauses between deliveries, time waiting for approval, or periods with no contracted demand.
In the free RabbitWork spreadsheet, this can be adjusted on the "Team simulator" tab, in the field Average allocation of hours to clients (%).
Simulator for an hours-selling operation, with margin, tax, and allocation you can configure. The tab lets you enter each consultant's costs and hour load, set the team's allocation percentage, and see the operation's real margin month by month.
That field defines the percentage of the hour load that is being sold. The spreadsheet automatically calculates the number of idle hours, the adjusted revenue, and the real margin of the operation.
📊 In the simulated scenario:
- Hours available: 824
- Hours sold: 782.8
- Idle hours: 41.2
- Total revenue: R$ 118,834.32
- Final margin: R$ 24,915.00 (21%)
If allocation drops to 90%, for example, the margin drops with it — even without changing the cost or the hourly value.
That is why, besides calculating correctly, it is essential to follow the team's monthly allocation. That is what turns effort into a result.
The real gain is in the hours that get billed
It may seem obvious that the gain is in the hours that are billed, but there is a trap here.
Even with the hourly value well calculated, many consultancies watch their margin evaporate because they do not define internally which hours should or should not be billed. Without a clear definition and a trail of the hours, those hours end up being written off.
These are the hours that:
- Were worked, but were not foreseen in the contract;
- Represent meetings, alignments, or reviews outside the scope;
- Were forgotten at billing time, or absorbed because of the relationship with the client.
Part of the loss sits in the hours not billed.
How RabbitWork helps protect your margin
RabbitWork lets you:
- Register the cost per hour of each consultant;
- Register the selling price by project, or by consultant inside the project;
- Mark the task of each logged hour as "billed" or "not billed";
- Compare the total hours delivered with the total hours invoiced;
- See the real margin of each project or client, based on reliable data.
- Issue reports with the amount to charge, ready to send to your clients.
That visibility allows weekly decisions: renegotiate scope, include meeting hours, avoid idle time, and keep a healthy margin, even on contracts with smaller amounts.
