You worked 45 hours last week and invoiced for 28. Where did the other 17 go? That gap is the difference between billable and non-billable hours, and most freelancers have no idea how big it is until they measure it.
Understanding that split changes how you price, which clients you keep, and how much you actually take home. Here's what counts as what, and why tracking both is worth the small effort.
What counts as billable
Billable hours are the time a client has agreed to pay for. The work you were hired to do, basically: writing the code, designing the page, editing the video, sitting in the project call you said you'd attend. If you can put it on an invoice without the client raising an eyebrow, it's billable.
Some gray areas are billable if you set the expectation up front. Research, revisions, and project-related email often qualify, but only if your agreement says so. The conversation to have at the start of an engagement is which of these the client expects to pay for. Silence usually gets read in the client's favor.
What's non-billable (but still costs you)
Non-billable hours are real work that no single client pays for. It still has to happen, and it still eats your week:
- Finding clients — proposals, pitches, calls that don't convert.
- Admin — invoicing, chasing payments, bookkeeping, taxes.
- Running the business — your own website, tools, learning a new skill.
This time isn't wasted. It's the cost of being self-employed. The problem is only that it's invisible. If you don't see how many hours it takes, you'll assume you have far more billable capacity than you really do, and you'll price as if every hour earns money. (For the full picture of how that wrecks your rate math, see our guide to setting your hourly rate.)
Why you should track the non-billable hours too
It's tempting to only log the hours you're charging for. Resist that. Tracking non-billable time tells you things billable time can't:
It shows your real utilization. If you bill 25 hours out of a 45-hour week, your "hourly rate" is really spread across all 45. That's the number that pays your rent.
It exposes expensive clients. A client who needs three unpaid calls and a pile of free revisions for every billable hour might be costing you more than they pay. You only see that when the non-billable time is attached to their name.
It tells you where your week actually goes. If you're spending ten hours a week on invoicing and admin, that's a flashing sign to simplify your tools, not to work later.
How to track the split without overthinking it
Keep it binary. Every entry is billable or it isn't — one flag, set when you log the hours. Tag non-billable work to the client it relates to when there is one, and to your own "business" bucket when there isn't. That's enough to run the numbers at the end of the month.
In Gigtime, every time entry has a billable toggle, so your reports can show billable and non-billable side by side, by client and by project. You see your real utilization without keeping a second spreadsheet. Our overview of time tracking for freelancers covers the logging habit that makes this painless.
The point isn't to bill more hours
It's to see clearly. Once you know your billable-to-total ratio, you can do something about it: raise your rate to cover the unpaid time, drop the client who soaks up your week, or cut the admin that's eating your evenings. You can't fix a number you've never looked at.
Start by tagging this week's hours as billable or not. Try Gigtime free — 30-day Pro trial, no credit card required.