Mastering the Billable Hour

A new month, and this time: a new billable year.

Time to take that billable-hour requirement and make it work for me, not against me.

This year, my firm asks me to bill 1900 hours.

Divided by 12, and 158.3 becomes my monthly goal.

July has 20 work days, but I’ll be out of town on three.

On three others, I have non-billable meetings or conferences, so I’ll count those as half-billing days.

This brings my personal work days in July to 16.5.

158.3 divided by 16.5 means:

✖️9.6 hours on full work days.

✖️4.8 hours on half work days.

Now, I can take this and turn it into weekly goals.

For example:

📆 Week 1 (1 Full Day): 9.6

📆 Week 2 (3 Full Days): 28.8 (or 38.4 including Week 1)

📆 Week 3 (4 Full Days, 1 Half Day): 43.2 (or 81.6 including Weeks 1 and 2)

📆 Week 4 (4 Full Days, 1 Half Day): 43.2 (or 124.8 including Weeks 1, 2, and 3)

📆 Week 5 (3 Full Days, 1 Half Day): 33.6 (or 158.4 including Weeks 1, 2, 3, and 4)

Let’s say, today, July 1, I don’t hit 9.1.

I can:

✅ Make it up over the weekend.

✅ Roll the missed hours into the next work day.

✅ Roll the missed hours into the next weekly goal, spreading them out across the work week.

Let’s say, today, July 1, I have hearings or a briefing deadline, so I end up billing 10.5 hours.

I can:

🙌 Bill 1.4 less hours on the next billing day.

🙌 Take 1.4 out of the next weekly goal, taking a little bit out of each day’s goal.

Yes, this is a bit of work upfront, each month.

Yes, I revisit this daily and weekly.

But, I always know where I stand.

I can constantly adjust.

I can use weekends or cancelled meetings to catch up or get ahead.

I can take time and create space when I get ahead.

If I have a big month, I can bill less the next month, or lessen the load across all remaining months.

How do you manage the billable hour and make it work for you?