The project isn’t the hours.
It’s everything around them.
Meetings, revisions, admin, the parts of the brief nobody wrote down. Price a fixed-fee project on the work it actually takes — and get a number you can put in a proposal today.
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Every hour the brief forgot, priced in.
Most fixed-price jobs lose money in the gaps — the calls, the third round of edits, the invoicing. Put them in here and they stop being free.
We’ll email your full quote breakdown — the numbers, the deposit, and the change-request rate — so you can paste it straight into a proposal.
You have a price. Now make it look like one.
A number in an email gets negotiated. A proper proposal with scope, terms and a deposit schedule gets signed.
See proposal & contract tools →Four things go wrong with fixed-price work. This fixes all four.
Count the invisible hours
Calls, revisions and admin are real work. Costing them separately is the difference between a profitable project and a busy one.
Price the uncertainty
A vague brief costs more to deliver than a clear one. The risk buffer prices that honestly instead of hoping for the best.
Get a range, not one number
A floor you never go below, a price you quote, and a premium for when the timeline is theirs and not yours.
Close the scope-creep door
A change-request rate agreed up front turns “just one small thing” from free work into a line item.
One guide, free. One ebook, paid.
The guide covers what to do with the number. The ebook is the reference for when a client pushes back.
The Freelance Pricing Guide
- Anchoring vs. hourly billing — when each makes sense
- Sample pitch scripts you can paste into email
- A short rate-raise email that works
The Independent’s Pricing Book
- Project-rate math with worked examples
- Retainer-vs-hourly decision tree
- A late-invoice follow-up sequence
Questions about quoting fixed-price work.
Should I charge hourly or a fixed price?
Fixed price works when the scope is genuinely definable and you know the work well — you keep the upside of working fast. Hourly is safer when the brief is vague or the client is likely to change direction. If you’re quoting fixed on an unclear brief, raise the risk setting above rather than hoping it stays simple.
Why is the effective hourly rate higher than my hourly rate?
Because a fixed price carries risk that hourly billing doesn’t. If the job runs long, you absorb it. The complexity multiplier, risk buffer and margin are what you’re paid for taking that on — that gap is the price of certainty for the client.
What is the walk-away floor for?
It covers your time and costs with the risk buffer, but no profit. It’s the number below which the project is not worth taking. Use it in negotiation as the point where you’d rather decline than discount further.
Is a 40% deposit normal?
Between 30% and 50% up front is common for project work, and it does two things: it covers your early costs and it confirms the client is serious. For longer projects, splitting the rest into milestone payments works better than one invoice at the end.
How do I use the change-request rate?
Put it in the contract before work starts. Anything outside the agreed scope is billed at that rate. Having the number written down in advance means you’re pointing at an agreement rather than starting a negotiation each time.
Do you store the numbers I enter?
Your calculator inputs stay in your browser and are never sent anywhere. If you choose to email your quote, we store your email address in MailerLite to send you the results and occasional pricing tips. You can unsubscribe any time.