How do you determine what rate to charge to freelance or consulting work? If you ware offered an hourly rate for contract position does that rate meet your financial needs? I have been struggling with this for my own freelance and consulting work. So I create the bottom-up rate calculator spread sheet.

On the setup tab enter your desired annual salary, how many days of paid vacation and holiday, your business monthly insurance and overhead costs, and what the business should match for your retirement, and a profit margin for the business. On the "rate calculations" tab you will have hourly bill rates for various billable percentages.

The "rate to salary" estimates the income and equivalent salary for a straight contract job. You  enter an hourly rate, contract term, and percentage billable for the contract. Using the values entered on setup the spread sheet will calculate amounts for insurance, overhead, retirement match, and self-employment tax. As well as the net income, retained earnings (profit!!), and the salary to be paid out. The equivalent hourly, monthly, and annual salary is also shown.

The spread sheet is attached here and is in open document format (open office) and is freely available for your use. However, all standard legal disclaimers apply. This is provided as is, without warranty, I assume no liability from its use, no guarantee its accuracy or correctness, yadda, yadda, yadda....