At Float, you can set up two types of rates: bill rates and cost rates. While setting them up is optional, doing so allows you to move beyond scheduling and into real financial visibility. Together, they give you a complete picture of how profitable your work actually is—not just how busy your team is.
Bill rates
Bill rates represent what you charge clients for your team’s time.
Why bill rates matter
Setting up bill rates in Float helps you:
Calculate and forecast project revenue
Track budget burn accurately
Measure profitability (with cost rates set)
Align resource planning with financial goals
Without bill rates, Float can show allocation—but not revenue.
Bill rates access and visibility
Access to bill rates depends on user permissions:
Account Owner and Admins can view and manage all bill rates.
Managers - By default, Managers do not have access to view or edit bill rates. They can be granted permission to:
View bill rates and budgets
View project profitability
View cost rates (if enabled separately)
Members cannot see rates.
You can review exactly who has access in Team settings > Roles & rates > Who can see rates.
Bill rates are directly visible in:
- In Team settings > Roles & rates (role bill rates),
- In the Info tab of each person's profile (personal bill rates),
- In the Team tab of the project settings (project bill rates),
- In the Team tab of the phase settings (phase bill rates),
- On the Project view (project bill rates) - can be hidden using the data visibility menu.
On the reports, bill rates can be calculated based on the scheduled time and scheduled fee.
Setting up bill rates
In Float, bill rates can be configured at multiple levels, depending on how you price your work:
Role level
Person level
Project level
Phase level
Bill rates at the role level are set in Team settings → Roles & rates and can be managed by the Account Owner and Admins.
Bill rates at the personal level are set in the Info tab of each person’s profile. These can be managed by the Account Owner, Admins, and Managers who have permission to edit people.
Bill rates at the project and phase levels can only be set up if the project budget is set to be Time & materias or Fixed fee. The bill are configured in the Team section of the project or phase. These can be set by anyone with permission to view rates and edit projects.
Bill rates hierarchy
Bill rates follow a structured hierarchy:
Role bill rate → Person bill rate → Project bill rate → Phase bill rate.
The most specific rate always takes precedence.
Role bill rate is the default rate assigned to a role.
Person bill rate overrides the role rate.
Project bill rate overrides the person rate for that project only.
Phase bill rate overrides the project rate for that phase only.
This layered structure gives you full control over pricing in different scenarios.
Example:
Role bill rate
Amy is a Designer. The Designer role bill rate is $90/hr.
This applies to all work scheduled for Amy unless overridden.
Person bill rate
Amy has advanced UI expertise. Her personal bill rate is set to $100/hr, overriding the role rate.
Project bill rate
For the Website Redesign project, your team negotiated a higher rate of $110/hr.
This overrides Amy’s personal rate, but only for that project.
Phase bill rate
Within the Website Redesign project, the UI Design phase requires even more specialized expertise. You set a phase bill rate of $130/hr, which overrides the project rate for that phase only.
Bill rates at the role level
Account Owners and Admins can set and manage role bill rates in Team settings > Roles & rates.
Add a new role with a bill rate
Go to Team settings > Roles & rates
Click Add
Enter the bill rate in the Bill rate field
Click Save
Update the bill rate for an existing role
Go to Team settings > Roles & rates
Select an existing role
Enter the new bill rate
Click Save
📝Note: Bill rates do not support effective dates. Updates apply immediately but do not override custom person, project, or phase rates. When you update a role rate, you’ll be asked to confirm that the change affects people assigned to that role. Custom rates remain unchanged.
Bill rates at the person level
Personal bill rates can be set in the Info tab of a person’s profile. If a role has a bill rate, the person inherits that rate by default unless a custom rate is applied.
Set or update a personal bill rate
Open the person’s profile
Enter the bill rate in the Bill rate field
Click Save
Personal bill rate updates:
Apply immediately to all new projects and phases
Do not update existing or historical project/phase rates.
When overridden, inherited role rates appear with a strikethrough.
Project bill rates
Project bill rates apply only to a specific project (and its phases, unless overridden).
You can set project bill rates in the Team tab of each project. Project bill rates:
Override role and person rates
Apply to past and future time on that project
Automatically apply to phases unless a phase-specific rate is set
Phase bill rates
Phase bill rates override project-level bill rates. You can set phase bill rates in the Team tab of specifci phase. Phase bill rates:
Apply only to that specific phase
Override role, person, and project rates
📝Note: If project rates are set after a phase is created and team members are already added, those rates will not automatically carry over.
Bill rate changes
Unlike cost rates, bill rates do not support point-in-time effective dates. Any updates to bill rates at the role or person level take effect immediately. Existing custom project or phase bill rates are not automatically updated. If you need to change bill rates for an existing project or phase, update them directly at that level.
Role changes impact on bill rates
When changing a person’s role, you must select an effective date for the role change.
If the person inherits role rates:
Their bill rate updates based on the new role
Custom person, project, or phase rates are not affected
If the person already has a custom bill rate, you can choose to:
Keep the existing personal rate
Use the new role’s default rate
All changes are tracked under View changes.
Bulk editing bill rates
Bulk edit role bill rates
Go to Team settings > Roles & rates
Select one or more roles
Click Edit
Choose Bill rate
Enter the new rate
Click Save
Bulk edit personal bill rates
Go to the People page
Select one or more people
Click Edit
Choose Bill rate
Under rate type select:
Set custom rate and enter the new bill rate or
Inherit role rate
Click Update
Updated personal bill rates:
Apply to all new projects and phases
Do not affect existing project or phase bill rates.
Reports
Once bill rates are set, you can use the Report page to analyze your team’s billable time.
For a detailed breakdown of billable fees at the project level, review the Single Project Report.
Data visibility based on your Float plan
The type of data available depends on your plan:
Starter plan: Scheduled only.
Pro and Enterprise plans: Scheduled, Logged, Logged vs Scheduled, Past logged+Future Scheduled; and project expenses.
Billable data based on the project's budget type
When no budget is set for a project, or when the project budget is set to Fixed hours, the billable fees are not calculated. In this case, reports show only scheduled/logged hours.
For Time & materials and Fixed fee projects, the billable fee is calculated as the sum of the scheduled/logged billable hours and the billable expenses (if any).
Billable = Scheduled billable (team's scheduled/logged hours x bill rates) + billable expenses (if any).
Margin calculations
Billable fees are included in margin calculations for the Time & materials and Fixed fee projects.
If the project budget is Time & materials:
Margin = ((billable hours x bill rates) - all costs / (billable hours x bill rates) * 100If the project budget is a Fixed fee:
Margin can be based on the total budget
Margin = (project fees - all costs) / project fees * 100Margin can be based on the total billable
Margin = ((billable hours x bill rates) - all costs / (billable hours x bill rates) * 100