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.

Bill rates are directly visible in:
- In Data studio > Rate cards (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

Role bill rates are managed in Data studio > Rate cards. Only Account Owners and Admins can access and manage rate cards.

Role bill rates migration

Previously, role bill rates were set and managed in Team settings > Roles & rates. With the update of Float's navigation, and the introduction of Data studio, role bill rates are now managed in Data studio > Rate cards.

If you were already using role bill rates, they were automatically migrated to a default rate card. To help you adjust, until September 9, 2026, role bill rates also stay visible in Data studio > Roles, alongside your role cost rates. From September 9, 2026, Rate cards will be the only place to set and manage role bill rates.

Learn more about setting up rate cards here.

Bill rates at the person level

Person bill rates 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. If a person has a role assigned, they inherit the role bill rate by default, but it can be overwritten as needed.

To set or update personal bill rate:
1) Open the person's profile and go to the Info tab

2) Enter the bill rate in the Bill rate field

3) Save with Update person

New bill rates will apply only to new projects or phases and will not replace rates in existing ones.

Bill rates at the project level

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 rates are configured in the Team section of the project and apply to that project and its phases (unless phase-specific rates are set separately).

For those projects, there are three ways to set bill rates for a project team:

Use a rate card — the default option. Select a rate card from your available cards (standard or client-specific). Float populates bill rates for the entire project team on both the project and phase levels (if phases exist).
Set manually — set different bill rates for specific people and phases. By default, bill rates are inherited from the role or person level, but can be overridden in the Bill rate field as needed.
Same rate for everyone — set the same bill rate for the whole project team.

Bill rates at the phase level

When a rate card is applied at the project level, the same bill rates carry through to all phases by default.

To set phase-specific rates, switch the project to Set manually or Same for everyone in the project Team tab. You can then edit rates at the phase level. Phase bill rates apply to that phase only.

📝Note: Project and phase rates only apply to bill rates, not cost rates. Any changes to these bill rates at the project or phase level will apply to past and future time on that project or phase. Cost rates remain consistent across all 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.

Rate-level	Rate	Applies to
Role (Designer)	$90/hr	All work by default
Person (Amy)	$100/hr	All Amy's work (overrides role)
Project (Website Redesign)	$110/hr	Amy on that project only
Phase (UI Design)	$130/hr	Amy on that phase only

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

To bulk edit personal bill rates:

Go to the People page
Select the people you want to update
Click Edit
Choose Bill rate
Select the rate type between Set custom rate or Inherit role rate
If you want to Set custom rate, enter the new bill rate
If you want to Inherit role rate, the role bill rates will automatically apply
Click Update

The updated bill rates will apply to selected individuals on the person level and will be applied to new projects and phases. They will not affect the current project or phase bill rates.

Reports

Once bill rates are set, you can use the Report page to analyze your team’s billable time. See these articles to learn more: People Report, Projects Report, and 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) * 100
If the project budget is a Fixed fee:
- Margin can be based on the total budget
  Margin = (project fees - all costs) / project fees * 100
- Margin can be based on the total billable
  Margin = ((billable hours x bill rates) - all costs / (billable hours x bill rates) * 100