This guide is intended for users with Account Owner and Admin access rights and includes features available only on the Pro and Enterprise plans.
Bill rates are rarely one-size-fits-all: you have standard rates, discounts for long-standing clients, negotiated premium tiers, rush rates, plus the same cards across different currencies. If all of that lives person by person and project by project, you’re spending a lot of time remembering every variation and re-entering it manually when needed. And if you’re missing a central source of truth for every role and project, you’re always a few digits away from a likely pricing error.
Rate cards in Float solve this issue—and the sooner you set them up, the sooner they start to pay off. You create as many rate cards as needed, and they all live in the same place. You set a bill rate for each role on the rate card, then apply it to a project; when a rate changes, you update the card, and every project using it updates too.
What Rate cards look like in Float
A rate card is a named set of bill rates organized by role. For Pro and Enterprise accounts, each rate card has:
A name
A currency, selected from the currencies enabled for your team
An optional client or clients the card applies to
A list of roles with a bill rate set for each
📝 Note: clicking on one of the available rate cards (left) opens the specific card you selected (right).
The right time to use rate cards
On a Pro and Enterprise plan, you can have as many rate cards as you need. Most teams use rate cards in one of three ways:
Rack or standard rates: your default rate card that works as your baseline and applies across all fee-based projects.
Client rates: a client-specific card for clients where you’ve negotiated different terms, like a discount or premium pricing. When a PM sets up a new project and selects that client, only the relevant cards appear.
Multi-currency projects: if you’re working across borders, for example, based in the US but billing a London client in GBP, you can build a GBP rate card with the agreed rates. Float applies the exchange rate to cost rates and keeps margin calculations in the project currency.
A role-based model
Rate cards work the same way as cost rates: both are assigned by role. If your team bills at different rates by level, set up separate roles for each (eg. Senior vs. Junior designer). When you assign someone to a project, Float pulls their bill rate from the role assigned on the card.
A new hire in the same role bills at the same rate automatically.
Rate changes apply to the role and flow through to every project using that card
You can run accurate margin reports without chasing down one-off rate exceptions
Your next steps
Rate cards are created and managed in Data studio, Float’s central place for the operational data your whole team shares. Clients, roles, and rate cards sit together so the information that runs your projects stays in one place and up to date.
To build rate cards, you’ll need Admin access; you can build them manually, upload via CSV, and duplicate existing ones. Once a card exists, any project owner can apply it from the project side panel (if a project role isn’t covered by the card, that role defaults to a zero rate until it’s added).
Ready to set up rate cards? Follow the step-by-step guide.
Need more information on rate cards and how they work with cost rates? Open this companion guide (and download it, if you want a copy) that walks you through the difference between cost and bill rates, and how to apply multi-currency.