Hourly Rate / Freelance Pricing Calculator mechanism

Model scope

The core hourly-rate formula is mathematically valid only when target_income plus overhead represents the required annual revenue and utilization_pct is converted from a percentage to a decimal. The specification needs an explicit tax-buffer formula or removal of that input, definitions for day and project rates, and validation and unit conventions before approval.

• The tax buffer % input is not used in the hourly-rate formula. If target_income is a desired after-tax income, the formula needs an explicit tax-buffer convention, such as (target_income+overhead)/(1-tax_buffer_pct), subject to the intended interpretation.
• No formulas are provided for the declared day rate or project rate suggestion outputs, so those outputs cannot be verified or reproduced.
• The formula does not state whether target_income and overhead are annual amounts in the same currency and accounting basis.

Units and conventions

• target_income and overhead are annual monetary amounts in the same currency.
• working_weeks is measured in weeks per year and hours_per_week is hours per working week.
• utilization_pct is entered as a percentage from 0 to 100 and converted to a decimal by dividing by 100.
• The hourly rate output is monetary units per billable hour.
• No tax adjustment is applied in the listed formula; tax_buffer_pct is ignored unless a revised formula defines how it is used.
• Day rate and project rate cannot be calculated without definitions for hours per day and project scope or estimated project hours.

Inspectable vector

One of 4 source-bound review vectors:

{
  "inputs": {
    "target_income": 60000,
    "overhead": 12000,
    "working_weeks": 48,
    "hours_per_week": 40,
    "utilization_pct": 60,
    "tax_buffer_pct": 25
  },
  "expected_outputs": {
    "billable_hours": 1152,
    "required_hourly_rate": 62.5,
    "day_rate": null,
    "project_rate_suggestion": null
  },
  "working": "billable_hours = 48 × 40 × (60 ÷ 100) = 48 × 40 × 0.60 = 1,152 hours.\\nrate = (60,000 + 12,000) ÷ 1,152 = 72,000 ÷ 1,152 = 62.50 per billable hour.\\ntax_buffer_pct = 25 is not used by the supplied formula. Day rate and project rate are undefined because no formulas are supplied."
}

Failure boundary

BREAK_CLAIMED · SELF_FLAGGED

The zero-utilization case produces a division by zero and must be rejected. Additionally, tax_buffer_percent is an input without a defined role in the supplied formula, and project_rate_suggestion cannot be computed without project-duration inputs.

Other records

Sources and evidence

These pointers bind the page to evidence. They do not grant authority or collapse verification into deployment.

• VERIFIED_LEDGER.json
• evidence-tranche5/tranche5-results.json
• BOUNDARY_HAZARD_CATALOG.json