Guide · Client health
Your biggest client is not your best.
The client who pays you the most kroner each year is not necessarily the one who pays you best per hour worked. Here is how to figure out who really gives you the most for your time.
Written May 23, 2026 by Mathias Søndberg-Madsen, founder of Timerr.
What is client health?
Revenue per client is the number you already know. The sum of every invoice to that client this year. It is what most freelancers use to judge who their best clients are.
Client health is the other number. It is what you actually earn per hour you work for that client, including everything that never lands on an invoice: emails, small fixes, meeting prep, waiting to get paid.
The two numbers rarely tell the same story. The client who looks best in your books is often not the one who really pays you best per hour worked.
Revenue per client
100.000 kr
What the books say. The sum of invoices. Rank your client list from biggest to smallest.
Real hourly rate per client
~357 kr/t
What you earn per hour you actually work for the client. The number that reveals whether a client is worth the money.
Two clients, same freelancer, wild difference
Anna is a web developer. She has two regular clients. Both look fine in the books. One of the numbers is lying.
Client A
Møller Webshop
Revenue
100.000 kr
Real hourly rate
357 kr/t
Client B
Frydendal Kontor
Revenue
60.000 kr
Real hourly rate
632 kr/t
Møller Webshop pays twice as much per year, but only 357 kr/t. Frydendal Kontor pays 632 kr/t. If Anna found more Frydendal types and spent her Møller time on them, she would earn roughly 77.000 kr more per year for the same hours worked.
What makes a client expensive?
Almost all the invisible time per client falls into one of these four categories. The client who costs you the most usually has two or more of them at once.
Email volume
The client who sends three emails a day. 10 minutes to read and reply here, 15 minutes to dig out a file there. It never lands on the invoice, but it eats hours every week.
Revision load
The client who ALWAYS needs three versions. Every round is an hour you cannot bill, because it was "included". Three revisions per task times ten tasks a year is 30 hours gone.
Meeting frequency
The client who books a status meeting every Friday. A 30 minute meeting plus 15 minutes of prep plus 15 minutes of wrap-up turns into a full hour every week, every single week, all year round.
Payment behavior
The client who always pays 30 days late. Reminders cost time, follow-up costs time, and your cash flow pays a price you rarely factor into the hourly rate.
Work out one client's health
Type in one client's numbers. We will show you what they really pay you per hour you work for them.
The sum of every invoice to this client.
Hours you have invoiced.
Emails, meetings, small fixes, follow-up.
Real hourly rate for the client
kr/t
Share of non-billable time
%
Run this exercise for each of your top 5 clients. The ranking by real hourly rate will surprise you. The most expensive client is often the one that looks best in the books.
What do you do with the number?
Once you know your real hourly rate per client, you can actually act on it.
Rank your top 5 clients by real hourly rate, not revenue
List your five biggest clients by revenue. Work out the real hourly rate for each with the calculator above. Compare the two rankings. The difference is what you have been overlooking until now.
Raise the price at the bottom of the list
The client who really pays you the least per hour worked is the one to negotiate with first. Either on the hourly rate, or on the non-billable time (fewer meetings, fewer revisions, payment up front). If they will not budge, you have just found your next client to drop.
Find more clients who look like the top
The client who really pays you best is your ideal profile. What do they have in common? Industry, project type, way of working, payment behavior. Use it as a filter when you say yes to new clients.
Measure it per client, not just overall
An effective hourly rate across the whole business hides the fact that the bad client is dragging it down. Tracking per client makes each client's health visible, and each negotiation concrete.
Read on
Guide
Effective hourly rate: why your real hourly rate is lower than you think
The same principle, seen across the whole business instead of per client. Where the hidden hours disappear to, and what it costs you per year.
Read the guideGuide
What hourly rate should I charge as a freelancer?
Set your income target first. Work backwards through tax, vacation, and non-billable time. Get the number you actually need to charge.
Read the guideHow Timerr does it automatically
Every client gets its own books.
Timerr works out the real hourly rate per client automatically, from the hours you already log. You see all your clients on one list, sorted by who really pays you best. The most expensive client jumps out right away.
1.
Log hours per client, both billable and non-billable.
2.
Timerr works out the real hourly rate per client automatically.
3.
You see who ranks highest on health, not just on revenue.
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