Proposal templates Hourly

Hourly proposal template

When you bill by the hour, Jonathan Stark points out, you're not really giving clients a price; you're giving them an estimate. The argument hourly work invites is the invoice that arrives above a number the client read as a price. This template labels the estimate as one and caps it.

Hourly suits genuinely uncertain work: bug fixing, legacy code, ad-hoc support, or clients whose procurement requires it. When the client needs a firm budget for work you can define, send a fixed-price proposal instead.

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Written by Shaish Guni, Founder, ApeiroCraft.Last reviewed 7 October 2026Kathmandu, Nepal

Try it with your own numbers.

Type a client, a fee and a timeline and watch this proposal fill in. No account, no email.

Client name

Project fee

Example figure — illustrative, not a pricing recommendation.

For Your client$5,000

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Runs in your browser — nothing you type is saved or sent, or carried into the editor.

Prepared for Your client

Preview

Hourly proposal with an estimate

Estimate

Example fee$5,000

Total$5,000

Illustrative figure.

The work

[Task or area 1]
[Task or area 2]
[What is out of scope]

Signature

Your client signs here once you send it.

What's in the template.

Every section below exists to answer a question your client is silently asking. Use the example copy as a starting point and replace the specifics.

1
The work and the assumptions
List the tasks and the assumptions behind the estimate. When an assumption turns out wrong, it's the line you point to.
“Fix the checkout errors logged since the last update, upgrade the payment library, and document the deployment. This assumes the staging server mirrors production and we have admin access from day one. Out of scope: new features.”
2
Estimate, by task
Your rate times the estimated hours for each task, totalled and labelled as an estimate. AIGA's estimating method is the same: estimated hours per person times the standard rate, plus outside purchases.
“Checkout fixes: est. 10 hours at [rate]. Library upgrade: est. 8 hours at [rate]. Documentation: est. 3 hours at [rate]. Estimate: [total]. This is an estimate, not a fixed price.”
3
The cap
A not-to-exceed figure with a warning point. Commercial time-and-materials contracts require written notice when spend reaches 75% (in some, 85%) of the cap, and written approval to go past it.
“Total charges will not exceed the estimate above without your written approval. We'll tell you in writing when 75% of it has been used, with a revised estimate if we expect to need more.”
4
Billing and timesheets
Hourly work is billed in arrears, weekly or monthly, with the time records behind each invoice. Records decide hourly disputes; New York State's freelance law even requires the contract to say when the freelancer submits a list of services rendered.
“Time is billed monthly in arrears, in 15-minute increments, with a timesheet showing the hours behind each invoice. Please raise any question about a timesheet within 7 days of the invoice.”
5
Day rate, if you use one
If some of the work is booked by the day, define the day: how many hours, whether there's a half-day minimum, and how travel is handled.
“A day rate covers up to 8 hours on one day; part days are billed by the hour. Travel is billed separately, at cost.”
6
Rates and changes
Say how long the rate holds and how much notice you'll give before it changes.
“These rates hold for 6 months from signing. After that, we'll give 30 days' notice of any change.”

Example pricing section

Checkout fixes, est. 10 h at $95 (example)

$950

Library upgrade, est. 8 h

$760

Documentation, est. 3 h

$285

Estimate, not exceeded without approval

$1,995

Written notice at 75% used

$1,496

In ApeiroCraft these line items flow straight into the invoice after signing — nothing gets retyped.

Tips that win hourly work

Call the total an estimate, everywhere it appears. A bare 'Total' reads as a fixed price, and the invoice that exceeds it becomes the dispute.
Set the warning before the cap, not at it. Telling the client at 75% gives them time to approve more or cut scope.
Send the timesheet with the invoice. Hours you can show are hours that get paid.
Hold the rate for a stated period and give notice before changing it. A rate rise mid-month, unannounced, is a dispute you started.
If the client needs a firm budget for work you can define, don't send this. Send a fixed price.

Hourly proposals, answered.

How do I write an hourly rate proposal?

List the tasks and your assumptions, estimate the hours for each at your rate, total it and label it as an estimate. Then add a not-to-exceed cap with a warning point, and say how often you'll invoice and that a timesheet comes with each invoice.

Is an hourly estimate binding?

Only if the contract says so. This template turns the estimate into a cap: charges won't exceed it without the client's written approval. Without a cap, the client has no protection against an open-ended bill, and you have no answer to the argument that the estimate was a price.

How often should I invoice hourly work?

Periodically and in arrears: weekly, every two weeks or monthly, with a timesheet behind each invoice. A deposit is optional; AIGA's standard form allows one to be held and applied to the final bill.

Does ApeiroCraft handle hourly billing?

Partly, and here is where it stops. The proposal, the estimate and the e-signature work as they do for any proposal. This template has no payment schedule, so nothing is invoiced at signing; you raise an invoice each month for the hours worked. ApeiroCraft doesn't track time, and it doesn't yet show an estimate range or a cap as a pricing field, so the cap lives in the terms, as it does here.

Send it where you can watch it get signed.

This template as a tracked, e-signable link — with the invoice one click away once your client says yes.

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More proposal templates

Same structure, written for a different kind of work. All free, no account needed.

While you're here

Free template

Hourly proposal template

Try it with your own numbers.

What's in the template.

The work and the assumptions

Estimate, by task

The cap

Billing and timesheets

Day rate, if you use one

Rates and changes