What does saying yes to a Friday deadline actually cost me?

Saturday. The original work still happens. On top of it come the hours after they get the file on Friday: they open it, you join a call, you fix what they found. Same fee, more hours, lower effective rate. In the worked example, 4,350 over 50 hours is 87 an hour against a floor of 85. Add eight Saturday hours and it is 75.

Should I charge extra for a rush as a freelancer?

If Friday is a different product, it gets a different number, written down before you start. This page is about the other case, which is more common: you said yes in a message and charged nothing extra. Then the only honest move is to count the extra hours against that job so you can see what the yes actually paid.

Should I log weekend hours against the project?

Yes, against that project, not as overtime or admin. Overtime disappears into a busy week and gets spread over every client. Logged on the job, Saturday lands in the effective rate, which is the only place it changes the next quote.

What saying yes to Friday actually costs, counted in hours

A shorter deadline is sold as a favour. The hours do not treat it as one. Keep the fee, add the Saturday that only exists because of Friday, and you see whether the job still clears the floor.

They asked for Friday. You worked Saturday. Nobody paid for that. A shorter deadline is sold as a favour. Saturday is not a favour. It is hours, the fee does not move, and the effective rate is the same division it always was.

Friday is the promise. Saturday is the hours.

The quote was already sent. 4,350 over 50 hours, 87 an hour, two above the floor of 85 you set. Then a message: can it be Friday.

Yes is one word. It does not reopen the number. What it reopens is the weekend.

Saturday is easy to miss because it does not look like the job. It looks like being helpful:

They open the file
You join a call
You fix what they found

Call that eight hours. None of it was in the 50. On the original date they would have opened it on Monday, inside the week you already sold. Friday is what pulled Saturday into the job.

The same fee, two rates

One division, twice.

4,350 ÷ 50 = 87 an hour. Two dollars above the floor, which is the lowest rate at which you still wanted the work. Almost no spare.

Add Saturday.

4,350 ÷ 58 = 75 an hour.

Ten dollars under the line, on hours the email never mentioned. The work you quoted is not what went under. Saturday is.

Same fee, two readings. 4,350 over 50 hours sits two dollars above the floor. 4,350 over 58 hours, after Saturday, does not.

If you quoted well above the floor, eight hours still lower the rate. They may not cross. A job at 100 an hour over 50 hours, plus eight, is 86. Still clear of 85. The floor is how you see either result without guessing. This example is the tight quote, which is the one a Friday yes usually sits on: you were already close to the line, then you gave the weekend away.

Where those hours belong

File Saturday against the project, not under overtime.

Overtime and admin are real non-billable hours, and they get carried by every client. Saturday on this job does not work like that. It has a date on it, and a message that caused it.

Put it under overtime and a busy week hides it. Put it on the job and it lands in the effective rate, which is the only place it changes the next Friday.

This is the same attribution as chasing a late invoice: extra hours, one client, fee unchanged. The difference is when they happen. Chasing starts after the work. Saturday starts because you moved the date.

What to do with the next Friday

Log it as it happens. A timer on Saturday feels fussy for about a minute. It is also the only version of the number you will not round down in March.

Quote Friday as Friday. The original window is the product. A shorter one is a different number, written before you start, not a favour in the thread. If they want the original window, they already have a quote.

Sell the slower calendar. Friday is the upsell. The yes in the message, with no new number, is how Saturday goes unpaid. You can still say yes. You just send a number with it.

A Saturday you choose, on a quote that still clears the floor after the extra hours, is fine. A Saturday you absorb because yes was easier than a sentence is a discount with a deadline on it.

Where CronLoom comes in

CronLoom does not have a rush switch and does not send invoices. What it does is keep the division current: you track against a project, including the hours after 6pm and on Saturday, and the effective rate on that project is the fee divided by every hour logged. When those hours pull it under the floor, it is flagged then rather than at year end.

In the example above, that flag would fire. 75 is under 85.

The effective hourly rate calculator does the same division for a single job if you want to check the last Friday you said yes to. If you want the number tracked as you work, join the waiting list.

Try it on the last Friday you moved

Take the fee. Take the hours you quoted. Add the hours that only existed because the date moved. Divide.

Then ask whether the number you get is one you would have sent in the original email.