Free tool
Client check in capacity planner
Set your coaching hours, your check in cadence and the minutes that surround each call, and see the honest ceiling on how many clients you can carry.
Free tool, no sign up
Coaching engagement yield calculator
Enter your monthly fee, your roster and the hours each client really takes, and see what an engagement is worth and what an hour of coaching actually earns.
A monthly coaching fee looks healthy until you count the hours behind it. Between the session itself, the prep before it, the plan update after it and the message on day nine when a client panics about a bill, an engagement can absorb twice the time you priced. This calculator makes that visible in dollars per hour.
The engagement value figure is also the number to use when you talk about your work. Selling a six month mapped engagement is a different conversation from selling a session, and coaches who quote the engagement total tend to hold their price better and lose fewer clients before month three.
Your result
Value of one full engagement
$2,100
What a single client is worth if she stays the whole way.
Coaching revenue this month
$2,800
Fees from the roster you are carrying today.
Effective rate per working hour
$100.00
Revenue divided by every hour clients take, billed or not.
Left after overhead
$1,900
What remains before tax to pay you for the work.
These figures assume every active client pays in full this month, so treat the margin as a ceiling rather than a forecast.
Why the hourly yield is the number that matters
Most coaches can quote their session rate instantly and have no idea what an hour of their week actually returns. The gap between the two is prep, plan updates, check in notes and the messages that arrive between sessions. Put one unbilled hour per client per month into the calculator and watch how far the effective rate falls below the rate on your website.
There are only three levers. Raise the fee, shorten the unbilled hours, or carry more clients within the same hours. The third one is where structure helps most, because a standing plan document and a repeatable check in cut the prep time per client without cutting the value she receives.
Reading the margin against a real cost base
The overhead field is where solo coaches under count. A US practice typically carries professional liability coverage, an entity filing, accounting help, a scheduling tool, a client workspace, credential renewal and continuing education, plus whatever you spend to be found. Add those up annually and divide by twelve before you type a number in.
If the margin line looks thin, resist the urge to add clients first. Run the check in capacity planner alongside this one, because a roster your week cannot actually hold shows up three months later as missed check ins, quiet clients and an attrition problem that costs more than the extra fees brought in.
Questions about this calculator
Should I count discovery calls in the unbilled hours?
Count them if they are frequent enough to shape your week. A cleaner method is to average discovery time across the clients who actually sign, then add that to the unbilled hours field. It usually adds a quarter hour per client per month.
My clients pay per session, not monthly. Can I still use this?
Yes. Multiply your session rate by the number of sessions a typical client books in a month and enter that as the monthly fee. The engagement value line then shows what a typical run of sessions is worth in total.
What is a reasonable effective hourly rate for a solo coach?
It depends on your market and your cost base, but the useful test is whether the effective rate still supports your practice after overhead and self employment tax. If the number surprises you, the fix is usually unbilled hours rather than the headline fee.
More free tools and working documents
Working document
The shared money map plan template
A four part working template for the plan document you build with a client in the first session and update at every monthly check in.
Hold that figure through a full twelve months
Whether you landed on an engagement value or a client ceiling, the number is only true while your check in routine stays as tight as the one you typed in. On a call we take the figures from this screen and walk them across a year of check ins, showing where the prep minutes come back and where a roster at capacity starts dropping months. About half an hour, and you keep whatever you learn either way.