RateCalc.io was built by a recruiter who got fed up of rate calculators that called the gap between cost of employment and bill rate a margin. It isn’t, once invoice finance on a client’s 90-day terms is in. This is the tool that shows you the real number.
I’m Carl. I spent years running a UK recruitment agency and watched my team burn six hours a week on rate proposals and Terms of Business chasing. The bit that really got under my skin was payment terms. Clients ask for 60, 75, 90 days as standard now. Most agencies absorb it because saying no feels like losing the deal. But the cost of that money sitting unpaid is real, and it eats your margin whether you measure it or not.
Every basic rate calculator I tried showed me the gap between cost of employment and bill rate and called that a margin. It isn’t. Once invoice finance on 90-day terms is in, the real number drops by 30 to 40 percent. So I was sending quotes that looked healthy on the surface and absorbing the difference quietly.
I left the agency in January 2026 to work on RateCalc.io full-time. The whole point is to give you the honest number on every quote, then help your consultants build, send and sign Terms of Business without bouncing between three tools. Then show you, the agency owner, who on your team is converting, who’s giving terms away, and who’s holding the line.
I think it’s time more of us charged clients properly for the long terms they ask for. RateCalc.io makes that conversation easy.
The honest number, not the surface number
Most rate calculators show you the gap between cost of employment and bill rate and call that a margin. RateCalc.io layers in your invoice finance against the debtor days your client is asking for and shows you what you actually keep. Once-and-for-all clarity, on every quote.
Built around the way you actually work
Recruitment moves at the pace of phone calls and emails, not project-management tools. Every flow is designed to be finished in the gaps between conversations, not in a dedicated admin block.
Multi-consultant by design
If you've got two consultants quoting different numbers to different clients, you should be able to see that in one place. RateCalc.io attributes every quote to the consultant who built it and shows you who's converting, who's giving terms away, and who's holding the line.
No bloat
We don't add features you didn't ask for. RateCalc.io will never become an ATS, CRM, payroll engine or invoicing platform. It does one job and hands the result to the tools that do those other jobs better.
The rate engine is sector-agnostic by design. Driving recruitment is fully built out today; industrial, healthcare and construction templates follow, each tuned for how that part of the market actually prices work. Multi-consultant analytics, in-browser Terms of Business signing and the true-margin contrast all work the same across every sector.
If you spend more than an hour a week on rate proposals, you’ve ever winced at the bill from your e-signature platform, or you’re running a team of consultants and can’t see at a glance who’s quoting what, we’d like to hear from you.
Operating from the United Kingdom · 7-day free trial, cancel from inside the app in two clicks · always reachable at hello@ratecalc.io.