What is a rate card?

What a rate card is really doing

Publishing rates looks like giving away negotiating position and mostly does the opposite. It filters. A buyer with a fifteen thousand dollar budget and a hundred thousand dollar problem finds out before either side spends an hour in a meeting, and a buyer whose expectations are in range arrives already halfway to a decision. It also anchors. Once a senior designer's day rate is a published number, a discussion about a project moves to how many days rather than to whether the rate is reasonable, which is a much better conversation to be having. The businesses that suffer without one are those repeatedly asked for a ballpark, since every answer given verbally becomes a number the client remembers and the business does not.

What belongs on the page

Roles or units, each with a rate and a plain description of what that role actually does, since a client cannot tell a producer from a project manager. The unit itself, stated exactly: an hour, a day of what length, a week of how many days. Minimums, because a half day rate that nobody will sell should not be on the card. Loadings for rush work, weekends or out of hours, expressed as a percentage. What is included, particularly revision rounds, meetings and travel, and what is charged separately. Expenses policy, licensing and usage terms where relevant. A validity period. And a short line saying the card is indicative and that a quotation follows for defined work, which prevents it being treated as a binding price list.

Blended rates and where they hide problems

Many firms publish a single blended rate rather than a rate per role, on the theory that it is simpler and protects the mix. It is simpler, and it hides two things. A client cannot see whether their work is being done by the senior person they met or by the newest hire, which erodes trust when they eventually find out. And the firm loses the ability to sell a cheaper mix on a price sensitive job, because there is nothing to vary. A rate per role, with an honest note that most projects use a mix and a typical blend of that mix, gives both flexibility and transparency. Where a blended rate is genuinely simpler for the buyer, publish both.

Discounts, and how to hold a rate

Rates get discounted, and the discount should have a reason attached: volume committed in advance, a long term retainer, a not for profit rate, a fixed price accepted in exchange for scope certainty. A discount granted because the client asked, with no reason on the page, is a permanent reduction to that client's rate and a story their peers will hear. Publish the discount structure where one exists, so the same client asking twice receives the same answer. Where a rate has to hold across a long engagement, say for how long and what triggers a review, since an annual increase written into the agreement is far easier than the conversation about raising rates on an existing client.

Publishing, updating and who sees it

Some businesses publish rates openly, some send the card on request, and both work. What does not work is three versions circulating with different numbers, which happens the moment a card lives in a slide deck that everybody copies. Keep one document with a version and a date, update it on a set cycle rather than reactively, and tell existing clients before the new one reaches them. Media owners and production companies conventionally publish a seasonal or annual card, and buyers plan against it. Service firms tend to review at the start of the financial year. Either rhythm is fine; the absence of one is what leaves a business quoting from a card written three years ago.

Questions people ask