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Day-rate work, with the meetings counted honestly.

A "two-day strategy engagement" quoted at €2,800 often consumes four days once the discovery calls, the follow-ups, and the deliverable polish are included. Ensaria tracks each one and shows the real per-day economics, so the next quote calibrates against reality.

Start freeWhat a day rate really is
The problem

Where this usually breaks.

Day-rate pricing solves the hourly-rate problem (race-to-the-bottom positioning) but introduces three new ones:

  1. The unstated day.A “day” means different things to different clients. 8 hours of focused work? Including the kickoff call? Plus a follow-up the next morning? Without a written definition, the cap drifts.
  2. Meeting compression.An engagement quoted as “3 days of strategy work” often becomes 1.5 days of focused thinking and 1.5 days of meetings. The deliverable is the same; your effective rate halves.
  3. Post-delivery support.Two weeks of small clarifying questions after the engagement is “closed.” Each is 20 minutes; the cumulative is half a billable day, unpaid.

Engagement page: quoted days, days used, effective rate per day — visible from day one.

What changes when you measure it

Once your engagement page shows the real-vs-quoted hours split, three things happen. First, your next quote includes a more realistic meeting buffer (you stop quoting 3 days for what your data says is 4.5). Second, you start writing the “day” into the SOW more carefully (“up to two hours of meetings per day, additional meetings billed at hourly”). Third, you can have a calm negotiation when an engagement overruns — backed by data, not vibes.

Read more on day rate, effective rate, and retainer.

In the product

Where this shows up.

A few other surfaces in Ensaria where the same idea lives — none of these are settings you opt into; they're how the product behaves by default.

Today holds your day in one calm column — at a glance, which hours are paying for themselves.

Live effective rate in the top bar, calibrated against your day-rate × actual time.

Sunday Review surfaces engagement profitability + retainer overage in one mono row.

Retainer projects track hours-used vs hours-included with a soft pace projection.

Common questions

I bill day rates, not hourly. Does the math still work?

Yes — set the project's pricing model to day-rate and enter your number (e.g., €1,400/day). Ensaria tracks your actual time inside each engagement and shows your effective hourly rate against it. Useful internally; the client invoice stays clean and day-based.

Most of my work is meetings. How is that tracked?

Two ways. First, recurring blocks for standing weekly/monthly calls. Second, every meeting can be tagged with the engagement it belongs to. At month-end, the engagement page shows hours split into focused time and meetings, so you can see the real shape of how a 'two-day engagement' consumed your week.

What about retainers vs project engagements?

Both are first-class. Retainer projects track hours-used vs hours-included with a soft pace projection. Project engagements track total hours vs quoted total. Sunday Review surfaces both side by side.

Does Ensaria do invoicing?

Not directly. Ensaria exports time and money data to JSON or CSV so your existing invoicing flow stays. The Stripe integration on Pro creates customer records + tracks payment-received, but the invoice template is the existing tool's job.

Related

Read further.

Day rate

What it is, what it hides.

Retainer

The pricing step above day-rate.

Project budgets

Engagement burn lines.

Recurring work

Standing meetings, handled.

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Pro unlocks unlimited engagements, all-time history, recurring meetings, and the Stripe integration.

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