# How many hours are your client meetings taking?

> For freelancers and consultants with several clients on Google Meet and Microsoft Teams: how to count each client's meeting hours from your Google and Microsoft calendars by hand, a worked example over four weeks, what the number means for hourly, fixed-price and retainer work, and the signs that a client is drifting. Ends with the TrackHeros Analytics page.

Canonical: https://trackheros.com/blog/how-many-hours-are-client-meetings-taking/  
Author: Sami Kanafani  
Updated: 2026-10-22

**In short:** Count each client's meeting hours over the last four full weeks: open every Google and Microsoft calendar you hold, list each call with or about the client, correct the scheduled length for what actually ran, and add prep and write-up. Compare the total with the hours the work was priced for. TrackHeros shows hours per client for Google Meet and Teams calls on its Analytics page.

To find out how many hours each client's meetings take, count them from your calendars over a fixed window, correct the scheduled times for what actually happened, and add the preparation and write-up around each call. This guide is for freelancers and consultants who work with several clients on Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, often across several Google and Microsoft calendars. It covers the count by hand, a worked example, what the number means for your pricing, and how to tell when a client is drifting. The last section says what TrackHeros shows.

## Why measure meeting hours per client?

Because meetings are the part of client work that grows without anyone deciding it should. Delivery work is estimated, quoted and tracked; meetings are added one invitation at a time, and on a fixed price they come out of your margin.

A per-client number answers three questions you cannot answer from memory. Is this client paying for the time they take? Is the share of their hours spent talking going up? And when you quote the next phase, how many hours of calls should the quote assume? A freelancer with five clients usually has one who takes twice the meeting time of the others. The number tells you which one, and by how much.

## How do you count meeting hours from your calendars by hand?

Pick a window, go through every calendar you hold, and write each client call into one sheet with its real length. It takes about half an hour the first time and less after that.

1. **Choose the window.** The last four full weeks, Monday to Sunday. A calendar month also works, but weeks compare more cleanly.
2. **Open each calendar in turn.** The account each client gave you, your own calendar, and any shared calendar you are invited from. A client's meetings can arrive on more than one of them.
3. **List every call with or about the client.** Include calls with their subcontractors and your own calls with a collaborator about their work. Leave out sales calls before the contract started; they belong to a different question.
4. **Correct the scheduled length.** The calendar shows what was booked, not what happened. Mark calls that ran over, ended early, were cancelled late or that you did not attend.
5. **Add the time around it.** Preparation before, notes and follow-up after. If you have never measured it, time it for one week and use that average for the rest.
6. **Remove duplicates.** The same call on a client's calendar and on your own is one call.

A sheet with these columns is enough:

| Date       | Client   | Meeting        | Booked (min) | Actual (min) | Prep and write-up (min) | Billable? |
| ---------- | -------- | -------------- | ------------ | ------------ | ----------------------- | --------- |
| 2026-10-05 | Client A | Weekly status  | 30           | 45           | 15                      | Yes       |
| 2026-10-06 | Client B | Sprint review  | 60           | 60           | 30                      | Included  |
| 2026-10-07 | Client B | "Quick" call   | 15           | 40           | 10                      | Included  |
| 2026-10-08 | Client C | Steering group | 60           | 50           | 45                      | Yes       |

Watch for the usual traps: declined invitations still on the calendar, cancelled calls nobody removed, all-day blocks that are not meetings, and a client calendar set to the client's time zone rather than yours.

### A worked example

Here is one freelancer's four weeks, with illustrative figures. Delivery hours are the hours spent on the work itself.

|                               | Client A | Client B | Client C |
| ----------------------------- | -------- | -------- | -------- |
| Booked meeting hours          | 6        | 11       | 3        |
| Overruns and extra calls      | 1        | 3        | 0.5      |
| Prep and write-up             | 2        | 4        | 1        |
| **Meeting-related hours**     | **9**    | **18**   | **4.5**  |
| Delivery hours                | 60       | 40       | 30       |
| Meetings as a share of client | 13%      | 31%      | 13%      |

Clients A and C look alike. Client B spends almost a third of its hours in calls or around them, and 7 of the 18 hours never appeared as a calendar slot: they were overruns, unplanned calls and the write-up. If Client B is on a fixed price, those 18 hours are paid for only if the quote assumed them.

## What should count as a client meeting?

Anything you would not have done without the meeting. That is the call itself, the preparation it needed, the notes and follow-up email after it, and any internal call held because of it.

Keep three categories in separate columns rather than one total: the call, the time around it, and calls you did not bill. Billing works from the first two; the third tells you what the client is getting free. The [guide on charging for meetings](/blog/should-freelancers-charge-for-meetings/) covers which of these to bill and how.

## What does the number mean for pricing?

It tells you how much of the client's time you are giving away, and how much to put in the next quote. What to do with it depends on how the client pays.

| How the client pays | What the meeting number tells you                                                                                         |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| By the hour         | How much of the invoice is calls. Useful when a client asks why the invoice is higher than the work they saw              |
| A fixed price       | The hidden cost inside the price. Size the next quote's meeting allowance from it                                         |
| A retainer          | How much of the retainer goes on talking rather than doing. If meetings eat it, delivery shrinks without anyone saying so |
| A day rate          | Whether the days you bill include the calls, or whether calls happen on days you do not bill                              |

A quick check for fixed-price work: divide the hours the fee assumed by the hours the work took. If the fee assumed 40 hours and the work, meetings included, took 58, your effective rate is about 30% lower than the one you quoted. The meetings did not feel like 18 hours. They were.

## How do you spot a client that is drifting?

Compare the same four-week count with the four weeks before, and look at what changed. Drift is rarely one long meeting. It is a new recurring call, two more attendees, and a habit of running fifteen minutes over.

| Signal                                       | What it often means                                   | What to do                                                                                                  |
| -------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| A new recurring meeting                      | Someone new wants visibility                          | Ask what it replaces, and agree when it stops                                                               |
| More attendees each time                     | More stakeholders than you priced for                 | Ask who decides; propose a smaller decision call and a written update for the rest                          |
| Calls run over                               | Agendas are too long, or decisions are not being made | Send the agenda first and stop on time                                                                      |
| Short calls between the scheduled ones       | Questions an email could answer                       | Offer a written answer within a working day                                                                 |
| Meeting hours rising while delivery is level | The work is being discussed rather than built         | Check for new scope; see [scope creep starts in meetings](/blog/scope-creep-starts-in-meetings/)            |
| A status call that keeps growing             | The update is being written live, in the call         | Send the update before the call; see [the weekly status meeting guide](/blog/weekly-client-status-meeting/) |

One rising month is noise. Two in a row is a conversation to have, and it is easier with the numbers in front of you than with a feeling.

## Can calendar tools count it for you?

Partly. They count what was booked on one account, not what ran, and not the time around it.

If you use Google Calendar on a work or school account, [Time Insights](https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/10738043) shows how much time that calendar spends in meetings: open Google Calendar on a computer and select More insights. You can [label events](https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/12377581) by client and track the labels there. It counts an event only if you accepted it, it has at least one other guest, it is marked Busy and it is under eight hours, and an administrator can turn the feature off. It reads one account's calendar, so a freelancer with a client's account and their own gets two partial answers, and has to add them up and remove the duplicates by hand.

Whatever tool counts the booked time, the corrections for overruns and the prep and write-up columns stay yours.

## How does TrackHeros show hours per client?

On the Analytics page. It reads across every client you have, with "Last 7 days" and "Last 30 days" views. The totals at the top are set against the previous period.

- **Tiles** for meetings attended, hours in meetings, meetings summarised and action items captured.
- **Meeting activity**, a chart of meetings attended and missed.
- **Hours per client**, with each client's hours and number of meetings.
- **Bot reliability**, the notetaker's join rate split by platform. Meetings where nobody admitted the bot are left out of it.
- **Next 7 days**, the meetings coming up, and the action items falling due.

The hours come from the Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls the notetaker attended, found on every Google and Microsoft calendar you have connected, so a call it did not join is not in the figure. Prep and write-up are not in it either; they are still your column. Every row carries its client's label and nothing on the page can change anything. The calendars it reads are described on [every calendar in one notetaker](/features/multi-account/), and the read-only view of them is the [unified calendar](/features/unified-calendar/).

## Frequently asked

**How long a period should I measure meeting hours over?**

Four full weeks is a good default. It is short enough to remember what actually happened in each call and long enough to catch a fortnightly meeting twice. Compare it with the four weeks before to see a trend.

**Should prep and write-up count as meeting time?**

Count them, in a separate column. They exist only because the meeting does, and a call that needs an hour of preparation and half an hour of notes costs far more than its calendar slot. Keeping them separate lets you see both numbers.

**Can Google Calendar count my meeting hours for me?**

On a Google work or school account, Time Insights shows time in meetings for that account's calendar, and labels can group events. It counts only events you accepted that have another guest, are marked Busy and are under eight hours, and it works one account at a time, so several accounts give several partial answers.

**What share of a client's hours should go to meetings?**

There is no right figure; it depends on the work. What matters is whether the share matches what you priced for, and whether it is moving. A share that climbs month after month while delivery stays flat is the signal to act on.

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