They want a discount. Here’s what you keep.

The number already left. They asked for a slice of it

In 2026 the PDF went out at a dollar amount. The reply is not “yes.” The reply is “can you do it for less?” Hours did not change. Scope did not change. They want the same work at a smaller invoice. That smaller invoice is the whole point of this card.

Keep = quote you type × (1 − share you type). Off = quote × share. Two products from one sent number. Nothing else is multiplied. There is no hourly floor on this card. There is no N. There is no cap on hours. The floor you already built on the hub is still income, billable weeks, and a tax buffer you set. This page does not clone that slider and does not run a 50-state tax engine. Figures wear a USD sign so $5,000 × 0.10 is readable. If the hourly number is still a shrug, set it on how to set a freelance rate before you treat a slice-off as covering the week.

Worked USD: $5,000 × 0.10 → keep $4,500, off $500

First preset: quote $5,000. Share you type 0.10. Keep: 5,000 × (1 − 0.10) = $4,500. Off: 5,000 × 0.10 = $500. That $4,500 is what lands if you say yes to the slice. That $500 is the money that left the quote. The 0.10 is on the card so the arithmetic is visible. It is a digit you can replace. It is not 10% for nonprofits. It is not 15% for friends. It is not a mill this page published.

Second preset: same $5,000, you typed 0. Keep $5,000. Off $0. Share 0 means you did not cut the quote. The number that left is still the number. Zero is a number you typed, not a claim that every client who asks walks away empty.

Third preset: same $5,000, you typed 0.20. Keep: 5,000 × 0.80 = $4,000. Off $1,000. A larger share is a smaller keep. This page did not pick 0.20 as a market, a friends rule, or a cause rule. You did.

You type the share. This page will not mill a nonprofit table

Blogs love a tidy “give nonprofits 10%” and “friends get 15%.” This card does not ship those tables. No cause mill. No friends mill. No “industry standard courtesy cut.” The 0.10 in the worked example is a digit you can clear. Paste the share they actually named. If they did not name one, type 0 and keep the quote, or type the share you are willing to take and see the keep before you answer.

Share is a fraction of the sent quote: 0.10, not 10. Typing 10 would be 1,000% and this card will not play that game — the box is capped at 1 so keep cannot go negative from a percent-vs-fraction mix-up. Off is always quote × share. Keep is always quote × (1 − share). That is the whole machine.

This card is not a raise, a tiny-job floor, a cap, or a cancel

This is not the floor going up. A raise is new = current × (1 + a percent you type), extra keep per hour, one date, grandfather vs one switch — on the raise-freelance-rate card. Worked there: $75 → $90 is +$15/hr if you typed 20%. That direction is up. This direction is down. If costs moved and the book is full, leave this card and raise. If the quote already sat in their inbox and they asked for money off it, stay here.

This is not a tiny inbound tweak with no live quote. A $40 logo nudge vs N hours × floor, using max(), lives on the minimum-fee card. Default N is a 1-hour worked example they can change. That card has no original PDF. This card assumes the PDF already exists. A brand-new $40 ask is not a slice off $5,000. Two different inboxes.

This is not three named lines stacked into one invoice. Hours A + hours B + hours C × floor, with no share, lives on the bundle card. Worked there: (8 + 4 + 2) × $90 = $1,260. That $1,260 is the number before anyone asked for money off. If they later want a slice of that bundle total, come back here and type $1,260 as the quote. Do not invent “the bundle is already 10% off” on either card. Off is quote × share. The stack is hours × floor.

This is not a lid on hours. A not-to-exceed is billed = min(hours you type × floor, cap they named) on the not-to-exceed card. Worked there: 20h × $90 = $1,800 vs cap $1,500 → billed $1,500, 3.33h unpaid unless they open a change-order. That is a ceiling over the clock. This is a share off a total they already saw. They did not cap the hours. They asked the invoice to shrink.

This is not a cancel. Hours already worked × floor vs the deposit — keep, then the unpaid gap — lives on the kill-fee card. They still want the work. They want it cheaper. A walk and a haircut are not the same email.

This is also not selling the receivable. Keep = invoice × (1 − share) on a net bill you sell to someone else is a different person paying you. Here the same client still pays you. They pay less. Do not paste a factor share into this box and call it a courtesy cut. This is also not a marketplace take-rate mill. Seller-fee tables stay under seller-fees. A client asking for money off your quote is not Depop processing.

Send the sentence before you cut the PDF

Name the quote that already left. Name the share you typed. Name keep. Name off. Copy from the card so the dollars match.

• Worked $5,000 × 0.10. Quoted $5,000.00. Share off I typed 0.10. I keep $4,500.00. Off $500.00. I typed 0.10 — this is not 10% for nonprofits and not 15% for friends. Please confirm keep $4,500.00 before I start.
• You typed 0. Quoted $5,000.00. Share off I typed 0. I keep $5,000.00. Off $0.00. Share 0 means the number that left is still the number.
• You typed 0.20. Quoted $5,000.00. Share off I typed 0.20. I keep $4,000.00. Off $1,000.00. A larger share is a smaller keep. I typed 0.20; this page did not publish it as a friends rule.

Skip speeches about “good partners always take 10% off.” If they named a slice, type it and look at keep. If $4,500 no longer covers the week the hub floor needs, that is a no — or a smaller scope on quote a project — not a secret second cut. If the floor itself moved up, stop cutting and use raise a freelance rate. If there was never a quote, use minimum fee. If they wrote a lid on hours, use not-to-exceed. If the hourly number is still a shrug, build it on how to set a freelance rate.

This is planning math, not a contract

Educational only — not legal, tax, or collections advice. We do not invent a required nonprofit percent, a friends percent, a statutory courtesy cut, marketplace take-rates, or a 50-state tax engine. Confirm live terms in whatever agreement you already use. Typing numbers here does not cut the quote and does not make $5,000 into $4,500.

The math is: quote you type, share they asked off (a fraction you type), keep = quote × (1 − share), off = quote × share, one email-sized sentence. USD labels on this page; currency and tax buffer live on the hub.

Rate calculator Three things, one invoice (no off yet) Raise the floor (the other direction) Tiny job floor (no quote yet) Not-to-exceed (cap on hours) Set the hourly floor

Rebuild the floor on the hub if billable weeks moved. A quote that already left, with a slice they asked off, prints keep and off here. Three named things with no slice yet stack on bundle. The floor going up lives on raise a freelance rate. A $40 inbound tweak with no PDF yet lives on minimum-fee. A lid on the clock lives on not-to-exceed. If the hourly number is still a guess, start on how to set a freelance rate.

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