Rent, admin, insurance, software, vehicles
$
Only people whose hours can be sold
Realistic sold hours, not scheduled
After holidays, training, downtime
Wage plus taxes and labor burden
$
% left after labor + overhead
%
Your Numbers
—Target Charge Rate
—Break-Even Rate
—Overhead / Billable Hour
—Annual Overhead
—Annual Billable Hours
—Loaded Labor + Overhead
How the Math Works
Annual billable hours = field staff × sold hours per week × work weeks. Most shops overstate this by counting scheduled instead of sold hours.
Overhead per hour = annual overhead ÷ annual billable hours.
Break-even rate = loaded labor cost + overhead per hour. Charge below this and you lose money on the clock.
Target charge rate = break-even rate ÷ (1 − target profit). That's the floor you should quote from.
Example: $12,000/mo overhead = $144,000/yr. 2 techs × 28 sold hrs × 48 weeks = 2,688 hrs. Overhead per hour ≈ $53.57; add $38 labor for a $91.57 break-even rate.
Build the Rate Into Every Job
Our Flat Rate Price Books bake your labor rate, overhead, and margin into 1,410+ pre-priced services — so the floor is built in instead of recalculated every week.