Where to next
Want the books off your plate?
Book a short call, and we'll give you an expert view of your situation.
Free Consult →What this tool does
Enter direct labor, burden, materials, truck and equipment cost, travel time, a callback allowance, overhead allocation and the profit you want. The calculator returns the price that delivers it and what your planned price actually yields.
How to read the result
- Travel time and callbacks are real costs and they rarely appear on an invoice. Leaving them out is how a 20% target turns into a 6% result.
- Overhead allocation is the line owners set too low. If office, software, insurance and management cost 18% of revenue, the job has to carry 18%.
- Margin and markup are not the same number. A 30% markup on cost is a 23% margin on price, and the gap is the whole profit in a thin-margin trade.
- Compare the price the calculator returns with what the market pays. If they are far apart, the answer is usually cost structure.
Questions we get asked
What margin should a field services business target?
It depends on mix. Service and repair work carries higher margin than installation, and replacement work sits in between. What matters is that each line covers its own direct cost plus its share of overhead plus the profit you need.
Why is my quoted margin never the margin I get?
Usually three things: burden understated, travel unbilled, and callbacks absorbed. Each looks small and together they take most of the profit.
Should I price by the hour or by the job?
Flat rate protects margin when your technicians are efficient, hourly protects you when jobs are unpredictable. Either way the price has to start from fully loaded cost.
If you want this done for you
What happens next
Reading about it and having it done are different things. Here is exactly what happens if you want the second one.
- The call takes thirty minutesYou describe the business and where the numbers are letting you down. We give you an expert view of your situation, and what we would start with. There is no pitch deck.
- We look at the fileYou give us read access to the books as they are. We come back with what is wrong, what it will take to fix, and whether the answer is bookkeeping, controller work, or something else.
- We send a written scope and a priceIt lists what we do each month, what you get, the date it lands and the fee. We agree it before anything starts, and it does not change unless you agree.
- We take over the books and close the first monthWe set up access and systems and enter the opening balances. The first close lands on the date in the scope, and every one after it does too.