Contractor Overhead Calculator
Insurance, truck, tools, phone, software, accounting — it all has to come out of job revenue. Total your monthly overhead and see it as a percentage of revenue and as a per-billable-hour rate.
Overhead rate = Monthly overhead ÷ Billable hours$1,670.00 ÷ 500 = $3.34Rule of thumb: if overhead eats more than ~25% of revenue in a small trade business, either fixed costs or utilization deserve a hard look. Whatever the number, every job price must include a slice of it.
Landscaping: where the number comes from
A two-truck landscaping operation totals its monthly fixed costs to find the per-hour rate every job must carry.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Monthly fixed costs | $1,670 (insurance, trucks, tools, software, accounting) |
| Monthly revenue | $30,000 |
| Billable hours | 500 |
Result: $3.34 per billable hour of overhead to recover
Added to a $36.94 burdened labor rate, the crew's break-even labor price is $40.28/hr before any profit. At 500 hours/month that's $1,670 of overhead that must come back through prices.
Load this example into the calculatorThe calculation
| Monthly overhead | $1,670 |
| % of revenue | $1,670 ÷ $30,000 = 5.6% |
| Per billable hour | $1,670 ÷ 500 = $3.34/hr |
How this calculator works
Every result comes from the formulas below — the math shown is the math used. Change any input and results update instantly in your browser; nothing is sent to a server.
- Monthly overhead:
Overhead = Sum of Monthly Fixed Costs - Overhead as % of revenue:
Overhead % = Monthly Overhead ÷ Monthly Revenue × 100 - Overhead per billable hour:
Overhead Rate = Monthly Overhead ÷ Monthly Billable HoursAdd this rate to your labor cost on every job, or recover it inside your markup — but recover it deliberately.
What the result means
The per-hour rate is the slice of rent, insurance, vehicles and software every billable hour must carry. Add it to your burdened labor rate, or recover it inside your markup — but recover it on purpose.
When to use it
Use it to see what your business costs each month independent of any job, and what every hour must carry.
Common mistakes
- Mixing job-specific costs into overhead (double-counting) or leaving recurring costs out.
- Never turning the total into a per-hour or per-job number, so it never gets recovered.
Frequently asked questions
How much overhead do contractors have?
Small trade businesses commonly run overhead at 10–25% of revenue, depending on vehicle fleets, shop space and office staff. The number that matters is yours: list every recurring cost that isn't tied to a specific job, total it, and divide by the revenue or billable hours that have to cover it.
What counts as overhead vs. a job cost?
Job costs are spent on a specific job: materials, subcontractors, crew wages on that site. Overhead keeps the business running regardless of any single job: insurance, rent, vehicle payments, licenses, software, bookkeeping. If a cost exists even when no job is running, it's overhead.
Know your overhead? See how many jobs a month it takes to cover it.
Find your break-even point →Related tools and guides
Contractor Overhead Calculator is part of RateCraft, a set of free pricing and estimating tools for contractors and service businesses. Results are calculated entirely in your browser and are estimates for planning purposes — see our disclaimer and methodology.