Free tool
What does your crew cost per hour?
Put in your own numbers: the crew, what you pay them, the equipment that goes out with them and what the business costs to run each month. You get the true cost of one crew hour, and the rate to charge for the margin you want.
How the number is worked out
Labour is the people on the crew times their average wage, plus the payroll costs you pay on top. Equipment is the hourly cost of everything that leaves the yard with them. Overhead is your monthly running cost spread over the hours the crew actually bills, which is why a slow month makes every hour more expensive. The rate to charge is that cost grossed up for your margin: a 20% margin on a $200 cost is $250, not $240.
Doing this on every quote instead
In Arb Astra each person has an hourly rate and each truck, chipper and saw has an hourly cost. Put the crew and equipment on a job and the quote is costed from them, then the hours from clock-ins and the expenses logged against the job show what it really made, not just what it paid.
Questions
What should I put for payroll costs?
What you pay on top of wages for each hour worked: employer taxes, workers compensation, holiday and vacation pay. It varies by province or state and by your rates, so take the real figure from your bookkeeper or last year's payroll.
Why does overhead go up when crews are quiet?
Rent, insurance and phones cost the same whether the crew works 100 hours or 160. Fewer billable hours means each one has to carry more of it.
Is margin the same as markup?
No. Margin is profit as a share of the price; markup is profit as a share of the cost. This calculator uses margin, so 20% here means a fifth of what the customer pays is profit.