Free tool for contractors

What does a day of running your business cost?

List what you spend to keep the doors open and see your overhead per year, month, working week and working day — the number every day on a job has to earn back before you make a dollar.

Go further with the Overhead Workbook

Everything on this page, plus the numbers that turn overhead into prices:

  • What each employee really costs per billable hour — taxes, workers' comp, benefits, their truck
  • Your daily overhead rate, ready to put in Remodelr's estimates and change orders
  • Break-even sales, and the sales you need for the profit you want
  • The overhead and profit percentages to price at
  • Saved in your account, with a printable report
$37 one time, inside Remodelr Start a free trial Add the workbook once you're in.

What this calculator counts

Overhead is everything it costs to run the business that you can't charge to one particular job: the shop, the office, the trucks, insurance, licences, software, marketing, your accountant. Materials, field labor and subs for a job are job costs — they go on the estimate, not here.

The yearly total is every line turned into a yearly amount. Per month is that ÷ 12. Per working week and per working day divide by the weeks and days you actually work, because that's when overhead gets earned back.

Questions contractors ask

What counts as overhead for a contractor?

Everything it costs to run the business that you can't charge to one particular job: shop or office rent, office staff, vehicles, insurance, licences, software, marketing, your accountant, bank fees. Materials, field labor and subs for a job are job costs, not overhead.

Why use working days instead of calendar days?

Overhead is paid every day of the year but only earned back on the days you're working a job. Spreading it over 365 days makes each working day look cheaper than it is.

Should I include my own pay?

If you're paid as a field worker and that time is billed to jobs, no — it's a job cost. If you run the business and your pay isn't billed to any job, yes: it's overhead, and leaving it out is one of the most common reasons a busy contractor ends the year with nothing.

I run more than one job at a time. How does that change my daily overhead?

Your overhead per working day is shared by every job you have going. Divide it by the number of jobs you reliably run at once to get what each job has to carry per day — $484 a day over 2 jobs is $242 a day each, so a 15-day job carries $3,630. Use the number you can keep going, not your busiest month, or every job carries too little.

How do I use my daily overhead number?

Every working day a job runs, it has to cover that number before it makes profit. Use it to check whether a job priced at so many days covers its share, and as the daily overhead on change orders that add days.

Put your overhead on every estimate.

Remodelr applies your overhead and profit to every estimate, change order and draw, and shows what each job actually made.

14 days free, then $97 a month. Cancel before it ends and you're not charged.