Overhead Cost Calculator

1. Fill in each overhead category. Start with the defaults and adjust to match your actual expenses. Every dollar you spend to keep the business running that is not tied to a specific job belongs here. Open each section and enter your real monthly numbers.

2. Set your vehicle count. Enter the number of trucks and work vehicles you operate. The calculator multiplies per-vehicle costs (fuel, insurance, maintenance, payments) by your fleet size to get the total vehicle overhead.

3. Enter your context numbers. The number of crews, billable hours per crew, annual revenue, average project size, and working days let the calculator translate raw overhead into per-hour and per-project figures you can use for pricing.

4. Review your results. Check whether your overhead percentage falls within the 25-35% target range. Use the per-hour and per-project numbers to make sure your billing rates cover overhead plus profit.

Overhead is every cost that keeps the business running but cannot be billed to a specific job. It includes rent, vehicles, insurance, office salaries, software, marketing, and licensing. Unlike materials or field labor, overhead does not change based on how many jobs you run in a given week.

Most GC owners know their overhead exists but have never added it up. That means they are guessing when they price projects. If your overhead is $30,000 per month and you do not know it, you cannot build it into your rates, and every project looks more profitable than it actually is.

The per-hour number is the most important output. It tells you exactly how much overhead you burn for every billable hour a crew works. If your overhead per hour is $45 and your average labor rate is $65 per hour, you only have $20 left to cover actual field wages and profit. Knowing this number forces you to price correctly.

The category breakdown shows where your money goes so you can identify the biggest line items. People and vehicles are almost always the top two. If marketing is below 5% of revenue, you may be underinvesting in growth.

Setting project pricing. Before you decide what to charge per hour or how to mark up a job, you need to know your overhead per hour. This calculator gives you that number so you can build rates that actually cover your costs and leave room for profit.

Annual budgeting and planning. At the start of each year, plug in your expected costs to see where you will land. If overhead is creeping above 35% of projected revenue, you know you need to either cut costs or grow revenue before the year gets away from you.

Evaluating growth decisions. Thinking about adding a crew, hiring a project manager, or increasing your ad spend? Enter the new numbers and see how they change your overhead per hour and overhead percentage. This prevents surprises when the bills start rolling in.