Overhead Cost Calculator
Add up all monthly/annual overhead costs to know your true break-even. HVAC-specific categories and benchmarks.
Facility (Monthly)
Fleet (Per Truck)
Insurance (Monthly)
People (Monthly, Non-Tech)
Operations (Monthly)
Compliance (Monthly)
Marketing (Monthly)
Other (Monthly)
Context (For Per-Hour & Per-Call Math)
Results
Category Breakdown (Monthly)
HVAC Overhead Benchmarks
How to Use This 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 fleet size. Enter the number of trucks you operate. The calculator multiplies per-truck costs (fuel, insurance, maintenance, payments) by your fleet size to get the total fleet overhead.
3. Enter your context numbers. The number of techs, billable hours per tech, annual revenue, daily service calls, and working days let the calculator translate raw overhead into per-hour and per-call 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-call numbers to make sure your billing rates cover overhead plus profit.
How HVAC Overhead Works
Overhead is every cost that keeps the business running but cannot be billed to a specific job. It includes rent, trucks, insurance, office salaries, software, marketing, and licensing. Unlike materials or tech labor, overhead does not change based on how many jobs you run in a given week.
Most HVAC business owners know their overhead exists but have never added it up. That means they are guessing when they set prices. If your overhead is $30,000 per month and you do not know it, you cannot build it into your rates, and every job 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 tech works. If your overhead per hour is $130 and you bill the customer $150 per hour, you only have $20 left to cover the tech's wages and profit. That math does not work. Knowing this number forces you to price correctly.
Fleet_Monthly = Trucks × (Fuel + Insurance + Maintenance + Payment)
Total_Monthly = Facility + Fleet + Insurance + People + Operations + Compliance + Marketing + Other
Annual_Overhead = Total_Monthly × 12
Per_Tech = Annual_Overhead / Number_of_Techs
Per_Hour = Annual_Overhead / (Techs × Billable_Hours × 12)
Per_Call = Annual_Overhead / (Calls_Per_Day × Working_Days × 12)
Overhead_Pct = (Annual_Overhead / Annual_Revenue) × 100
The category breakdown shows where your money goes so you can identify the biggest line items. People and fleet are almost always the top two. If marketing is below 6% of revenue, you may be underinvesting in growth.
When HVAC Pros Use This
Setting billing rates. Before you decide what to charge per hour or per call, 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. Without it, you are guessing.
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 truck, hiring a dispatcher, 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 after you have already committed.