What does one billable hour really cost you?

Paid hours = techs × paid hours per week × paid weeks. Loaded labor = paid hours × wage × (1 + burden %). Break-even = (loaded labor + yearly overhead) ÷ (paid hours × billable %). Target rate = break-even ÷ (1 − profit margin). Example with made-up numbers: 3 techs, 40 h, 52 weeks, 65% billable, 30 an hour, 25% burden and 180,000 overhead gives about 102 an hour to break even and about 128 at a 20% margin.

You pay for every hour on the clock, but you can only charge for the ones on a job. Drive time, shop time, training and callbacks are paid but not billed, so the billed hours have to carry them. The full breakdown shows the same costs at different billable shares.

Everything that isn't billable tech wages: rent, vehicles and fuel, tools, insurance, software, phones, marketing, office staff and your own pay if you don't bill your hours. Use last year's accounts if you have them.

Use your own. We don't publish typical figures because we haven't found ones we trust. A timesheet or job-management export for a few weeks will show your real billable share.

Same thing. The tool uses US spelling; it works the same for UK, Canadian and Australian businesses, and the currency picker only changes the symbol.

No. Everything runs in your browser. If you unlock the full breakdown we store your email, the tool and simple counts (techs, billable %, currency).