Overview
Most contractors pick their hourly rate by guessing. This calculator runs the actual math, direct labor, labor burden, overhead allocation, profit target, and realistic billable hours, and outputs your true break-even rate and profitable target rate. It's the single most important number in your business, and most contractors have it wrong.
What's inside
- Direct labor cost input
- Labor burden calculator (payroll tax, workers comp, insurance, PTO, benefits)
- Overhead allocation worksheet
- Billable hours per week assumptions
- Profit margin targeting
- Outputs: break-even rate + profitable target rate
- Editable Excel workbook (opens in Google Sheets too)
- Feeds directly into all Tradesman Office flat rate price books
Who it's for
Every single trade contractor. If you don't know your true hourly rate, everything downstream, your quotes, your flat rate pricing, your profit margins, is built on a guess.
Works best with
Tradesman Office products are designed to work together. Each one feeds into the next, so what you buy here compounds instead of sitting alone in a folder.
- Electrician Flat Rate Price Book, Plug your calculated rate into a Flat Rate Price Book
- Flat Rate Options Presentation Template, Present quotes in 3 tiers with the Options Presentation
See the full system on our How It All Works page.
Why buy from Tradesman Office
Every product in the shop is built by a working electrician, someone who actually uses these tools on real job sites. That means they're calibrated to the problems contractors actually face, not the problems a software designer guessed at from a spreadsheet.
- Excel-first. Buy once, own forever. No subscription, no vendor lock-in.
- Works on any device. Excel, Google Sheets, iPad, wherever you quote from.
- Part of a complete system. Every product here works with the others. See the full flow on our How It All Works page.
- Fast support. Message through Etsy and get a response from the founder within one business day.