Free calculator
Work back from the take-home you need, your overhead, and the hours you can actually bill.
The mistake is dividing the income you want by 2,080 hours a year. Nobody bills 2,080 hours. You bill the hours you are on a job, and you spend the rest quoting, driving, buying materials, invoicing, and chasing the customer who has not paid.
For most solo trades the honest number is 25 to 30 billable hours a week, across 46 to 48 weeks. That is roughly 1,200 to 1,400 billable hours a year - not 2,080. Divide by the smaller number and the rate goes up by half.
Still running jobs beside a day job? The go full-time calculator uses the same numbers to show how many jobs a week it takes to replace the paycheck.
Truck payment, fuel, insurance, phone, software, tools, licensing, and the accountant are all paid out of the same hours. If they are not in the rate, they come out of your take-home without you noticing until the year is over.
If you mark up materials, that profit reduces what the labor rate has to cover. The optional field above accounts for it. If you pass materials through at cost, leave it at zero and the labor rate carries everything.
A rate is a plan. After the job, the profit margin calculator shows whether the hours you assumed matched the hours you spent - which is where most of the money actually goes. Benchmarks to check the result against: handyman hourly rates, painter rates, pressure washing rates, and the rest of the pricing guides. Pricing an employee, not yourself? That is the labor burden calculator.
Far fewer than they work. Quoting, driving, buying materials, invoicing, and chasing payment are unbillable. Most solo trades land near 25 to 30 billable hours a week across 46 to 48 weeks, or roughly 1,200 to 1,400 hours a year.
Yes. Insurance, the truck, fuel, phone, software, tools, and licensing all get paid out of billable hours. A rate that only covers your wage is a rate that quietly bills your overhead to yourself.
The rate you charge. It is the billable rate that clears your take-home and overhead. Your internal labor cost - wage plus payroll burden - is a different, lower number, and it is the one the profit margin calculator uses.
No. Nothing you type is transmitted or stored - the math runs in your browser. There is no account and no email.
See all contractor tools, or jump to estimates built at your rate in 60 seconds.
Compare the hours and costs you quoted against what the job actually took.
Convert between the two, and find the markup that lands the margin you want.
A payment schedule from a job total - deposit, progress draw, and balance, the three payments you will actually collect.
Load payroll taxes, comp, benefits, and paid time off into the true hourly cost of a crew member.
Trade-by-trade launch costs, the monthly bills that start on day one, and your runway.
Fixed costs divided by what a job really contributes - the first number a new business should know.
The all-in monthly cost, the cost on every job, and the extra jobs a month that carry it.
The profit that truly replaces a W2 - benefits and self-employment tax included.
Set your labor rate once in FastEstimateMaker and every estimate uses it, priced and sent in about a minute. Start free - no credit card required.
Build a real estimate freeSolo is $29.99/month with every office feature. Canvass is $59.99/month plus $19.99/month per rep seat.
