Contractor Overhead Calculator

The contractor overhead calculator adds up your fixed monthly business costs — rent, insurance, vehicles, admin, and other expenses — and shows what percentage of your revenue those costs consume. This is the number every bid must recover before a job produces any real profit.

Use it once a quarter to keep your overhead percentage accurate, and use the result when pricing jobs so overhead is never an afterthought.

Overhead is every cost that keeps your business running regardless of how many jobs you complete — office or shop rent, insurance premiums, vehicle payments, admin wages, software, and marketing. Unlike materials and labor, overhead doesn't scale directly with a single job, so it has to be spread across all your revenue.

If your monthly overhead is $4,600 and average monthly revenue is $40,000, overhead consumes 11.5% of every dollar you bring in. Every bid needs to include at least that percentage just to break even before profit.

• Right-size your fleet: Idle trucks and equipment are pure overhead with no offsetting revenue.
• Shop insurance annually: Liability and vehicle premiums vary significantly between carriers.
• Cut software sprawl: Consolidate duplicate tools into a single estimating/scheduling platform.
• Negotiate shop/office rent: Consider shared space or a smaller footprint if you're mostly on job sites.
• Track overhead quarterly: Costs creep upward silently — review the number often, not just once a year.