What should you charge an hour?
Most rates are a guess, or a copy of the bloke down the road. Put in your team, your vehicles and everything the business pays for, and this gives you the rate you need to break even and the rate you need to make money.
Set up for New Zealand: KiwiSaver at the 3.5% employer minimum, 12 public holidays, 10 sick days and 4 weeks’ leave. The other figures are examples. Change every one to your own. Your numbers stay on this device.
Your team
Everyone on the payroll, you included. Office staff go in at 0% billable.
Billable % is the share of time at work you can put on an invoice. The rest is travel, pick-ups, quoting and call-backs.
Vehicles
One line per ute, van or trailer.
Rent and leases
Workshop, office, storage, equipment leases.
Insurance
Public liability, tools, income protection. Vehicle insurance goes under vehicles.
Software and subscriptions
Job management, accounting, take off, anything billed monthly.
Phones and internet
One line per plan, or one line for the lot.
Everything else
Accountant, licences, tools, uniforms, marketing, bank fees.
Profit
What you want left after every cost above, as a share of what you charge.
$136.74
an hour, ex GST
Every hour billed under $109.40 costs you money. You pay for 3,952 hours and can bill 2,320 of them.