Hourly rate calculator for service businesses
Work out what to charge per hour from what you want to take home, what the business costs to run, and how many hours you can actually bill. It's built for owner-operators in any trade (cleaning, lawn care, handyman, HVAC, detailing), and it shows the working, not just the answer.
1. Your numbers
The figures already filled in are examples only, so you can see how it works. They are not market rates. Replace them with your own.
2. The working
Your pay is an after-tax number, so the calculator first works out the profit before tax that leaves you that much, then adds the business costs and spreads the total over the hours you can actually bill.
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Profit needed before taxtake-home ÷ (1 − tax set-aside) | $80,000.00 |
| Revenue needed to break evenprofit before tax + business costs | $98,000.00 |
| Billable hours per yearweeks × hours per week × billable share | 1,512 |
| Break-even hourly raterevenue ÷ billable hours | $64.81 |
| Hourly rate with marginbreak-even rate ÷ (1 − margin) | $72.02 |
| Revenue per year at that ratehourly rate × billable hours | $108,888.89 |
| Revenue per working weekrevenue per year ÷ weeks worked | $2,268.52 |
Hourly rate with margin $72.02, break-even $64.81.
These numbers come from your inputs. You decide the final price. If you quote flat prices per job, use this rate to check them: estimate the billable hours a job takes and multiply. Then check the result against your local market.
3. Why billable hours matter most
Most owners divide by every hour they work. But an hour spent driving, quoting or doing invoices earns nothing unless it's in the price. With the example numbers, 45 hours a week for 48 weeks is 2,160 hours, but only 1,512 of them are billable. Dividing by 2,160 would make the rate about 30% too low.
4. Before you use the rate
- Crews cost more than wages. If you pay a crew, put their full cost (wage plus payroll taxes, workers' comp and benefits) into your business costs, and their billable hours into the hours.
- Re-check it every year. Insurance, fuel and equipment costs move, and the rate should follow them.
- Track real hours. After a month, compare the billable share you guessed with what really happened.
From jobtill.com/tools. Use your own numbers; this calculator doesn't suggest prices and isn't tax advice. Nothing you type is sent or saved: the math runs in your browser.
How JobTill helps
- Real times on every visit: crews clock in and out on each job, so you can see how many hours really go into the work.
- Invoicing: send the invoice in one click when the job's done.
- Every feature in every plan. Plans differ only by team size.
The price is always yours to set. Start a 14-day free trial. No credit card needed.