Williams Air Solutions

Break-Even Calculator

How many billable hours your shop needs per month just to cover overhead — and whether your current team can deliver them.

Monthly Overhead

$
Everything you pay to keep the doors open that is not a direct job cost. Rent, insurance, office staff, software, marketing, accounting, fleet, and utilities. Find this on your P&L statement as total operating expenses minus cost of goods sold. If you do not have a P&L, add up your monthly bills: rent + insurance + office salaries + software subscriptions + marketing + vehicle payments + phone/internet. That total is your monthly overhead.

Rates

$ /hr
Effective billing rate is your total service revenue divided by total billable hours. It is not your price book rate. It captures the blended effect of different job types, discounts, and agreement member rates. If you do not know this number, use your average billing rate as an estimate, but know it is likely optimistic.
$ /hr
Loaded labor rate is the true cost per billable hour after taxes, benefits, and overhead are included. Calculate it first if you do not know this number.

Team

Field technicians who run service calls and generate billable hours. Do not count office staff, dispatchers, or managers.
days
Typical is 22 (Monday through Friday, 4 weeks). Adjust for shops that run 6-day weeks.

Enter your monthly overhead, billing rate, and loaded labor rate to see your break-even point.

What to do with this number
  1. If the gap is negative, you have two levers. Either raise your effective billing rate (switch from T&M to flat-rate pricing, reduce discounts, increase material margins) or reduce monthly overhead. There is no third option.
  2. Use this to justify flat-rate pricing. T&M billing at $85/hr often cannot close a break-even gap because the effective rate after discounts, warranty work, and downtime is lower than the price book rate. Flat-rate pricing at $100–$120 effective is how top-quartile shops close the gap.
  3. Feed the overhead rate into the Price Book Builder. Divide your monthly overhead by your monthly billable hours to get your overhead rate per hour. Use the Price Book Builder to make sure every job recovers its share of overhead.
  4. Track utilization weekly. The Weekly Scorecard tracks billable hours per tech. If utilization drops below 5.7 hrs/day for more than two weeks, dispatch and scheduling need attention.

These calculations use industry benchmarks from ACHR News, FieldEdge, ServiceTitan, and IMA/Horngren-Datar-Rajan cost accounting frameworks. They are estimates for planning purposes. Consult your accountant or financial advisor for business-critical decisions.

Related Topics

Pricing & Cost Accounting Financial Dashboard & KPIs Loaded Labor Rate Calculator
Sources (5)
  • ACHR News — billable utilization benchmarks
  • FieldEdge — daily utilization and service business financial benchmarks
  • Contracting Business / ServiceTitan — annual billable hours per tech
  • IMA/Horngren-Datar-Rajan — contribution margin and break-even analysis
  • FieldCamp — P&L breakdown and overhead categories