What does it cost me per job, fully loaded?
Most owners know what they charge for a job. Fewer know what it actually costs them. Here's how to calculate the real, fully loaded cost including the overhead nobody thinks about.
The short answer
What does a job really cost? Add up direct labor, materials, and subcontractors. Then allocate a share of your overhead (rent, insurance, software, admin) based on the number of jobs you run per month. That total is your fully loaded cost. If it is close to what you charge, your margins are thinner than you think.
The difference between direct cost and true cost
You bid a job at $8,500. Direct labor was $3,200. Materials were $1,800. So you think you made $3,500. But you also paid $400 in insurance for the period, $300 in vehicle costs, $200 in software, and $600 in admin time to manage the project. Your real profit was $1,000, not $3,500.
Direct costs are easy to see because they attach to specific jobs. Overhead costs are invisible on a per-job basis because they spread across everything. But they are real, and if you do not include them in your job costing, every job looks more profitable than it actually is.
This is how businesses go under while staying “busy.” Every job looks profitable on paper. But overhead eats the margin, and by the end of the month there is nothing left.
The three components of a fully loaded job cost
- Direct costs. Labor hours, materials, and subcontractors for this specific job.
- Allocated overhead. Your total monthly overhead divided by the number of jobs you typically run. This gives each job its share of rent, insurance, vehicles, software, and admin.
- Hidden costs. Unbilled travel time, rework, warranty callbacks, and project management time that never gets tracked.
How to calculate fully loaded job cost step by step
- 1Total your direct costs per job
From your job records or project management tool, add up all labor hours (at loaded labor rate, including taxes and benefits), materials, and subcontractor invoices for a typical job.
- 2Calculate your monthly overhead
In QuickBooks, run Profit and Loss for the current month. Add up all expenses that are not Cost of Goods Sold: rent, utilities, insurance, software, admin salaries, vehicle costs, depreciation. In Xero, the same categories appear under Operating Expenses.
- 3Divide overhead by jobs per month
If you run 12 jobs per month and your monthly overhead is $31,000, each job carries $2,583 in overhead. This is the number most people miss entirely.
- 4Add direct costs + overhead allocation
Direct costs ($5,000) + overhead allocation ($2,583) = $7,583 fully loaded cost. If you charged $8,500, your real profit is $917, not the $3,500 you thought.
Total time: about 30 minutes for the first calculation. You need your P&L, job records, and a calculator. Once you have the formula, subsequent months are faster.
Recalculate your overhead allocation quarterly
Your overhead changes as you add software, adjust insurance, or move offices. And your job volume fluctuates month to month. Recalculate the allocation quarterly so your per-job cost stays accurate. Using a stale number is almost as bad as not calculating it at all.
Or see your fully loaded cost per job automatically
Bottomline pulls your revenue and expenses from QuickBooks or Xero, combines it with your job volume, and calculates your fully loaded cost per job each month. You see how the number changes over time and whether your pricing keeps pace.
No spreadsheets, no guesswork on overhead allocation. Just the real number, updated monthly, so you can price with confidence.