Free tool from the Handyman Journey

Hourly Rate Audit Calculator

Find out what you should be charging, then check what you actually made last month. No sign-up needed.

What should you be charging?

Your costs and your pay decide your rate. Not the guy down the street.

Monthly business expenses Insurance, licensing, vehicle, tools, software, rent, employee pay. Not what you pay yourself. $/ month Take-home pay you want per year What you want to pay yourself. $/ year Billable hours per year Hours actually billed to customers. Typical is about 1,600 per technician (32 hrs a week for 50 weeks). hours

Total yearly cost — Expenses + your pay + 33.3% "fringe" on your pay (taxes, health insurance, retirement)

Break-even rate — The bare minimum. Covers everything, zero profit.

Your target rate — 30% profit margin. This is what you should charge.

Must-know

Markup vs. margin: why "add 30%" is not 30% profit

Markup is a percentage added on top of your cost. Margin is the percentage of the final price that you actually keep as profit. They sound the same, but they're not.

30% markup

Cost × 1.30

$130.00

You keep $30.00/hr = 23% profit

30% margin

Cost ÷ 0.70

$142.86

You keep $42.86/hr = 30% profit

Your cost (break-even)Profit

Example uses a $100/hr break-even. Over 1,600 billable hours, that difference is about $20,500 a year. Fill in Step 1 to see it with your numbers.

What did you actually make last month?

Grab last month's numbers and see how you really did.

Gross revenue last month Everything you brought in: labor and materials. $ Materials last month How much of that revenue was materials. $ Hours worked last month All hours on the job. Typical is about 160 per technician. hours

Your actual hourly rate — (Revenue − materials) ÷ hours worked

Your target rate — From Step 1

Fill in Steps 1 and 2 to see how you're doing.

Now turn your rate into job prices

A rate on its own isn't a price. You also need to know how long the job takes.

You just got this Your hourly rate

You still need this How long the job takes

What you quote The price of the job

That gap is the difference between a kitchen faucet being a $90 job or a $180 job. I've put the time benchmarks from ten years of my own jobs into one list — 65 jobs, from a cabinet pull to a prehung door. Type in the rate you just worked out and it prices every one of them for you.

And then charge by the job, not by the hour. Quote hourly and you get punished for being good: the faster you work, the less you make. Quote the job and your speed stays in your pocket.

Open the Handyman Price List Free, no sign-up — same as this calculator.

Want the whole thing?

The Handyman Pricing Handbook

A calculator gives you a number. The book gives you the reasoning behind it — how to set a rate you can defend, how to find out what your area actually pays, and how to build in profit instead of just staying busy.

Get it on Amazon

There's a marketing and a sales handbook too.

Know your number. Now charge it with confidence.

Raising your rate is scary. You don't have to figure it out alone. We'll help you price, sell, and build a business that pays you what you're worth.

Schedule a Call with Allen See Coaching Programs

Hourly Rate Audit Calculator

Discovering Freedom | Equipping leaders | Changing the status quo

Hourly Rate Audit Calculator

What should you be charging?

Markup vs. margin: why "add 30%" is not 30% profit

What did you actually make last month?

Now turn your rate into job prices

The Handyman Pricing Handbook

Know your number. Now charge it with confidence.

Questions? Schedule a call with Allen Lee Today!