The gap between the headline and real rate is the unpaid time — travelling, quoting, buying materials and doing the books — that every job really costs you. If the real rate looks low, build that time into your pricing rather than absorbing it.
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This calculator shows your true hourly rate on a job once all the time it really took is counted — not just the hours on site. Enter what you charged and the on-site, travel and admin hours, and it reveals the gap between your headline rate and your real one.
It is an eye-opener for tradespeople who feel busy but not well paid. A job that looks like a good hourly rate on paper often is not, once you add the driving, the quoting, the trips to the merchant and the paperwork that never appears on the invoice.
The maths is simple but the result rarely is: what you charged divided by the hours on the tools gives the headline rate; divided by every hour the job actually consumed gives the rate you truly earned.
Headline rate = charged ÷ on-site hours; Real rate = charged ÷ (on-site + travel + admin hours)
The headline rate divides the labour you charged by the hours you spent on site — the figure most people quote. The real rate divides the same money by every hour the job consumed, including travel, quoting and admin, showing what you actually earned per hour of your working day.
Type the labour you charged for the job, excluding materials. This is the money the job actually earned you for your time.
Enter the hours you spent on the tools at the job. This gives the headline rate most people think in.
Enter the hours spent travelling to and from the job, and the time quoting, buying materials and doing the paperwork for it. This is the unpaid time that never reaches the invoice.
The calculator shows the total hours the job consumed, the headline rate on site, and your real hourly rate once everything is counted.
The gap between the two rates is the hidden cost of every job. Travel, quoting, collecting materials and doing the books are real hours out of your week that no customer pays for directly — so they have to be covered by the rate you charge for the time that is billable. Seeing the real figure is the first step to pricing for it.
Small jobs are the worst offenders. An hour's work with an hour's driving each way and half an hour quoting is three and a half hours for one billed — so the real rate is a fraction of the headline. This is why minimum charges and call-out fees exist; run a few typical small jobs through the tool to see why.
Use the real rate to set your prices, not to depress yourself. If your true rate is well below your headline, the answer is to price in the travel and admin, add a minimum charge, or cut the unpaid time — not to work more hours for the same money. Pair it with the day-rate calculators to rebuild a rate that works.
The gap between the headline and real rate is the unpaid time — travelling, quoting, buying materials and doing the books — that every job really costs you. If the real rate looks low, build that time into your pricing rather than absorbing it.
It is what you charged for a job divided by every hour it actually took — on site plus travel, quoting and admin — rather than just the hours on the tools. It is almost always lower than the headline rate, because so much of a working day is unpaid time that still has to be covered by your pricing.
Because the hourly figure you charge only covers time on site, but the job also cost you travel, quoting, buying materials and paperwork. Spread the same money across all those hours and the rate drops. The busier you feel for the money you make, the wider that gap usually is.
Cut or charge for the unpaid time. Add travel into the price for distant jobs, set a minimum charge so short jobs cover their overhead, batch merchant runs and quotes, and streamline your admin. Raising the billed rate helps too, but reducing wasted hours often does more.
Yes, if you want an honest figure. Quoting is unpaid time spent winning the work, and on jobs with a low conversion rate it can be significant. Including it shows the true cost of a job and helps you decide which work, and which customers, are actually worth chasing.
Convert between hourly, day, week and year.
Work back from the income you want to the day and hourly rate you need to charge.
Mileage claim or actual fuel cost for a journey.
Build a quote from materials, labour and margin.
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