Enter the five annual fixed-cost buckets honestly pull them from last year's books. Set billable days (220 is typical) and your profit buffer target (15% default). Use the daily overhead as the absolute floor and the survival rate as your minimum daily bid. Dispatch the allocation line with the project's day count.
Annual fixed overhead
Daily overhead
$436.36
/DAY
Bill of materials+0% waste
Daily overhead (zero-profit breakeven)
The floor never bid below this
Net $96,000.00 / 220 days · Waste —
Hourly shop overhead
add to labor burden
Net 8-hr day · Waste —
Survival rate (+15% profit target)
minimum daily bid threshold
Net dailyOverhead ÷ (1 − profit%) · Waste —
Vehicles, fuel & maintenance
per year
Net — · Waste —
Liability & umbrella insurance
per year
Net — · Waste —
Office, software & phone
per year
Net — · Waste —
Owner / admin salary
per year
Net — · Waste —
Legal, bookkeeping & tax
per year
Net — · Waste —
Cost projection
Saved on this device · No account · No cloud
survival $513.37/day
$436.36 /day breakeven
Daily overhead = annual fixed costs ÷ billable days: the zero-profit floor. Never bid below it.
Enter the five annual fixed-cost buckets honestly pull them from last year's books. Set billable days (220 is typical) and your profit buffer target (15% default). Use the daily overhead as the absolute floor and the survival rate as your minimum daily bid. Dispatch the allocation line with the project's day count.
Survival rate = daily overhead ÷ (1 − profit target): the minimum daily bid that actually leaves profit.
220 billable days (not 260) accounts for rain, holidays, breakdowns, and gaps between jobs.
Daily overhead = annual fixed costs ÷ billable days
Divide annual fixed costs by billable days - the tool uses 220 days, not 260, to account for rain, holidays, breakdowns, and gaps between jobs. That daily overhead is the zero-profit floor; never bid below it.
Daily overhead is the zero-profit breakeven. The survival rate divides overhead by (1 - profit target), so $400/day overhead with a 15% target gives a $471/day minimum bid that actually leaves profit.
Rain days, holidays, sick days, equipment breakdowns, and gaps between jobs eat roughly 40 days a year. Bidding against 260 days understates your true daily cost by about 15%.
No - keep them separate. This tool covers fixed business overhead like trucks, insurance, office, and admin. Field labor burden belongs in the True Burdened Labor Rate calculator; add both lines to a bid and nothing gets double-counted.
10-20% net is healthy for residential work. Set your profit target in the tool and the survival rate builds it into your minimum daily bid automatically.
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