Construction Formulas
Construction has cost structures that don't show up cleanly in generic small business accounting — labor burden that goes well beyond the hourly wage, overhead that needs to be allocated fairly across jobs of different sizes, and cash flow that swings wildly based on draw schedules and retainage. These calculators are built specifically around those realities.
Start with the two calculators that get your true cost baseline right. The Labor Burden Rate Builder shows what an employee actually costs once you add payroll taxes, insurance, and benefits on top of wages — a number most contractors underestimate when bidding a job. The Overhead Burden Rate Calculator does the same for your indirect costs, showing how to allocate overhead across jobs so no single project is quietly subsidizing the rest.
Once your cost baseline is right, job-level tracking matters. The Job Cost Variance Calculator compares actual costs against your original estimate so you catch a job running over budget while there's still time to react, rather than finding out at close-out. The Change Order Margin Analyzer makes sure the margin you priced into a change order actually survives once the added labor, materials, and overhead are accounted for — a common place where contractors give back profit without realizing it.
At the project and company level, the Break-Even Revenue Calculator shows the volume you need to cover your fixed and variable costs before a single dollar becomes profit. And the Cash Flow Gap Calculator addresses the timing problem that catches even profitable contractors off guard — the lag between paying for labor and materials now and collecting on a draw schedule weeks or months later.
All Construction Tools