Precision Business Education Foundation

Overhead Recovery Calculator

Estimate how much overhead your business must recover per billable hour, workday, week, month, or completed job.

Back to Calculators Library Hourly Labor Rate Calculator Pricing & Profit Center

Enter Your Annual Overhead

Include recurring business costs that are not directly assigned to one specific job.

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Use actual billable hours, not total working hours.

What Counts as Overhead?

Overhead includes the recurring costs required to keep the business operating that cannot be assigned entirely to one customer or one job.

Administrative Costs

Phones, software, bookkeeping, office supplies, scheduling, banking, legal services, and management time.

Facilities and Equipment

Rent, utilities, storage, equipment depreciation, repairs, replacement reserves, and shop expenses.

Business Support Costs

Insurance, licensing, marketing, website costs, vehicle overhead, training, and professional services.

Direct materials and direct job labor should usually be tracked separately from overhead. Avoid counting the same cost twice.

Why Overhead Recovery Matters

A business can complete profitable-looking jobs and still lose money if prices recover direct costs but fail to recover the ongoing cost of operating the company.

Protects Cash Flow

Each job contributes toward the fixed and recurring costs that continue whether the schedule is full or slow.

Improves Pricing

Knowing overhead per hour or per job creates a stronger foundation for service pricing and labor rate decisions.

Supports Growth

Accurate overhead recovery helps the business build reserves, replace equipment, hire carefully, and invest without weakening stability.

Continue Your Learning

Use this calculator with the related pricing, financial, and operations resources.

Calculators Library Explore the complete collection of business calculators. Open Library → Hourly Labor Rate Calculator Combine payroll, overhead, billable capacity, and desired profit into a recommended hourly rate. Open Calculator → Pricing & Profit Center Learn overhead recovery, labor rates, markup, margin, break-even, and job costing. Continue Learning → Financial Literacy Center Understand cash flow, expenses, working capital, profit, and financial decisions. Continue Learning → Operations & Systems Center Improve scheduling, capacity, equipment tracking, inventory, and workflow management. Continue Learning → Business Supporter Resources Access worksheets, calculators, templates, trackers, and implementation tools. Become a Business Supporter →
Educational use only. This calculator provides an estimate and should be adapted to your actual accounting records, costs, industry, service area, tax obligations, and professional guidance.