Auto repair & detailing
Auto Detailing Job Cost Calculator
Total what one detail actually costs: burdened hours, product consumed, water and power, and the bay it occupied.
Result
Travel time is counted because it is paid and it occupies the day, whether or not the customer sees it on the invoice. Gross profit is what is left after the cost of doing the job. Overhead comes out of that: the building, the office wages, the vans, insurance, software and advertising. A healthy gross margin still loses money if overhead is larger.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Hours including setup, drying and cleaning down afterwards.
- Product at real consumption, worked from dilution rather than from bottles bought.
- Consumables that are easy to forget: pads, towels, applicators and clay.
Where this one goes wrong
Ignoring pad and towel replacement. Polishing pads and microfibre towels are consumed and replaced continuously, and treating them as equipment rather than a per-job cost understates every correction job.
Questions
About this calculator
How do I calculate product cost per vehicle?
From dilution ratios and the quantity actually used, not from what you spend on product per month divided by vehicles. The second method hides which services are expensive.
Are pads and towels a job cost or overhead?
A job cost. They wear out in proportion to the work done, particularly on correction, and a correction job that does not carry its pad cost looks more profitable than it is.
What about water and power?
Small per vehicle but real, and worth including once so you know the figure. It matters most for wash-heavy operations at volume.
The formula
cost = (job hours + travel) x crew x wage x (1 + burden%) + materials + overhead per hour
Put this calculator on your site
Free to embed. Paste this where you want it to appear. It stays up to date automatically because it loads from BDEVY.
Please keep the attribution line. It is the only thing we ask in return.
How to use this calculator
- Labour hours (h). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 2.2 h.
- People on the job. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 6.
- Hourly wage ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $27.
- Labour burden (%). Payroll tax, insurance, holiday, training. On top of the wage.
- Materials ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $180.
- Travel hours (h). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 0.75 h.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to true job cost, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Labour hours | 2.2 h |
| People on the job | 6 |
| Hourly wage | $27 |
| Labour burden | 28% |
| Materials | $180 |
| Travel hours | 0.75 h |
| Overhead per working hour | $22 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| True job cost main result | $1,181 |
| Labour including burden | $611.71 |
| Overhead absorbed | $389.40 |
| Cost per labour hour | $66.73 |
The job costs $1,181: $611.71 of burdened labour, $180 of materials and $389.40 of overhead. Anything you charge below that loses money.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only hourly wage, this is what happens to true job cost. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Hourly wage ($) | True job cost |
|---|---|
| $13.5 | $875.26 |
| $20.25 | $1,028 |
| $27 example above | $1,181 |
| $40.5 | $1,487 |
| $54 | $1,793 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Labour hours (h)
- Measured in h, starting at 2.2 h.
- People on the job
- A number, between 0 and 30, starting at 6.
- Hourly wage ($)
- A money amount, starting at $27.
- Labour burden (%)
- Payroll tax, insurance, holiday, training. On top of the wage.
- Materials ($)
- A money amount, starting at $180.
- Travel hours (h)
- Measured in h, starting at 0.75 h.
- Overhead per working hour ($)
- Annual overhead divided by billable hours.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| True job cost | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Labour including burden | A money figure. |
| Overhead absorbed | A money figure. |
| Cost per labour hour | A money figure. |
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.