Pet services
Dog Daycare Pricing Calculator
Prices daycare, where packages and recurring days make the capacity predictable.
Result
Overhead and margin are taken as shares of the selling price, which is why the cost is divided rather than multiplied. Adding 15% to cost does not produce a 15% margin. 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 AuditHow the calculation works
Cost per dog day at realistic occupancy divided by one minus overhead and margin, with pricing for single days, multi-day packages and recurring weekly schedules. Recurring schedules are what make capacity predictable, which is why they are usually priced more favourably than drop-ins.
What moves the number
- Cost per dog day at realistic occupancy.
- Single day against package and recurring pricing.
- Half-day options and whether they are worth offering.
- Capacity on the days clients actually want.
Where this one goes wrong
Demand concentrates into particular weekdays, which means a facility can be at capacity on Tuesday and half empty on Friday, and pricing the quiet days more favourably is how that is evened out. Look at the day-of-week pattern. Unredeemed package days are also a liability rather than revenue, and a facility treating package sales as income on receipt carries an obligation it has already spent.
Before you quote
- Price to even out the day-of-week pattern.
- Treat unredeemed package days as a liability.
- Favour recurring schedules, which make capacity predictable.
Questions
About this calculator
Why price recurring schedules more favourably?
Because they make capacity predictable, which lets the facility staff correctly and fill reliably. A drop-in has the same cost to serve with none of that certainty, which is why the two are usually priced differently.
How is uneven weekday demand handled?
By pricing the quieter days more favourably, since a facility at capacity on Tuesday and half empty on Friday has a distribution problem rather than a demand problem. Looking at the day-of-week pattern is the first step.
Are package days revenue when sold?
No, unredeemed days are money for service not yet delivered. A facility treating package sales as income on receipt is carrying an obligation it has already spent, which becomes visible when the days are claimed.
The formula
price = direct cost / (1 - overhead% - margin%)
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How to use this calculator
- Labour cost ($). Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $6.
- Other direct costs ($). Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%). Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 15%.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to price to quote, 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 cost | $28 |
| Materials cost | $6 |
| Other direct costs | $0 |
| Overhead rate | 22% |
| Target net margin | 15% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Price to quote main result | $53.97 |
| Direct cost | $34 |
| Overhead recovered | $11.87 |
| Net profit | $8.10 |
| Gross margin | 37.0% |
| Markup on direct cost | 58.7% |
Quote $53.97 to cover $34 of direct cost, recover $11.87 of overhead and leave $8.10 of net profit. That is a 58.7% markup on cost.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only labour cost, this is what happens to price to quote. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Labour cost ($) | Price to quote |
|---|---|
| $14 | $31.75 |
| $21 | $42.86 |
| $28 example above | $53.97 |
| $42 | $76.19 |
| $56 | $98.41 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Labour cost ($)
- Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $6.
- Other direct costs ($)
- Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%)
- Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 80, starting at 15%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Price to quote | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Direct cost | A money figure. |
| Overhead recovered | A money figure. |
| Net profit | A money figure. |
| Gross margin | A percentage. |
| Markup on direct cost | A percentage. |
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.