Painting
Painting Overhead Calculator
Totals overhead, which in painting is light and easy to let drift.
Result
Overhead is what the business costs whether or not you work. Wages for people who are on jobs belong in job cost instead, and counting them here overstates overhead and underprices everything.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
The monthly total of what the business costs whether or not a crew paints: premises, office and management wages, vehicles, insurance and licensing, software and communications, and marketing. Divided by monthly revenue it gives an overhead rate, and divided by working days it gives the daily cost of being open. In painting these totals are modest compared with equipment-heavy trades.
What moves the number
- Vehicles, which are the largest item in most painting businesses.
- Insurance and licensing.
- Marketing, which in a competitive trade is a meaningful ongoing cost.
- Office and management time, including the owner's non-productive hours.
Where this one goes wrong
Crew wages are job cost rather than overhead, and mixing them in overstates the rate. The item most often missed in a painting business is the owner's own non-productive time: quoting, scheduling, ordering, chasing payment and managing people is real work that generates no billable hours, and in an owner-operated business it is frequently uncounted, which makes the overhead rate look lower than it is and the pricing correspondingly thin. Marketing is the other item worth watching, since in a competitive trade it is continuous rather than occasional.
Before you quote
- Keep crew wages in job cost, not overhead.
- Count the owner's non-productive time as an overhead cost.
- Treat marketing as continuous in a competitive trade.
Questions
About this calculator
What is usually missing from painting overhead?
The owner's non-productive time. Quoting, scheduling, ordering, chasing payment and managing people generates no billable hours and is real work, and in an owner-operated business it is frequently uncounted. That makes the overhead rate look lower than it is and the pricing thinner.
Do crew wages count as overhead?
No. Anything scaling with the work is job cost. Overhead is what the business costs when nobody is painting: vehicles, insurance, premises, software, marketing and management. Mixing crew wages in overstates the rate and distorts every price built from it.
How much marketing does a painting business need?
More continuously than most trades, because the competition is heavy and much of the work is one-off. It is better treated as an ongoing overhead line than as an occasional campaign, and the businesses that build repeat and referral reduce it over time rather than eliminating it.
The formula
overhead rate = monthly overhead / monthly revenue
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How to use this calculator
- Premises per month ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $1,800.
- Office and management wages ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $5,200.
- Vehicles, fuel and maintenance ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $2,400.
- Insurance and licensing ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $900.
- Software, phones and internet ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $450.
- Marketing and advertising ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $1,500.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to overhead per month, 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 |
|---|---|
| Premises per month | $1,800 |
| Office and management wages | $5,200 |
| Vehicles, fuel and maintenance | $2,400 |
| Insurance and licensing | $900 |
| Software, phones and internet | $450 |
| Marketing and advertising | $1,500 |
| Everything else | $700 |
| Monthly revenue | $40,000 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Overhead per month main result | $12,950 |
| Overhead per year | $155,400 |
| Overhead rate | 32.4% |
| Cost of opening the doors | $588.64 |
Overhead runs $12,950 a month, 32.4% of revenue. Every working day costs $588.64 before anybody turns a wheel.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only premises per month, this is what happens to overhead per month. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Premises per month ($) | Overhead per month |
|---|---|
| $900 | $12,050 |
| $1,350 | $12,500 |
| $1,800 example above | $12,950 |
| $2,700 | $13,850 |
| $3,600 | $14,750 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Premises per month ($)
- A money amount, starting at $1,800.
- Office and management wages ($)
- A money amount, starting at $5,200.
- Vehicles, fuel and maintenance ($)
- A money amount, starting at $2,400.
- Insurance and licensing ($)
- A money amount, starting at $900.
- Software, phones and internet ($)
- A money amount, starting at $450.
- Marketing and advertising ($)
- A money amount, starting at $1,500.
- Everything else ($)
- A money amount, starting at $700.
- Monthly revenue ($)
- A money amount, starting at $40,000.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Overhead per month | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Overhead per year | A money figure. |
| Overhead rate | A percentage. |
| Cost of opening the doors | 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.