Painting
Painting Productivity Calculator
Measures productivity, where production rates per task are the number that makes estimating work.
Result
Not all unbilled time is waste. Travel, restocking, training and warranty calls are necessary and will never be zero. The useful question is whether the share is drifting, not whether it reaches 100%.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
Billable hours against paid hours, with the unbilled time valued both at what it could have earned and what it cost. In painting the more useful companion figure is production rate: square feet per hour for rolling, linear feet per hour for trim, units per hour for doors. Those rates, kept per task and per crew, are what turn a measurement into an estimate, and a business without them is guessing every time.
What moves the number
- Production rates per task, which differ enormously between open wall and trim.
- Setup, protection and cleanup, which is a fixed cost per job.
- Travel between jobs.
- Crew experience, which affects rates more than equipment does.
Where this one goes wrong
Keep rates separately for preparation and application, because they behave differently: application rates are reasonably predictable while preparation varies with condition by a factor of several, and a blended rate hides that. Recording them per task over a season is the single most valuable thing a painting business can do, since it converts estimating from judgement into arithmetic and reveals which crews and which job types actually perform. Setup and cleanup also deserve their own figure, because it is a fixed cost per job that makes small jobs expensive per square foot.
Before you quote
- Keep preparation and application rates separately.
- Record rates per task and per crew over a season.
- Treat setup and cleanup as a fixed per-job cost.
Questions
About this calculator
What production rates should a painter achieve?
They differ so much by task that a single figure is meaningless: open wall rolling, cutting in, trim and doors are all different, and preparation varies by a factor of several with condition. Recording your own rates per task is worth far more than any published benchmark.
Why keep preparation and application rates separate?
Because application is reasonably predictable while preparation depends entirely on surface condition. A blended rate averages a wash-and-paint job with a scrape-and-prime job, which means it estimates neither correctly and the error is invisible until the job runs.
Does setup time need its own figure?
Yes, because it is a fixed cost per job rather than per square foot. Protecting, masking and cleaning up takes similar time on a small job as a large one, which is why small jobs cost disproportionately more per square foot and why a minimum charge exists.
The formula
utilisation = billed hours / paid hours
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How to use this calculator
- Paid hours per day. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 8.
- Hours that reach an invoice. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 5.2.
- Number of technicians. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 4.
- Rate charged per hour ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $68.
- Cost per paid hour ($). Wage plus burden.
- Working days per month. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 22.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to billable share of the day, 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 |
|---|---|
| Paid hours per day | 8 |
| Hours that reach an invoice | 5.2 |
| Number of technicians | 4 |
| Rate charged per hour | $68 |
| Cost per paid hour | $34 |
| Working days per month | 22 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Billable share of the day main result | 65.0% |
| Unbilled hours per month | 246 |
| Revenue those hours would have carried | $16,755 |
| What the unbilled hours cost in wages | $8,378 |
65.0% of the paid day reaches an invoice. The rest is 246 hours a month, costing $8,378 in wages and carrying $16,755 of revenue that never happened.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only rate charged per hour, this is what happens to billable share of the day. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Rate charged per hour ($) | Billable share of the day |
|---|---|
| $34 | 65.0% |
| $51 | 65.0% |
| $68 example above | 65.0% |
| $102 | 65.0% |
| $136 | 65.0% |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Paid hours per day
- A number, between 0 and 24, starting at 8.
- Hours that reach an invoice
- A number, between 0 and 24, starting at 5.2.
- Number of technicians
- A number, between 0 and 500, starting at 4.
- Rate charged per hour ($)
- A money amount, starting at $68.
- Cost per paid hour ($)
- Wage plus burden.
- Working days per month
- A number, between 0 and 31, starting at 22.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Billable share of the day | The headline result. A percentage. |
| Unbilled hours per month | A number. |
| Revenue those hours would have carried | A money figure. |
| What the unbilled hours cost in wages | 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.