Overhead Cost Calculator for Landscapers
Find out what your fixed costs add to every billable hour. Most landscapers forget to include overhead—and lose money on every job.
What Is Overhead Cost?
Overhead costs are the ongoing business expenses not directly tied to a specific job. This includes rent, insurance, vehicle payments, equipment financing, software subscriptions, utilities, and administrative costs. For landscaping businesses, overhead often adds $8–$25+ per billable hour, depending on shop space, vehicles, admin, and billable hours.
If you quote jobs without accounting for overhead, you're paying these costs out of what you think is profit. This calculator shows you exactly what overhead adds to every hour worked.
What This Calculator Includes
- Rent / Shop space — Monthly cost of your office, shop, or yard storage
- Insurance — General liability, commercial auto, property insurance (not workers' comp—that's labor burden)
- Vehicles — Truck payments, maintenance, registration. If you charge fuel per job (travel calculator), exclude fuel here.
- Equipment — Financing, leases, maintenance, replacement reserves
- Software & subscriptions — CRM, accounting, scheduling, estimating tools
- Other fixed costs — Utilities, phone, marketing, professional services
The Formula
Overhead per Hour = Total Monthly Overhead ÷ Billable Hours per Month
💡 Quick Rule: What Counts as Overhead?
If the cost exists even when you do zero jobs this week, it's overhead.
Examples: Shop rent, insurance premiums, truck payments, equipment financing, software subscriptions, phone plans, accounting fees, marketing retainers, office admin wages, storage yard fees.
Example:
$5,000/mo overhead ÷ 400 billable hours = $12.50/hr overhead cost
Need to calculate labor burden and travel time too? The full GreenMargins app calculates everything automatically on every quote.
Enter Your Monthly Costs
Enter amounts in USD. Results shown in USD.
Office, shop, equipment yard. Enter $0 if working from home.
Not workers' comp—that's part of labor burden.
All trucks and trailers. If you charge fuel per job using the travel calculator, exclude fuel here.
Include a reserve for repairs and replacement.
CRM, accounting, scheduling, estimating, etc.
Anything else that's a fixed monthly expense.
Total hours across all employees that get billed to jobs. Use billable hours, not gross hours.
Quick presets (click to use):
⚠️ Paid hours ≠ billable hours. Travel, rain days, admin, and downtime reduce billable time. Target 75–85% utilization.
Example: 2 crew × 40 hrs/week × 4 weeks × 80% = 256 billable hrs/month
Are you pricing jobs without overhead?
If you quote only labor costs, you're paying $4,500/month in overhead out of what you think is profit. On a 40-hour job, that's $450 you need to recover.
📊 Next: Calculate Your Full Job Cost
Overhead is just one piece. To quote profitably, you also need:
Stop guessing your overhead
See it on every quote with GreenMargins. Overhead, labor burden, travel time—all calculated automatically.
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How This Calculator Works
Monthly Fixed Costs
Enter all your recurring business expenses that don't change based on how many jobs you do. These costs exist whether you're busy or slow.
Billable Hours
Total hours your crew spends on jobs that you bill to clients. More billable hours = lower overhead per hour. Efficiency matters.
Cost per Hour
We divide your total monthly overhead by billable hours. This is what you must add to every hour to cover your fixed costs.
Use It in Quotes
Add overhead per hour + burdened labor rate + travel cost + profit margin = your billable rate.
What This Calculator Does NOT Include
- Labor costs — Wages and labor burden are separate. Use our labor burden calculator for that.
- Materials — Job-specific materials aren't overhead. Use our materials markup calculator.
- Travel time — Drive time to job sites is a variable cost. See our travel time calculator.
- Profit margin — Overhead covers costs, not profit. Add your margin on top.
Common Mistakes When Calculating Overhead
Forgetting overhead entirely
Many landscapers quote labor + materials and call it a day. Your trucks, insurance, and shop don't pay for themselves.
Using gross hours, not billable
Your crew works 40 hours/week, but how many are billable? Rain days, admin, and travel reduce your true billable hours.
Missing hidden costs
Equipment replacement reserves, annual insurance, registration renewals—these get forgotten because they're not monthly bills.
Not updating annually
Insurance goes up, you add a truck, fuel prices change. Recalculate overhead at least once a year.
Overhead vs Labor Burden (Quick Difference)
- Overhead = business-wide fixed costs (rent, insurance, vehicles, equipment, software)
- Labor burden = employee-specific costs (payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, PTO)
- Both must be added to base wages before you can quote profitably
Your true cost per billable hour = burdened labor rate + overhead per hour. Use our labor burden calculator to find your burdened labor rate.
Seasonal Business? Calculate Overhead Annually
Landscaping is seasonal in most of the US and Canada. If you're busy 7–8 months and slow for 4–5, your per-hour overhead calculation changes.
Option 1: Calculate annual overhead ÷ annual billable hours (spreads winter costs across busy months).
Option 2: Build a "winter reserve" into your overhead (e.g., add 15–20% to cover slow months).
Either way, don't calculate overhead using only your busy-season hours—you'll underprice and run out of cash in winter.
This calculator helps you determine your overhead cost per billable hour, also called overhead rate or indirect cost rate. Understanding your overhead is essential for calculating your break-even rate and setting profitable prices. Combined with your burdened labor cost, overhead determines your true cost to perform work—the foundation of accurate job costing for landscaping, lawn care, and outdoor service businesses.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is overhead cost?
Overhead costs are the ongoing business expenses not directly tied to performing a specific job. This includes rent, insurance, vehicle payments, equipment, software, utilities, and administrative costs. For landscaping businesses, overhead often adds $8–$25+ per billable hour, depending on shop space, vehicles, admin costs, and how many hours you bill.
How do you calculate overhead cost per hour?
Overhead per hour = Total monthly overhead ÷ Billable hours per month. For example, if your monthly overhead is $5,000 and you bill 400 hours per month, your overhead is $12.50 per billable hour.
What is a good overhead rate for landscaping?
Overhead rates vary widely based on business size and structure. Solo operators may have $5–$10/hour overhead, while larger companies with shop space, multiple vehicles, and office staff may see $15–$30/hour. The key is knowing your actual number so you can price jobs profitably.
What is the difference between overhead and labor burden?
Labor burden is employee-specific costs (payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, PTO). Overhead is business-wide costs not tied to one employee (rent, insurance, vehicles, equipment). You need to account for both when pricing jobs. Use our labor burden calculator to find your burdened labor rate.
Does overhead include labor costs?
No. Overhead includes only fixed business costs, not wages or labor burden. Labor costs (wages + burden) are calculated separately. Your total cost per hour = labor cost + overhead + profit margin.
How do I reduce my overhead costs?
Common ways to reduce overhead: negotiate better insurance rates, reduce vehicle costs, share shop space, use lower-cost software, increase billable hours (more efficiency), and review subscriptions annually. But don't cut costs that help you earn revenue.
Should I include vehicle costs in overhead or charge per job?
Include fixed vehicle costs (payments, insurance, registration) in overhead. Variable costs like fuel can go either way—in overhead averaged across all hours, or charged specifically using a travel time calculator. Pick one method and use it consistently.
How do I use overhead in job costing?
When estimating a job, start with your burdened labor rate, add overhead per hour, add travel time costs, add materials with markup, then add your profit margin. This gives you a quote that actually makes money.
How many billable hours should a landscaping business have per month?
It depends on crew size and season. A solo operator might bill 150–200 hours/month. A 2-person crew might bill 300–400 hours. A 4-person crew might hit 500–700+ hours. In peak season you'll be higher; in shoulder seasons, lower. Use your actual numbers—not gross hours—since rain days, admin, travel, and downtime reduce billable time.
What percentage of hours are typically billable in landscaping?
Most landscaping businesses see 65–80% utilization (billable hours ÷ total work hours). The rest goes to travel, admin, weather delays, equipment maintenance, and downtime between jobs. If you're well-scheduled you might hit 80%+; if you have long travel times or frequent rain days, you might be closer to 60–65%. Track your actual utilization to get an accurate overhead per hour.
Learn More About Overhead Costs
What Landscapers Use to Track Overhead
A complete guide to tracking and managing overhead costs in your landscaping business.
How Landscapers Know if a Job Is Profitable
Learn to identify profitable jobs before you commit your crew's time.
How to Price Landscaping Jobs Without Losing Money
Build quotes that cover all your costs and deliver the margins you need.
What Profit Margin Should Landscapers Charge?
Understand the profit margins that keep landscaping businesses healthy.