Contractor & freelancer · super (composes 5 primitives)

Contractor profit engine

Type or pull from your profile. We chain shop rate, labor burden, bid target, and overhead absorption into your real net profit and how much runway it buys you.

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Inputs

Shop rate ($/hour billed)Lead tech wage ($/hour paid)What you actually pay your most-billed tech, not the shop rate.Labor burden (%)Average job sizeJobs per monthTarget net margin (%)Monthly overheadRent, insurance, software, owner draw — everything that's NOT direct job cost.Cash on hand

Result

On track — 22.5% net margin clears your 22% target.

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Action: You're clearing target margin. Lock the rate and track quarterly — small rate erosion is the silent killer.

1
True labor cost / hour
$42.24
$32.00 wage × (1 + 32% burden)
2
Gross margin / hour
$52.76 (55.5%)
$95 shop rate − $42.24 true cost
3
Monthly revenue
$63,000
14 jobs × $4,500 avg
4
Gross profit (after direct labor + materials)
$25,200
Assumes 35% direct labor + 25% materials
5
Net profit (after overhead)
$14,200
$25,200 gross − $11,000 overhead
6
Actual net margin
22.5%
Target 22%
7
Bid target to hit margin
$4,500
You're already above target — protect this rate.
8
Cash runway (zero new revenue)
0.5 months
$18,000 cash ÷ $33,050 monthly burn
Stand-alone calc

Assumptions & notes

Direct labor share is held at 35% of revenue and materials at 25% — typical service-trade benchmark. Adjust the labor wage + burden % to test sensitivity.
Burn rate is overhead + direct labor only, since materials reduce when revenue stops.

10-year projection

Cumulative net profit

Primary

Cash retained (40% reinvested)

Multi-scenario comparison

What if — ±20% on one input

Vary

Scenario	Shop rate ($/hour billed)	Headline
−20% (cautious)	$76	On track — 22.5% net margin clears your 22% target.
Baseline	$95	On track — 22.5% net margin clears your 22% target.
+20% (aggressive)	$114	On track — 22.5% net margin clears your 22% target.

Try the input with the highest sensitivity (above). The Δ column shows the dollar swing from a 20% move — that's how much room you have for a counter, raise, or hedge.

Goal seek

Solve for an input value

Pick the input you want to vary and the output you care about. We'll find the input value that gets you to the target. Bisection-based; converges in < 50 iterations.

Vary inputTarget outputTarget value

Monte Carlo simulation

Distribution under input uncertainty (500 trials)

We perturb every numeric input with normal-distributed noise (10–25% sigma depending on input type) and run 500 compute trials. The output is a probability distribution, not a single number — closer to how finance actually works.

Most-leveraged inputs (sensitivity analysis)

Where to focus — what moves the answer most

Each input perturbed ±10%; measured impact on True labor cost / hour. Higher elasticity = bigger lever.

1
Lead tech wage ($/hour paid)
Elasticity ↑ 1.00× — 10% change in this input increases True labor cost / hour by 10.0%.
2
Labor burden (%)
Elasticity ↑ 0.24× — 10% change in this input increases True labor cost / hour by 2.4%.
3
Shop rate ($/hour billed)
Elasticity ↕ 0.00× — 10% change in this input affects True labor cost / hour by 0.0%.
4
Average job size
Elasticity ↕ 0.00× — 10% change in this input affects True labor cost / hour by 0.0%.

ShowMath is the only calc site that surfaces this. Adjust the highest-leverage input first — that's where small moves create big results.

Chain payload (for the 3D constellation)

{
  "slug": "contractor-profit-engine",
  "depth": 1,
  "primitives": [
    "shop-rate-calculator",
    "labor-burden-calculator",
    "bid-markup-calculator",
    "gross-margin-calculator",
    "burn-rate-runway"
  ],
  "composes": [],
  "chain": [
    {
      "key": "true_labor_cost",
      "label": "True labor cost / hour",
      "primitive": "labor-burden-calculator",
      "numeric": 42.24
    },
    {
      "key": "gross_margin_hour",
      "label": "Gross margin / hour",
      "primitive": "shop-rate-calculator",
      "numeric": 52.76
    },
    {
      "key": "monthly_revenue",
      "label": "Monthly revenue",
      "numeric": 63000
    },
    {
      "key": "gross_profit",
      "label": "Gross profit (after direct labor + materials)",
      "primitive": "gross-margin-calculator",
      "numeric": 25200
    },
    {
      "key": "net_profit",
      "label": "Net profit (after overhead)",
      "numeric": 14200
    },
    {
      "key": "actual_margin",
      "label": "Actual net margin",
      "numeric": 22.53968253968254
    },
    {
      "key": "bid_target",
      "label": "Bid target to hit margin",
      "primitive": "bid-markup-calculator",
      "numeric": 4500
    },
    {
      "key": "runway",
      "label": "Cash runway (zero new revenue)",
      "primitive": "burn-rate-runway",
      "numeric": 0.5446293494704992
    }
  ]
}

The chain explained

Each step above corresponds to a primitive calculator. Click any to see the stand-alone version with its own explainer + sources.

shop rate calculatorshipping soon
labor burden calculatorshipping soon
bid markup calculatorshipping soon
gross margin calculatorshipping soon
burn rate runway

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