Tree Service Hourly Rate Calculator | Crew & Equipment Job Cost Template (Excel + Google Sheets)

Most contractors do not know what an hour of their own crew costs. This works it out.

Your other calculators price a job. This one builds the rate every job should be priced from - what your crew, your machines and your overhead actually cost per hour on site.

Built for tree services, arborists and landscape crews who run a truck and pay a payroll.


WHAT IT DOES

- Turns wages into true cost by stacking payroll tax, workers comp, liability and benefits on top
- Separates the hours you PAY for from the hours you can BILL, then prices off the billable ones
- Works out ownership and operating cost per hour for every machine you own
- Splits ownership from operating so you can see what the iron costs you sitting still
- Spreads your annual overhead across the hours you can actually sell
- Gives you a break-even hourly rate and the minimum rate you must charge to hit your margin
- Costs any single job from crew hours, machine hours and dump fees
- Tells you straight out whether the price you were about to quote clears your minimum rate


WHAT'S INSIDE (6 tabs)

1. START HERE - plain-English setup. No spreadsheet skills needed.
2. CREW COST - wages, payroll burden, insurance, and the hours that never reach a customer.
3. EQUIPMENT COST - six machines, ownership and operating cost worked out per hour.
4. RATE BUILDER - overhead and target margin added. Your minimum hourly rate.
5. JOB COST - one job at a time, with a verdict on the price you plan to charge.
6. JOB LOG - 40 rows of quoted against actual, with margin and profit per hour.


HOW IT WORKS

1. Enter your wages, burden rates and the days you lose to weather and holidays. One time only.
2. Enter what each machine cost, what it will fetch at the end, and the hours you put on it.
3. Enter your annual overhead and the margin you want to keep.
4. Read your minimum hourly rate. Then cost jobs against it, one at a time.


THE PART MOST PEOPLE MISS

A groundman at 22 dollars an hour does not cost you 22 dollars an hour.

Payroll tax, workers comp and liability ride on top of every wage dollar, and in tree work the comp rate alone is punishing. Then there are the hours. You pay for around 2,000 a year and you can bill maybe 1,500 - holidays, rain days, shop time, loading and windshield time are all paid and none of them are billable.

Put the two together and that 22 dollar groundman is closer to 38. Price off the wage and you lose the difference on every hour you work.


ALSO WORTH KNOWING

Adding 30 percent to a 1,000 dollar job gets you 1,300 - but that is a 23 percent margin, not 30. To truly keep 30 you have to charge 1,429. This workbook divides instead of adding, so the margin you set is the margin you get, and one tab shows you the gap in your own numbers.


TRY IT FIRST

A free one-screen version is at jobcostlabs.com/tree-service-hourly-rate-calculator - it uses one average wage and one equipment number to show your break-even and minimum hourly rate. This workbook is the full version: up to six crew members with their own wage and burden, every machine split into ownership and operating cost per hour, eleven overhead lines including your own unbilled time, and a job cost tab that checks a real quote against the rate.


WHAT YOU RECEIVE

- One .XLSX workbook (Microsoft Excel 2016 or newer, Windows or Mac)
- A link to copy the same workbook into your own Google Sheets
- A PDF setup guide

Instant download. Nothing is shipped. Yours to keep - no subscription, no login, no monthly fee.


IMPORTANT

- Every rate in the file is a placeholder. Wages, comp rates, fuel and machine prices vary a lot by state and by year, so replace them with your own numbers before you bid.
- This is a digital download, so it cannot be returned once purchased. If something does not work, message me and I will fix it.
- This tool does not provide legal, tax, insurance or accounting advice.
- For your own business use. Please do not resell or redistribute the file.