FIELDHIVE CALCULATORS
Free Trade Calculators
Work out what your labour really costs, and how much extra time to allow when the site makes the work slower. Two calculators for two decisions: what a chargeable labour hour must recover, and how many additional hours a particular site needs.
No account or email address required · Practical estimates, not tax or accounting advice
First things first
Start with the normal cost of labour
Before adjusting a quote for a difficult site, you need a standard labour rate that reflects the real cost of running the business — which may need to recover more than wages or personal income.
A standard labour rate can also include
Holidays and unavailable days
Quoting and site visits
Travel between jobs
Collecting materials
Loading and unloading
Customer communication
Paperwork and invoicing
Van and fuel costs
Tools and equipment
Insurance
Software and administration
Business profit
Once the normal labour rate is clear, you can assess whether the site itself requires additional hours.
Two calculators
Choose a calculator
Choose the calculator that matches the question you are trying to answer. They are designed to be used in order.
Calculator 1
True Labour Cost Calculator
Work out what each chargeable labour hour needs to recover after non-chargeable time, business overheads, contingency and profit.
Chargeable hours
True hourly labour cost
Recommended hourly rate
Suggested day rate
Calculate Your Labour Rate
Calculator 2
Site Labour Uplift Calculator
Estimate the additional labour created by restricted access, occupied buildings, working windows, material movement and other site conditions.
Estimated productivity
Additional labour hours
Suggested uplift
Adjusted labour cost
Calculate a Site Uplift
Calculator 1
True Labour Cost Calculator
The hours you work are not always the hours you can charge directly to a customer. This calculator estimates how many chargeable hours you realistically have each year — and what each of those hours needs to cover.
The calculator considers
Target annual earnings
Working days and hours
Holidays and unavailable days
Quoting, travelling and administration
Vehicle and tool costs
Insurance and business overheads
Contingency
Target profit margin
Your result includes
Available working hours
Real chargeable hours
Billable percentage
True labour cost per hour
Minimum sustainable rate
Recommended charge-out rate
Suggested day rate
Use this calculator when
You do not know what hourly rate to charge
Your rate is based mainly on what other trades charge
You want to check your rate covers your overheads
You work long hours but are unsure where the money goes
You are reviewing pricing after costs have increased
You need a standard rate before pricing individual jobs
Calculator 2
Site Labour Uplift Calculator
The fitting time for a task may stay the same while the working conditions reduce how much productive work is completed in the day. This calculator estimates the effect of those conditions on site productivity.
Use it when the job involves conditions such as
Restricted parking or unloading
Long walking distances
Security and sign-in procedures
Occupied buildings
Restricted working windows
Material movement
Daily setup and pack-down
Coordination with other trades
Known inductions or permit delays
Your result includes
Estimated site productivity
Suggested labour uplift percentage
Base labour hours
Additional site labour
Adjusted labour allowance
Additional labour cost
Adjusted labour cost
Use this calculator when
You already know your normal labour rate
The same task moves to a more difficult environment
You are pricing commercial, industrial or occupied work
The team loses time through access or security
Materials need moving a long distance
The work has short or interrupted working windows
You want the site allowance clear and reviewable
Not sure?
Which calculator should you use?
They answer two different questions — and for many jobs you will use both, in order.
Start with the True Labour Cost Calculator when
You are trying to determine the normal hourly or daily rate for the business. It answers: what does a chargeable labour hour need to cover?
You have no sustainable standard rate yet
Use the Site Labour Uplift Calculator when
You already have a standard labour rate and need to adjust the labour allowance for a particular job. It answers: how much additional labour is the site likely to create?
A specific site will slow the work down
For many jobs, use both — in order
1
Calculate a sustainable standard labour rate.
2
Enter the normal labour required for the task.
3
Assess the conditions on the particular site.
4
Add the calculated site labour to the normal task time.
This keeps the standard rate and the site-related labour separate.
Rate vs time
The difference between rate and time
Your labour rate and labour allowance solve different problems. Keeping them separate makes the price easier to understand and review.
Labour rate
Determines how much one chargeable hour needs to recover.
Target earnings
Non-chargeable time
Business overheads
Contingency
Profit
Labour allowance
Determines how many chargeable hours should be included in the job.
Normal fitting time
Additional site time
Known delays
Setup and pack-down
Restricted productivity
A difficult site does not necessarily mean the hourly rate has changed. It may simply mean the work requires more labour hours.
Worked example
A simple example
How the two figures combine on one job.
Standard labour rate
£60 per hour
Normal labour
16 hours
Additional site labour
4 hours
Total labour
20 hours
Labour value
£1,200
This is clearer than changing the normal labour rate without recording why the job costs more. The figures are examples only and are not recommended rates.
Who it is for
Built for real trade pricing decisions
Designed for practical trade and field service work.
Electricians
Plumbers
Builders
HVAC and heating engineers
Landscapers
Maintenance businesses
General field service businesses
They may be useful for
Subcontractors checking their first proper labour rate
Sole traders reviewing business overheads
Growing trade businesses creating consistent pricing
Contractors pricing commercial or occupied sites
Businesses building reusable labour items
Owners reviewing estimated labour against actual time
They are not payroll calculators and do not calculate personal tax. They are designed to support job pricing decisions.
Check first
Use the result as a starting point
A calculator cannot know every detail of your business or site. Before using the result in a quote, check:
All relevant annual costs are included
The chargeable-hour estimate is realistic
Whether the job involves overtime or premium working
Whether parking, accommodation or hire should be separate
Whether safety requirements add cost
Whether the whole team is affected by a delay
Whether the task scope is clear
Whether VAT needs to be added
The result should help you structure the price. It should not replace your own experience.
Stay connected
Keep the pricing connected to the work
A calculated rate is most useful when it can be reused consistently.
FieldHive lets trade businesses save reusable catalogue pricing with labour fit times, material costs and markup. That pricing can be used to build fixed-price, time-and-materials or hourly-rate quotes.
The quote then stays connected to the customer, booking and invoice instead of being recreated at each stage. FieldHive currently suits solo trades and small trade businesses managed through one account, and is a mobile job management app for iPhone and Android.
Customer
Quote
Booking
Invoice
Paid
Start Free
See How FieldHive Works
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about the FieldHive trade calculators.
Get started
Price the labour before the job starts
Start by working out what the business needs to recover through a normal chargeable hour. Then adjust the labour allowance when the site reduces productive time.
