The best profit-checking tool for building and trade contractors

The best profit-checking tool for building and trade contractors

This is the best tool for enhancing your project and achieving end profit. It is not only one of the main areas that is undercooked in the building construction industry but also the easiest and quickest to fix.

Your hourly rates. 

One simple spreadsheet can improve your profit.

In the construction industry, we have often used the same hourly rates for years, and we don’t know the figures’ background to check how the rates were constructed. Using out-of-date rates can lead to under-calculating and diminishing profits. Particularly on labour-only contracts, this can lead to even more significant deficits.

When you consider that, by and large, your materials costs, salary cost, and yes, even your overheads will be comparable to your competition, the most effective way for a trade business to make a profit is by managing their onsite labour well. When you know exactly how many hours you have to complete a job, and you monitor and stay within those hours throughout the project, you will make money.

Time not on the job

The hourly rates must include when your staff is paid but not on the job. This includes:

• Annual leave
• Special leave
• KiwiSaver
• Jury service
• Travel time
• Overtime
• Wet weather time
• Immediate injury time
• Upskilling

Necessary extras for staff

Your hourly rates must also include the cost associated with taxes and protecting and upskilling your staff.

• PPE gear and UV protection
• ACC premiums
• Small tools maintenance
• Public Liability insurance premiums
• Training
• Supervision allowances

At this stage, this is a lot and recalculating your hourly rate was supposed to be easy. 

The good news is that Modern Consulting has created a formulated spreadsheet to calculate all of the above costs and provide the corrected hourly rate.

Download your free Hourly Rate Calculator and start using your correct hourly rates.