Personal and small-business costs
Work out machine, labor and job costs, or forecast your personal cash flow before payday.
For a trade business, start with machine cost and labor burden, then combine them in a job estimate. For personal cash flow, use the payday guide to build a dated list of bills and income.
The examples work with a pencil or spreadsheet. Replace their assumptions with your own records before using a result.
4 articles by Steven Michael Barber.
Labor burden: what an employee hour really costs
Practical guide
The payroll taxes, insurance and benefits on top of a wage, built line by line for one worker's year, and why to estimate with the cost per productive hour.
Forecasting your cash flow before payday
Practical guide
Build a running daily balance from your bills and paychecks, find the lowest day before it arrives, and keep recurring dates and a cushion right.
Job costing for small trades
Practical guide
Price a job from labor with burden, materials, equipment hours, overhead and margin, and see why a 15 % markup is not a 15 % margin.
What a machine really costs per hour
Practical guide
Owning and operating cost per hour for a skid steer, loader or excavator: depreciation, interest, insurance, fuel and repairs, worked through for one machine.