The cost behind every crew hour.
Turn wages and payroll reports into productive-hour costs and a clearer job price.
Start with the crew.
Enter one representative worker’s costs. Crew size scales the hourly result. For different wage or trade classes, analyze each group separately.
Insurance & benefits Annual costs per worker
Use the class rate and premium treatment on the contractor’s policy. Costs here exclude company overhead.
Employer payroll assumptions 2026 federal + NC example
Rates apply per representative worker’s annual wages. Replace the NC rate with the employer’s assigned rate. FUTA assumes the full credit. These rates do not update automatically.
Starting values are illustrative assumptions. Replace them as the contractor answers.
Use the same crew and period for wages, employer costs, and hours. Enter gross pay before employee deductions. Costs missing from payroll come from the general ledger or insurance policy.
Use a header row and one row per employee or paycheck. Reshape grouped QBO exports in Excel first.
Find the productive hours.
Where to find the QBO numbers Report guide
- In Reports, search for Payroll Summary by Employee. Filter to the selected field crew and use gross wages.
- Use Payroll Details or payroll tax reports to distinguish employer taxes and contributions from employee deductions.
- Use payroll hours and timesheets to separate paid leave, other non-job time, and job hours. Exclude office staff and subcontractor payments.
- Use the general ledger and insurance statements for costs paid outside payroll. Include each cost once, for the same period.
- Match paycheck-date payroll with the related worked hours. Payroll reports can use paycheck dates rather than pay-period dates.
Report names and export layouts depend on the payroll subscription. This tool analyzes report totals and CSV data alongside QBO.
Enter actual totals. Use zero for a confirmed cost that does not apply.
Connect the labor cost to a job Scope, quote & target margin
Regular and overtime job hours use their respective loaded rates. Contingency is a separate reserve on direct cost.
Wages. Employer costs. Productive time.
Discovery: annual employer costs and paid non-job wages are allocated over productive hours. The overtime rate adds the wage premium to that allocation.
QBO analysis: total gross wages plus employer costs are divided by productive hours. The rate reflects the actual period’s wage and overtime mix.
Job margin: gross margin uses revenue as its denominator. Markup uses cost. Profit after allocated overhead is before income tax and financing.