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What is your gross profit per hour?
Compare gross profit with the billable hours entered for the same period. Revenue and margin percent can look fine while the hours your crew works are underpriced. Calculate your gross profit per billable hour and compare it to your trade.
Why this number
Gross profit per billable hour = (revenue minus direct job costs) divided by the billable field hours you enter. Use it to compare gross profit with the billable hours recorded for the same period. It does not independently adjust for job mix. When skilled labor hours constrain capacity, reconcile this result with paid hours, direct costs and the type of work before changing price or crew assignments.
Calculate your gross profit per hour
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What this means for you
A shop can grow revenue while gross profit per entered billable hour falls. When skilled hours constrain capacity, check paid hours, direct costs and job mix alongside this ratio before changing assignments or pricing.
Quick win this week
Pull last month: (revenue minus direct job costs) divided by the field labor hours your crew actually billed. Compare it to the trade band above. A result below the planning reference is a prompt to reconcile price, direct cost, hours and job mix; it does not identify the cause.
Strategic fix
Track gross profit per hour weekly by job type. Reprice or re-scope the job types that fall below your target per-hour. Protect billable hours by cutting drive time, callbacks, and unbilled add-ons. Keep paid and billable hours separate; a per-hour ratio does not reconcile pricing, utilization and mix by itself.
What is your real gross profit per hour, by job type?
Start with a short call. With agreed access to your books, job-cost and time records, compare gross profit per hour by job type and identify work below your target.
No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate gross profit per hour?
Gross profit per hour equals revenue minus direct job costs (labor, materials, subcontractors, equipment), divided by the total field labor hours your crew billed over the same period. It divides gross profit by the entered billed hours; it does not adjust for job mix or establish profit per paid hour.
What is a good gross profit per hour for a contractor?
It varies by trade. Illustrative planning references shown alongside Level context (median company-reported rate-card value about $79 per hour; entries mix selling prices, loaded costs and base wages) are roughly: HVAC and plumbing lower references around $95 to $100 per billable hour and upper references near $140 to $145; electrical around $92; mechanical around $105; roofing around $78; landscaping around $45. No reproducible derivation or measured per-trade distribution is published for these endpoints. A result below a reference does not identify an underpricing cause.
Why is gross profit per hour better than profit margin percentage?
Margin percentage and revenue can both look healthy while the business makes less per hour worked. For trades where skilled labor is the constraint, the scarce resource is the hour, not the dollar of revenue. Gross profit per hour shows gross profit relative to the billable hours you enter. Pricing, utilization and job mix can influence it; reconcile those inputs before deciding what to change.
Want your real gross profit per hour, by job type?
We pull your actual revenue, direct costs, and field hours from your books and show you gross profit per hour by service type (service call, install, maintenance, after-hours) where your records support that split. A person reviews the recorded hours, costs and scope before deciding which work needs attention.
Operating review
Questions before treating profit as cash
The margin, cash, and operating questions we check first when reviewing your numbers.
What completed work has not yet become an invoice?
Completion, billing and collection are separate events. A profitable job can still be waiting for a billing handoff.
Which invoices explain the next cash shortfall?
Total receivables can conceal a few large balances that matter more than many small invoices.
Does the cash forecast include the next payroll funding event?
A completed or approved payroll run does not establish the date and net amount that will leave the bank.
Simple pricing
Three tiers, one ladder.
$500+/mo
Bookkeeping
The clean data layer: monthly books, reconciliations, and organized financials AI can work with.
$1,500-$5,000/mo
Scale
The full AI operating layer: custom agents, weekly actions, and benchmarks to grow margin per hour.
Custom
Platform / Multi-Office
Multi-branch benchmarking and scorecards for PE-backed and multi-location groups.
Find out which jobs make money per hour
Drop your info and the Level team will build your gross profit per hour by job type from your actual numbers.
No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.