Service Price Calculator

Most field service technicians charge between $75 and $200 per hour, depending on trade, region, and skill level. HVAC and plumbing typically run $100–$200/hour, electricians $75–$200, handymen $60–$100, and specialty trades (low-voltage, garage doors, locksmiths) $100–$175. Always price off fully loaded labor cost — wages plus payroll taxes, benefits, vehicle, tools, insurance, and overhead — not just the technician’s hourly wage.

The average service call fee in the U.S. is $75–$150, with most field service businesses charging $80–$125 for standard hours and $150–$300 for emergency or after-hours calls. The service call fee typically covers the first 30–60 minutes including travel, diagnostic, and initial assessment. Beyond that window, billing transitions to your hourly rate or flat-rate task pricing.

Most profitable field service businesses target a net profit margin of 10–25%, with industry averages landing around 8–15%. Gross margins on labor typically run 30–50%; material markups commonly sit between 20% and 50% of cost. The biggest profit killers are pricing off raw wages instead of fully loaded labor cost, skipping trip charges on small jobs, and underestimating monthly overhead.

Flat-rate pricing works best for predictable, repeatable jobs (diagnostic, install, replacement) where time and materials sit in a tight range — customers prefer the price certainty, and your techs aren’t penalized for working efficiently. Hourly rates work best for unpredictable troubleshooting and project-style work. Most successful field service businesses use a flat-rate price book for 80% of common work and hourly for the rest.

Add up four cost categories: labor cost (technicians × hours × fully loaded hourly rate), material cost (parts and supplies with markup), overhead cost (monthly overhead ÷ billable hours × hours on this job), and profit (your target margin). The sum is your service price. This calculator handles all four automatically using your inputs.

A service call fee covers the technician’s arrival plus diagnostic and initial assessment — typically $75–$150 — and includes the first 30–60 minutes of work. A trip charge is a flat fee covering only dispatch and travel to the location (usually $50–$100), with no work included. Most field service businesses bundle the trip charge into the service call fee, but some charge them separately for jobs requiring multiple visits.

Emergency and after-hours service calls should be priced at 1.5× to 2× your standard rate, with a higher minimum service call fee — typically $150–$400 versus $75–$150 for standard hours. Weekend, holiday, and overnight calls fall on the higher end. The premium reflects on-call labor cost, opportunity cost, and the urgency value to the customer. Undercharging emergency rates means working nights and weekends for less than your day rate.

Price maintenance contracts at roughly 80–90% of the equivalent one-time work spread across the contract period. Two annual tune-ups worth $200 each at one-time pricing should sell as a service agreement around $320–$340 — a discount for the customer, but the contract guarantees revenue and gives you first right of refusal on bigger repairs. Always include defined inclusions, exclusions, and a 15–25% discount on parts/labor for re