How do I work out my Labour Costs?
Accurate labour costing is one of the most important parts of running a profitable trade business — and Burdi makes it easy to track.
When setting up your labour costs, you want to enter the gross on-road cost for each technician level. This ensures your job reporting reflects the true cost of delivering work, not just what you pay your team per hour.
What is Gross On-Road Cost?
Your gross on-road cost is the fully loaded hourly cost of having a technician out on the job.
This includes more than just wages — it should reflect the real cost to the business, such as:
-
Technician wages
-
Vehicle costs
-
Fuel
-
Insurance allocation
-
Payroll tax (if applicable)
-
Efficiency or productivity factors
In short, it’s the true cost of putting someone on-site earning money for the business.
What Not to Include
It’s important that this rate does not include general business overheads, such as:
-
Office staff wages
-
Rent or utilities
-
Admin systems and software
-
General operating expenses
Burdi reports profitability at the job level, so adding overheads here would push reporting towards net profit instead of gross profit — which can distort job performance.
Why This Matters
Using gross on-road cost ensures that your reporting accurately shows:
-
The true cost of labour on every job
-
Real gross profit margins
-
Which jobs are performing well
-
Where labour spend is creeping up
This gives you clearer insights and better decision-making across your business.
A Note on Executive Level Labour (L4)
Executive Level Labour (L4) is intentionally set up as the most expensive labour tier.
Why?
Because if senior technicians or business owners spend too much time on day-to-day tools work, it will naturally reduce gross profit reporting.
This is designed to encourage leadership to spend more time:
✅ working on the business
rather than
❌ working in the business
If you’re unsure what hourly cost to enter, start by estimating conservatively — and update as you learn more about your real operating costs.
Correct labour tracking is one of the fastest ways to improve profitability and job performance in Burdi.
Related Articles
How do I work out my Technician Costs?
Accurate labour costing is one of the most important parts of running a profitable trade business — and Burdi makes it easy to track. When setting up your labour costs, you want to enter the gross on-road cost for each technician level. This ensures ...What is The Difference Between Quoted and Calculated Labour? (Labour Rates VS Technician Costs)
Understanding the difference between Services and Technician Costs is important for accurately quoting jobs and tracking profitability. Services Services are used when creating Bundles and are primarily designed for quoting purposes. They help you ...How To Set Up Calculated Labour Cost Calculation
Burdi gives you flexibility in how labour costs are calculated on your jobs. Depending on your business processes, you can choose from three labour calculation methods: Reported Labour – Based on actual time staff spend on a job. Scheduled Labour – ...What is Calculated Labour in the Job Report?
The Calculated Labour value in Burdi's Job Report represents the actual labour cost incurred on a job based on recorded staff time. Unlike Quoted Labour, which is based on labour items added to the job, Calculated Labour is calculated from the time ...What is Quoted Labour in the Job Report?
The Quoted Labour value in Burdi's Job Report is calculated using any job item that contains the word "Labour" in its name. This includes: Individual labour items added directly to the job. Labour items contained within bundles. Any material or ...