A full schedule is not the same as a profitable month. Until jobs cover rent, insurance, trucks, software, and office pay, every ticket is still digging out of a hole. Knowing your break-even job count tells you when the month turns from survival to profit.
Contribution margin vs net job profit
For break-even planning, use contribution margin: revenue minus variable costs that scale with the job (burdened labor, materials, travel, vehicle miles, paid lead fees). Fixed overhead stays in a monthly pool.
Once you know average contribution per typical job, divide monthly fixed costs by that number. That quotient is roughly how many tickets you need before the month is whole.
Worked example
Monthly fixed overhead: $22,000 (rent, insurance, office, software, truck payments).
Typical service call after variable costs contributes $180.
Break-even jobs ≈ $22,000 ÷ $180 = ~123 jobs that month.
If you finish 110 jobs at that mix, you are short. If installs contribute $900 each, mix matters — a few higher-contribution tickets cut the count sharply. Recalculate when your job mix shifts.
How to get a real contribution number
- Cost 5–10 recent jobs of your most common type with full variable inputs (labor, travel, vehicle, materials, leads).
- Average the leftover dollars before fixed overhead allocation — that is contribution.
- Divide your monthly fixed total by that average.
- Track completed jobs against the break-even tally mid-month, not just at month-end.
If contribution is thin, break-even climbs into unreachable territory. Raising prices or cutting low-contribution work is more powerful than "just running more calls."
Stress-test with real tickets
Run a typical job through the job profitability calculator. Use the leftover after labor, travel, vehicle, materials, and leads as your contribution estimate (leave overhead out of the rate if you are using this break-even method). Average a few jobs, then divide fixed costs by that average.
What to do if break-even is too high
- Raise prices or minimums on low-contribution lines
- Reduce travel waste with better routing
- Cut paid leads that consume contribution
- Shift mix toward higher-contribution installs or agreements
- Trim fixed costs you cannot fund at current volume
Stress-test a typical job
Cost a real ticket in the free calculator, then use the leftover dollars to estimate how many jobs cover the month.