How we calculate

We build small, single-purpose tools for the workflows a service business runs on — pricing, quoting, planning, and billing. The goal is the same every time: give you a clear, honest answer fast, then get out of the way. No signup, no ads, no dark patterns. To keep that promise we hold ourselves to a few fixed rules about how results are produced and described.

How we pick a method

For any calculation there is usually more than one accepted formula. When we add a tool, we choose the method by the same order of preference every time:

1. A published standard or official guideline, where one exists — for example, the U.S. Department of Labor's overtime rules, or the Small Business Administration's break-even method.
2. A widely used industry convention, when there is no single official standard — for example, the fully burdened labor-rate multipliers (typically 1.25–1.45×) that field trades use to turn a base wage into a true hourly cost.
3. Plain arithmetic the math agrees on, for things like a break-even count or a line-item invoice total, where the result is not a matter of opinion once the inputs are fixed.

Where a respected alternative exists, we say so on the tool page and explain why we chose the default. We never silently average competing methods to manufacture a single tidy number.

What “estimate” actually means

Most of our results are estimates, and we use that word on purpose. An estimate is a careful, defensible projection from the numbers you typed — not a guarantee, and not a measurement of you. Two things make a result an estimate:

• The formula is a model of reality, not reality. A burdened-rate or pricing model describes a typical operator's costs and market. Your real costs, overhead, and local rates can sit well above or below that baseline.
• The future is assumed, not known. A revenue or break-even projection holds your job size, close rate, and costs steady. Real weeks rarely are.

So when a tool says “charge $480 to hit a 30% margin,” the arithmetic is exact on the inputs — and still an estimate, because your real costs and the local market move week to week. We show the cost-versus-margin breakdown wherever we can so a number can't be mistaken for a promise.

How we cite our sources

When a tool relies on an external figure — a burdened-rate multiplier, a break-even method, a late-payment-interest convention — we cite it the same way every time, with three fixed parts: the publisher who actually issued the figure (a government agency where one owns the number, a recognized industry reference where none does — not a random aggregator), a direct link so you can confirm it in one click, and the retrieved date we read and recorded it. That convention is identical across every tool: a pricing tool pins its rate source the same way a billing tool pins its late-fee method. One format, no exceptions. Here is exactly how a pinned source reads:

How often we review

A calculator is not “done” when it ships — it is maintained. We sort tools into review bands by how fast their inputs go stale, and the cadence is a published commitment:

Pricing & billing tools

Reviewed when prevailing labor-rate conventions or state late-fee and usury rules change — the figures most likely to drift. Tools pinned to a time-sensitive figure carry a visible “Last reviewed” date.

Planning & operations tools

Reviewed when the underlying method (break-even, utilization) or any regulatory worksheet guidance changes — the only events that move a method-based result.

Owner

The Fieldwynn editorial process owns this cadence. The maintainers stand behind the math; we do not attach a named individual “reviewed by” byline (see below).

What we will never do

This is the rule that overrides the others. We do not invent numbers, sources, reviewers, accuracy claims, or outcomes to make a tool look more authoritative than it is. Concretely:

• No invented citations. If we can't pin a figure to a real, linkable publisher, we don't state it as fact — we either expose it as an editable assumption or leave it out.
• No fake precision. We don't show a job price to the cent when the inputs are a rough estimate, or a rate to two decimals when the method is only good to a few points. Where a result has a known margin, we say so.
• No fabricated authority. No invented reviewer names, no made-up certifications, no “expert-approved” badge we can't back up, no star ratings or testimonials we didn't receive. We deliberately do not attach a named human-reviewer byline to a page unless a real, qualified person reviewed it, because we will not manufacture a credential we don't hold. If we ever add a qualified reviewer, their real name and credentials will appear here — never before.
• No silent advice. Estimates are framed as educational, not as professional advice. The suite-wide disclaimer says so, and individual tools add their own honest caveats where the stakes are higher.

Per-tool methodology

Every calculator carries its own “How this is calculated” section with the exact formula, assumptions, and dated sources for that tool. The list below links straight to each one. Tools that already carry structured source citations show a “sources” count; time-sensitive tools show the date they were last reviewed.

More on how we work

Everything here is meant to be checkable. If a figure looks wrong or a source has moved, that's a bug we want to fix.

• About — who builds and stands behind these tools.
• Disclaimer — the limits of an estimate.
• Privacy — what happens to the numbers you type.