Service-Business Break-Even Jobs Calculator
Jobs per month, week, and day to break even, hit a profit goal, and stay within crew capacity. Includes a +10 / +20 / +50% profit-scenario ladder.
How this is calculated
Break-even uses the contribution-margin formula every business textbook teaches. Subtract per-job variable cost from average job revenue to get the contribution margin; divide monthly fixed costs by that to get the number of jobs per month.
cm = avg_job_revenue − variable_cost_per_job
be_jobs = fixed_costs / cm
target = (fixed_costs + profit_target) / cm
revenue = be_jobs × avg_job_revenue
per week = be_jobs / 4.33
per day = be_jobs / 21.7 (5-day) or / 26 (6-day)
mos % = (capacity_revenue − be_revenue) / capacity_revenueThe scenario ladder layers +10% (safety buffer), +20% (comfortable), and +50% (growth pace) extra jobs above break-even — each tier puts that fraction of fixed costs in the bank as profit.
This is the whole-company number. When the question narrows to whether one more seat pays for itself, the seat-level version of the same math starts where this one stops, and how much of a paid day is actually billable is worth measuring before you go looking for extra volume. The fixed-cost figure is only as honest as the overhead behind it, which the overhead recovery rate calculator derives from your monthly bills; the term itself is defined under break-even point.
Sources: SBA, Corporate Finance Institute, Investopedia, AccountingCoach. Margin-of-safety threshold (≥20% healthy / 10–20% caution / <10% risk) follows CFI guidance.