Free tool
Break-even calculator for tree companies
By Umair Nawaz, founder of Lirevon Updated How we test tools
How many jobs a month do you need before the business makes a dollar? Enter your fixed monthly costs, your average job value and what each job costs you to run. You get break-even jobs, revenue, days of work and your margin of safety. Every number below is a starting point. Change it to your own.
Related: Break-even price, Fixed cost, Variable cost, Overhead, For owner-operators.
1. Fixed monthly costs
What you pay every month, even with no jobs. Starting points only, change them to your own numbers.
Total fixed: – a month
2. Jobs and variable cost
Starting points only. Work out your loaded crew cost with the crew day rate calculator.
3. Your crews and calendar
Break-even estimate, made with lirevon.com/tools/break-even-calculator
Your break-even (estimate)
Break-even jobs per month
–
Per week
–
Break-even revenue / month
–
Days of work needed / month
–
Contribution per job
–
At your current volume
–
Margin of safety
–
Estimate only, built from the numbers entered. Not financial or tax advice.
What if?
Each row changes one thing and keeps the rest the same.
| Change | Break-even jobs / mo | Profit / mo | Safety |
|---|
The formula, in plain words
- Fixed costs = all the monthly rows added up.
- Variable cost per job = crew + fuel + disposal. In percent mode it is job value × the total percent.
- Contribution per job = average job value − variable cost per job.
- Break-even jobs per month = fixed costs ÷ contribution per job.
- Break-even jobs per week = break-even jobs per month ÷ (working weeks ÷ 12).
- Break-even revenue = break-even jobs per month × average job value.
- Days of work needed = break-even jobs ÷ (jobs per crew per week ÷ working days per week) ÷ number of crews.
- Current jobs per month = crews × jobs per crew per week × (working weeks ÷ 12).
- Margin of safety = (current jobs − break-even jobs) ÷ current jobs.
- What if: +10% price keeps variable cost the same in dollars. +2 jobs a week adds 2 jobs to your whole company's week. −5% variable cost means each job costs 5% less to run.
Questions about break-even
What does break-even mean for a tree service?
It is the number of jobs, or the amount of revenue, where your business makes zero profit. Below it you lose money every month. Above it, each job adds its contribution to profit. Knowing the number tells you how many jobs you must book before you are working for yourself.
What counts as a fixed cost?
Costs you pay every month even if you do no jobs: insurance, truck and equipment payments, shop or yard rent, phones and software, office costs and your own salary. They do not go up or down with the number of jobs in a normal month.
What counts as a variable cost per job?
Costs that come with each job: crew pay for the hours on that job, fuel, dump or disposal fees, and small consumables like chain, bar oil and rope wear. If you did not do the job, you would not pay them.
Should I enter variable cost as a percent or in dollars?
Use whichever you know better. If your books show crew, fuel and disposal as a share of revenue, use percent. If you know what a typical job costs you to run, use dollars. The tool turns a percent into dollars at your average job value, so the math is the same.
Should my own salary be in fixed costs?
Yes, if you want the break-even to mean the business pays you. If you leave it out, break-even only shows when the company covers its bills, not when it covers your living. This is a short explanation, not tax advice. Ask your accountant how to pay yourself.
Why does the "+10% price" row help so much?
A higher price adds to contribution without adding crew hours, fuel or dump fees. So each job covers more of your fixed costs and you need fewer jobs to break even. In the what-if row, variable cost per job stays the same in dollars when the price goes up.
What does "days of work needed" show?
It turns break-even jobs into working days. It divides break-even jobs by how many jobs one crew does in a day, then by your number of crews. Compare it with the working days you really have in a month.
What is a good margin of safety?
There is no single right number. A bigger margin of safety means a slow month, a broken truck or a week of rain hurts less. Tree work is seasonal, so look at your slow months, not only your busy ones.
Does this work for a seasonal business?
Use working weeks to set how many weeks a year you really work. The tool spreads those weeks over 12 months. If your season is very uneven, run it twice: once with busy-season numbers and once with slow-season numbers.
Is anything I type sent to Lirevon?
No. The math runs in your browser. Your numbers are kept only in this browser on this device so the form is filled in next time. Clear your browser data to remove them.
Every job past break-even is profit
Know your number. Then book past it.
Lirevon sets up missed-call text-back, an AI receptionist, follow-ups and review requests for tree companies, so the calls that could get you past break-even turn into booked estimates.