Construction overhead: the hidden costs eating your margin

You priced the job right. Labor, materials and subs were covered with a healthy margin. And still, at the end of the month, there is less money than expected. The usual suspect is overhead: the costs of running the company that do not belong to any single job.

What counts as overhead

• Office rent, utilities and internet
• Truck and van payments, fuel for non-job trips, maintenance
• Insurance policies for the company
• Software subscriptions and phones
• Office staff salaries
• Tools and equipment that serve every job
• Meals, small purchases and the "quick run to the store"

Each one looks small. Together they can be a big slice of your revenue.

The forgotten ones

The costs that hurt most are the ones nobody writes down: the breakfast for the crew, the replacement drill, the parking ticket, the annual software renewal that hits the card in March. They are real money, but they never show up in any job report.

Track overhead by category

Group expenses into a few categories (equipment, vehicles, office, software, meals, other). Set a monthly limit for the ones that tend to grow. When a category passes its limit, you see it in the middle of the month, not at tax time.

Overhead you do not track is overhead you are not charging for.

Separate recurring from one-time costs

Rent, subscriptions and truck payments repeat every month. Register them once as recurring and let them appear automatically. One-time costs get a quick entry with a receipt photo.

Use overhead to price your bids

Once you know your monthly overhead, divide it by the hours or the revenue you produce in a typical month. That gives you an overhead rate to add to every estimate. Your bids stop covering only the job and start covering the company.

Look at the whole picture

The best view puts jobs and overhead side by side: what came in from jobs, what went out on jobs and what went out to run the company. That is the real health of your business.

Four Built's Build plan includes Overhead: internal expenses by category, monthly limits, recurring costs, receipt attachments, a dashboard and export.