Service Call Pricing Calculator
Set a service call fee that covers travel, diagnosis, truck and overhead, and price the complete repair without counting the visit twice.
ESTIMATE
Date: November 3, 2026
Valid until: December 3, 2026
Estimate covers: Service visit and diagnosis
| Total estimated price | $0.00 |
This is an estimate, not a binding contract or approved agreement. Final pricing may change if the scope, site conditions, or material costs change. Prices exclude sales tax unless stated.
How to price a service call
A service call has two parts with very different costs. Getting a technician to the door and finding the problem — travel, diagnosis, the truck, dispatch, and a share of overhead — costs you money whether or not the customer approves a repair. The repair itself adds more labor, parts, and job-specific expenses. This calculator prices both separately so your visit charge covers the trip on its own, and your repair quote covers everything once.
Formulas
- Travel labor = travel hours × burdened hourly cost (× after-hours multiplier, if selected)
- Diagnostic labor = diagnostic hours × burdened hourly cost (× multiplier, if selected)
- Repair labor = repair hours × burdened hourly cost (× multiplier, if selected)
- Vehicle cost = round-trip miles × cost per mile
- Base visit cost = travel labor + diagnostic labor + vehicle + dispatch + visit overhead + other visit expenses
- Minimum visit price = base visit cost ÷ (1 − margin)
- Full repair cost = base visit cost + repair labor + parts + repair expenses
- Full repair price = full repair cost ÷ (1 − margin)
- Profit = price − cost; margin = profit ÷ price
Worked example
A technician costs $60 an hour. The call takes 1 hour of travel and 0.5 hours of diagnosis. The truck runs 50 miles at $0.50, dispatch costs $15, and overhead per visit is $30. Target margin is 20%.
- Labor: 1.5 h × $60 = $90. Base visit cost: $90 + $25 + $15 + $30 = $160
- Minimum visit charge: $160 ÷ 0.80 = $200 ($40 profit)
The customer approves a repair: 1.5 more hours ($90), a $90 part, and $10 in other repair expenses — $190 more.
- Full repair cost: $160 + $190 = $350
- Full repair price: $350 ÷ 0.80 = $437.50 ($87.50 profit)
The correct quote is $437.50 — not $437.50 plus the $200 visit charge. The visit cost is already inside the repair cost.
Travel, diagnosis, and repair expenses
Travel is paid time with no wrench turning, and the truck burns fuel and wears out every mile. Diagnosis is skilled work even when the fix is simple. Together they're the floor: if your visit charge doesn't cover them, every declined repair loses money. Repair expenses only exist when the work goes ahead, so they belong in the repair quote, not the visit fee.
After-hours work
If nights, weekends, or emergencies cost you more — overtime, on-call stipends — enter a labor cost multiplier and choose which hours it applies to. The results show normal and after-hours prices side by side. The multiplier adjusts your cost; it is not a customer markup, and any additional emergency premium is a separate business decision.
Assumptions
- All figures are your own costs. No industry-average rates are built in.
- Each expense is entered once: vehicle, dispatch, and overhead are not also baked into the labor cost.
- The same margin applies to the visit and the repair.
- Prices exclude sales tax.
Limitations
- Results are cost-based recommendations, not market prices. Competition and customer expectations may support a different number.
- It doesn't handle flat-rate price books, maintenance agreement discounts, or financing fees.
- It doesn't add a separate parts markup; parts are priced through the overall margin.
Frequently asked questions
Should the service call fee be credited toward the repair?+
That's a business policy, not a math question. This calculator's full repair price already includes the visit cost once. If you quote the full repair price, don't add a separate service fee on top. If you charge the visit fee first and later approve a repair, charge only the difference between the full repair price and what the customer already paid.
Why use the technician's employment cost instead of my hourly billing rate?+
Your billing rate already contains profit and often overhead. Using it as a cost and then applying a margin would price profit on top of profit. Enter what an hour of the technician actually costs you — wages plus payroll taxes, insurance, and benefits — and let the margin create the profit.
Is the after-hours multiplier my emergency fee?+
No. The multiplier models extra internal cost, such as overtime or on-call pay. It raises your cost, and the margin is applied to that higher cost. Whether customers should pay a separate emergency premium, and how much, depends on your market — the calculator does not invent one.
How do I find overhead per visit?+
Take the overhead your service department carries in a year — office rent, software, office staff, advertising, insurance not tied to a technician — and divide by the number of service visits you expect in that year. Don't include vehicle or technician costs that you already entered elsewhere.
What's the difference between margin and markup?+
Margin is profit as a share of the price; markup is profit as a share of cost. A $160 visit that costs $120 has a 25% margin but a 33.3% markup. This calculator prices to the margin you enter.
Can I bring in a rate from the Labor Burden calculator?+
Yes. In the Labor Burden calculator, choose Service Call Pricing as the destination and send the employment-cost-only rate (recommended). If you send the overhead-inclusive rate, reduce or zero out the overhead per visit here so the same overhead isn't counted twice.
Results are estimates for planning purposes. See our disclaimer.
Related calculators
- Job Pricing & Profit →Price a bid from labor, materials, overhead and contingency to hit your margin.
- Labor Burden & Billable Rate →True hourly cost of an employee and the rate to bill for profit.
- Change Order Pricing →Price extra work and credits. Generate a printable change order for review and approval.