Calculator
Plumbing Break-Even Calculator
Find your break-even point in minutes — enter your monthly overhead, gross margin, and average ticket to see the revenue, jobs, and daily sales your plumbing shop needs to cover every fixed cost, plus your margin of safety and the revenue to hit your target profit. Free, no signup.
Free
More overhead
Total monthly overhead$26,400
60.0% gross margin98 jobs/mo to break even
Break-even revenue / month
$44,000
≈ $528,000/yr · $1,833/working day
Healthy cushion above break-even
Net profit at your revenue27.0% net margin · $80,000/mo revenue
$21,600Break-even at a glance
Break-even revenue
$44,000Fixed costs ÷ gross margin — your monthly floor
Break-even jobs / month
98At $450 average ticket
Break-even sales / day
$1,833Across 24 working days
Contribution margin
60.0%$270 kept per $450 ticket
Overhead load
33.0%Healthy overhead: 30–45% of revenue
Margin of safety
45.0%$36,000 above break-even
Hit your profit target
Revenue for 15.0% net
$58,667Monthly sales to reach your target margin
Jobs / month at target
131At $450 average ticket
Extra jobs vs break-even
+33Above break-even to earn your target profit
Where your overhead goes
- Rent & facilities: $3,500
- Office & admin payroll: $11,000
- Insurance & licensing: $2,200
- Vehicles & equipment: $4,500
- Marketing: $3,000
- Software & subscriptions: $1,200
- Other overhead: $1,000
$26,400/mo · $316,800/yr in fixed costs — you pay this whether or not the phone rings.
Industry benchmarks
- Blended gross margin
- 60–62%
- Net margin target
- 10–20%
- Overhead load
- 30–45% of revenue
- Margin of safety
- Aim for 20%+
Plumbing net margin: 10–20% · best-in-class 18–25%
What you'll get
Add your monthly overhead
Enter fixed costs — rent, office and admin payroll, insurance, vehicles, marketing, and software. These are the bills you pay whether or not the phone rings.
Enter your gross margin and average ticket
Your gross margin (revenue kept after direct job costs) is your contribution margin. With your average ticket, the calculator finds your break-even revenue, jobs per month, and sales per working day.
Check your cushion and profit target
Add your current monthly revenue to see your margin of safety and net profit, then find the revenue you need to hit a target net margin using the divisor method.
How it works
- 1
Add your monthly overhead
Enter fixed costs — rent, office and admin payroll, insurance, vehicles, marketing, and software. These are the bills you pay whether or not the phone rings.
- 2
Enter your gross margin and average ticket
Your gross margin (revenue kept after direct job costs) is your contribution margin. With your average ticket, the calculator finds your break-even revenue, jobs per month, and sales per working day.
- 3
Check your cushion and profit target
Add your current monthly revenue to see your margin of safety and net profit, then find the revenue you need to hit a target net margin using the divisor method.
How plumbing contractors use a break-even calculator
You can run 55% gross margins on every job and still go broke if overhead eats the difference. Break-even analysis answers the one number every owner should know cold: how much revenue you must book each month before you make a single dollar of profit. Below it you are losing money; above it, every contribution-margin dollar drops to the bottom line.
This calculator uses the standard cost-volume-profit method — fixed costs divided by your contribution-margin ratio (gross margin) — to find break-even revenue, then converts it into jobs per month and sales per working day at your average ticket. Add your current revenue for a margin-of-safety reading (aim for 20%+), and use the divisor method to see the revenue needed to hit your target net margin. Pair it with the Labor Rate and Job Pricing calculators so the prices you quote actually clear this floor.
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View statesBreak-Even Calculator FAQs
How do I calculate the break-even point for a plumbing business?
Divide your total monthly fixed costs (overhead) by your contribution-margin ratio — your gross margin expressed as a decimal. If overhead is $30,000/month and your gross margin is 50%, break-even revenue is $30,000 ÷ 0.50 = $60,000/month. Divide that by your average ticket to get the number of jobs you need per month.
What is the difference between gross margin and contribution margin here?
In this whole-business model they are the same figure: the share of each revenue dollar left after variable direct-job costs (materials, field labor, subs, and commission). That contribution first covers your fixed overhead, then becomes net profit. Fixed costs — rent, office payroll, insurance — do not change with job volume, so they sit below the contribution line.
What is a good margin of safety?
Margin of safety is how far your actual revenue sits above break-even: (revenue − break-even) ÷ revenue. A cushion of 20% or more is healthy for a home-service shop; under 10% means a slow month or two can push you into a loss. A negative margin of safety means you are booking below break-even and losing money.
Is this break-even calculator free?
Yes. Every tool on CloseCrew is free for contractors — no account required. Use it with the Profit Margin, Labor Rate, and Job Pricing calculators to set prices that clear your break-even point on every job.
