Contents
You can't ride along on every job. A short list of numbers, checked every week, tells you where money is leaking and where to push. This guide defines the numbers that matter most for trades and home services, gives each one a formula and a worked example, and ends with a one-page scorecard.
One thing it deliberately leaves out: "industry benchmarks." Targets vary by trade, market, season and how each business counts. Your own trend, this month against last month and this season against last year, tells you more than someone else's average.
First, count the same way every time
A number is only useful if it means the same thing every week. Write down your definitions and stick to them.
- Lead: a new person asking for service. Not spam, not a vendor, not an existing customer calling to reschedule.
- Qualified lead: a lead you could serve (in your area, a job you do).
- Booked job: a job with a date and time on the schedule.
- Revenue: decide whether you mean invoiced or collected, and label it.
- Direct costs: materials, field labor (including payroll taxes and benefits), subcontractors, equipment rental, permits and disposal for that job.
Your phone system, your scheduling software and your accounting software each hold part of the picture. Pull from the same place each week.
Numbers for getting work
Leads by source
Formula: a count of new leads, split by where they came from (Google profile, website, ads, referrals, repeat customers, trucks and signs).
You need tracking numbers or a "how did you hear about us?" question on every call to get this. Without it, every other marketing number is a guess. See marketing analytics: which calls came from where.
Missed-call rate
Formula: missed inbound calls ÷ total inbound calls × 100
Example: 18 missed out of 120 calls in a week = 15%. If your marketing produced those 120 calls, you paid for the 18 that got voicemail.
Speed to lead
Formula: average time from a lead arriving (form, text, voicemail) to the first real reply
Web forms and texts that sit for hours tend to go cold. Measure it for a week and you may be surprised.
Booking rate
Formula: booked jobs ÷ qualified leads × 100
Example: 64 booked from 80 qualified leads = 80%. A falling booking rate usually points to the phone: slow answers, unclear pricing, or no available times offered. Listen to a few recorded calls.
Cost per lead and cost per booked job
Formulas: cost per lead = spend on a source ÷ leads from that source. Cost per booked job = spend on a source ÷ jobs booked from that source.
Example: $1,500 on ads brings 50 leads and 30 booked jobs. Cost per lead = $30. Cost per booked job = $50. Always judge channels on cost per booked job, because a cheap lead that never books isn't cheap.
Estimate close rate
Formulas: by count = estimates accepted ÷ estimates presented × 100. By value = dollars accepted ÷ dollars presented × 100.
Example: 12 of 30 replacement estimates accepted = 40% by count. If those 12 were mostly your lower-priced options, the close rate by value will be lower, and that tells you something different.
Numbers for doing the work profitably
Average ticket
Formula: revenue from completed jobs ÷ number of completed jobs
Split it by job type. Mixing $150 service calls with $12,000 installs produces an average that describes nothing. See how to raise your average ticket without being pushy.
Gross margin
Formulas: gross profit = revenue − direct costs. Gross margin = gross profit ÷ revenue × 100.
Example: a $2,400 job with $700 of materials and $600 of field labor has $1,100 of gross profit, a gross margin of about 46%. Track it by job type, not just overall. See job costing and the job costing calculator.
Revenue per tech day (or crew day)
Formula: revenue from completed jobs ÷ tech days worked
Example: $38,000 of revenue in a month from 4 techs working 20 days each (80 tech days) = $475 per tech day. It shows whether a slow month is a demand problem (not enough jobs) or a productivity problem (jobs taking too long, too much drive time).
Billable utilization
Formula: billable hours ÷ paid hours × 100
Example: a tech paid for 45 hours who spent 29 of them on customer jobs = about 64%. The rest is drive time, shop time, parts runs and callbacks. You'll never reach 100%, but a sliding number is worth a look. See how to calculate your billable hourly rate.
Callback rate and first-time fix rate
Formulas: callback rate = jobs needing a return visit for the same problem ÷ completed jobs × 100. First-time fix rate = jobs finished on the first visit ÷ completed jobs × 100.
Callbacks cost you twice: an unpaid visit and a customer who trusts you less. A rising callback rate often points to training, rushed jobs or trucks missing common parts.
Numbers for keeping customers
Repeat customer rate
Formula: customers with two or more jobs in the last 12 months ÷ all customers served in the last 12 months × 100
This shows whether customers come back. A returning customer costs little or nothing to win, so this number has an outsized effect on profit. See customer retention for home service businesses.
Memberships or recurring clients, and churn
Formulas: active members at month end (a count). Churn = members lost during the period ÷ members at the start of the period × 100.
Example: you start the quarter with 200 maintenance members and 14 cancel or don't renew. Churn = 7% for the quarter. For cleaning companies and landscapers, the same formula works for recurring clients.
Review rate
Formulas: review requests sent ÷ completed jobs (did you ask everyone?), and new reviews per month.
Numbers for cash
Days sales outstanding (DSO)
Formula: accounts receivable ÷ revenue for the period × days in the period
Example: $18,000 owed to you at month end, $60,000 of revenue in a 30-day month: 18,000 ÷ 60,000 × 30 = 9 days. A rising DSO means you're financing your customers. Collecting payment on site is the simplest fix.
Break-even revenue
Formula: monthly overhead ÷ gross margin (as a decimal)
Example: $40,000 of monthly overhead and a 50% gross margin means you need $80,000 of revenue a month just to cover costs. Knowing this number makes pricing and hiring decisions much easier.
Net profit margin
Formula: net profit ÷ revenue × 100
Your accountant can help you produce this monthly. It's the final test of whether the other numbers add up. See bookkeeping basics for contractors.
Extra numbers by trade
The core list works for everyone. Each trade has a few more worth watching.
| Trade | Extra numbers | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| HVAC | Memberships sold per tune-up | New memberships ÷ tune-ups completed |
| HVAC | Replacement opportunities | Repair calls flagged for replacement ÷ repair calls |
| Plumbing | Water heater close rate | Water heater replacements sold ÷ water heater calls |
| Plumbing | Camera-to-repair rate | Repairs sold after a sewer camera inspection ÷ camera inspections |
| Electrical | First-time inspection pass rate | Inspections passed first time ÷ inspections requested |
| Electrical | Estimate turnaround | Average days from site visit to estimate sent |
| Roofing | Inspection-to-contract rate | Signed contracts ÷ roof inspections |
| Roofing | Contract-to-install time | Average days from signed contract to install |
| Landscaping | Revenue per crew hour | Revenue ÷ crew hours on site |
| Landscaping | Drive-time share | Drive hours ÷ total paid crew hours |
| Cleaning | Recurring client churn | Recurring clients lost ÷ recurring clients at start of month |
| Cleaning | Labor cost per clean | Cleaner wages and taxes for the visit ÷ price of the visit |
| Cleaning | Time versus estimate | Actual hours on a clean ÷ estimated hours |
A one-page weekly scorecard
Copy this into a spreadsheet or onto a whiteboard. Fill it in every Monday.
| Number | This week | Last week | 4-week average | Who owns it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New leads (total and top source) | ||||
| Missed-call rate | ||||
| Booking rate | ||||
| Jobs completed | ||||
| Revenue completed | ||||
| Average ticket (service calls) | ||||
| Estimate close rate | ||||
| Callbacks | ||||
| Reviews received | ||||
| Receivables over 30 days | ||||
| Cash in the bank |
Gross margin, churn, DSO and net profit margin usually work better monthly, once the books are reconciled.
How to use the numbers without drowning in them
- Start with five. Missed-call rate, booking rate, average ticket, gross margin and cash in the bank cover a lot of ground.
- Look at them at the same time each week. Fifteen minutes on Monday morning is enough.
- Watch trends, not single weeks. One bad week is noise. Three in a row is a pattern.
- Give each number an owner. The office manager owns missed calls. The lead tech owns callbacks.
- Decide in advance what you'll do when a number moves. Booking rate drops: listen to five calls. Gross margin drops: check the price book against current material costs. DSO rises: collect before the truck leaves.
If you'd like the lead-side numbers without building the spreadsheet, Zome's insights page shows how it connects searches, pages, reviews and campaigns to calls and booked jobs in plain language.
