Contractors and trades
Many contractors price off a number worked out years ago, or off what the competition charges. Neither one knows what an hour of your crew actually costs you.
14 days free, no card. Then $79 a month, and you can stop whenever you like.
Chalkline Pro: $119 a month, with the full Price Book. The free days include it. What Pro adds →
For US businesses
WIP Report: +$29 a month, an add-on for contractors who send a work-in-progress schedule to a bond agent or a bank.
Owners often assume their crew bills nearly every hour they are paid for. In the field it is often far fewer — driving, the shop, callbacks and holidays all take their share. Every hour you pay for and do not sell has to be carried by the ones you do.
Paid time off counted twice, once in the wage and again as a benefit. FUTA treated as a percentage of the whole wage, when it is about $42 per employee a year (0.6% of the first $7,000). Margin confused with markup — cost × 1.20 leaves you 16.7%, not 20%. And billable hours assumed rather than counted.
Every figure on screen traces back to something you entered. If you disagree with the answer, you can see exactly which input to change.
It follows the method the trade associations teach — ACCA and PHCC: what a technician really costs a year, how many hours they actually sell, cost per billable hour, overhead per billable hour, break-even, then price.
The 14 free days include everything, Pro too. Choose one when you subscribe, and change it from Your plan whenever you like.
$79 a month
Your true cost per billable hour, the rate to charge, and the simple price book: a flat price for every job from its hours and parts.
$119 a month
Everything in Chalkline, plus the full Price Book:
One price for your business either way, never per person or per tech. Moving up to Pro charges the difference for the rest of the month you are in; going back to Chalkline takes effect at your next bill. No refunds.
In your browser, your figures are kept with your account on our server, so they are there on any computer you sign in on — and they are never shared, sold or shown to anyone else. The desktop version keeps them on the computer it is installed on instead, and sends nothing but a check that your subscription is running.
After 14 days it asks for a card and stops opening until you put one in. Nothing you have typed is deleted either way.
It opens in your browser. Nothing to install, and nothing to set up. Once you subscribe you can also install it on your own computer, and everything you have entered comes with you.
A 4-technician HVAC shop, using the opening figures Chalkline starts you with. Change any of them and the whole thing moves.
| Technicians | 4 |
| Hours they can actually invoice, a year | 5,360 |
| Wages and burden | $302,200 |
| Overhead | $129,000 |
| Labor, per billable hour | $56.38 |
| Overhead, per billable hour | $24.07 |
| Break-even | $80.45 |
| Rate for a 20% margin | $100.56 |
This shop charges $95. It is $5.56 an hour short of its own target — $29,800 a year.
Those are the starting figures, not a promise about your shop. The point is that they are yours to correct: put your own wages and overhead in and it tells you your number, and shows how it got there. Try it with these numbers →
No. Put in your email and a password, and it is yours for 14 days. There is nothing to cancel because nothing has been taken.
No. You type figures into boxes and it does the arithmetic. The trial opens in your browser with nothing to install at all.
It starts with typical figures for your trade and marks every one that is still a guess, so you can see what is yours and what is not yet. Replace them as you find the real ones.
Yes. The price book turns your own hourly cost into a flat price for every job you do, so you can hand a customer a number instead of a clock.
Nobody but you. They are never shared, sold or shown to anyone. In the browser they are kept with your account on our server; in the desktop version they are on your own computer and are not sent anywhere.
Yes. In your browser it is the same everywhere: sign in on any computer and your figures are there, because they are kept with your account. The desktop version is different — each computer it is installed on keeps its own figures — so put your numbers in on the one you work on rather than half on each.
It stops opening and asks for a card. Your figures are not touched — put a card in and everything is exactly where you left it.
Inside Chalkline, Settings takes you to Manage billing, where you can stop it — or email us at chalkline@jtsapps.com and we will stop it for you. There is no phone call and nobody will try to talk you out of it.
Sign in with your email and password. In your browser your figures are kept with your account, so they are the same on any computer you sign in on.
The desktop version keeps its figures on the computer it is installed on. To put it on another computer, sign in and download it again from Settings, then bring its figures across — here is how.
One trade each, and the same idea every time: one number you have never had, worked out from what you already know.