How we calculate the true cost of field service software

The True Cost Calculator on proedgeops.com produces a single number: the annual cost of running your current field service software, including the labor required to operate it. This page documents exactly how we get to that number.

We publish the methodology because the calculator is only useful if you trust the math. Every formula, every assumption, and every data source is below. If you find an error, tell us at contact@proedgeops.com.

The core insight the calculator surfaces

When operators evaluate field service software, they compare license fees. The license fee is the visible number. The hidden number is the labor required to keep the software running: data entry, pricebook updates, invoice reconciliation, schedule management, callback handling, dispute resolution, and the dozens of other tasks that someone in the office spends time on every day.

Most operators have never added these two numbers together. When you do, the total is usually 2 to 5 times the license fee alone. This is not a ServiceTitan problem or a Housecall Pro problem. It is a structural feature of how field service software is built: the platform gives you a place to enter data and review reports, and a human is required to do the entering and the reviewing.

The calculator surfaces the total. The ratio between hidden and visible cost (the "hidden cost multiple") is the headline because it is the number operators have never seen. The absolute total cost of operation is the number that should drive decisions.

Inputs

The calculator collects five inputs.

Input 1: Number of trucks. Tied to operational scale. Drives our internal estimate of total office time required if the operator does not know their own number (which most do not).

Input 2: Current platform. Drives the average license fee estimate if the operator does not know their exact spend. Defaults are based on publicly reported pricing and crowdsourced TCO data from operators in the segment.

Input 3: Monthly platform fee (operator-provided). The operator's actual reported fee. Overrides the default if provided. We always prefer operator-provided data over our estimates.

Input 4: Admin hours per week on software tasks. The hours per week your office staff spends specifically on tasks the software requires. Not total office hours. Just software-touching work: data entry, scheduling, invoicing, follow-up calls driven by the platform, pricebook updates, callback management.

Input 5: Loaded hourly cost of admin labor. Fully loaded (wage plus benefits plus payroll taxes). Default value is $32 per hour based on BLS occupation 43-4051 (Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other) median wage of $21.49 per hour as of May 2024, multiplied by a 1.49x loaded cost factor consistent with BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data.

Formulas

The math is intentionally simple. There are no proprietary algorithms and no black boxes.

Annual license cost:

License cost = Monthly platform fee × 12

Annual operating labor cost:

Labor cost = Admin hours per week × 52 × Loaded hourly cost

Total annual cost of operation:

Total cost = License cost + Labor cost

Hidden cost multiple (the headline number):

Hidden cost multiple = Total cost ÷ License cost

Cost per truck per month (the comparable benchmark):

Cost per truck per month = Total cost ÷ Number of trucks ÷ 12

That is the entire calculation.

What the calculator counts and does not count

Counted:

Not counted:

The omissions are deliberate. Each of those numbers is real, but each is also harder to defend without operator-specific data. The calculator focuses on the two numbers any operator can verify against their own records: what they pay the software vendor and what they pay their office staff to use the software.

In our experience, the omitted categories add another 30 to 60 percent on top of the calculator's total. If the calculator shows $80,000 in true cost, the all-in number is closer to $100,000 to $130,000. The calculator is the conservative case.

Why the BLS data is the right reference

We use Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation 43-4051 (Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other) as the labor cost reference for three reasons.

First, the occupation is the most common job classification for the office support staff who actually run field service software in HVAC and plumbing shops. It is not the dispatcher classification (43-5032), which is too specialized for the mixed role most small shop office staff occupy. It is not the bookkeeper classification (43-3031), which captures a different scope of work.

Second, the BLS data is the largest, most regularly updated, and most legally defensible source of US labor cost data. It is what the Department of Labor, the IRS, and most courts rely on for wage benchmarking.

Third, the loaded cost multiplier of 1.49x is consistent with BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data, which reports that benefits, taxes, and other non-wage costs add approximately 49 percent on top of base wages for private industry workers as of Q4 2023.

Operators in high cost of living markets (San Francisco, New York, Boston) will pay more than the default. Operators in lower cost markets (rural Texas, Alabama, Indiana) will pay less. The calculator accepts an override so you can use your actual loaded cost.

Why 52 weeks and not adjusted for vacation

We multiply weekly admin hours by 52 weeks per year, not 50 or 48 or some adjusted number that backs out vacation, holidays, and sick time.

The reasoning is simple. Software tasks do not stop when an admin is on vacation. They either pile up and get done in overtime when the admin returns (cost shifts to the same line item), or they get done by a different person whose hours are not being counted (cost is still real, just hidden in a different bucket). Counting all 52 weeks of software work is the accurate representation of total annual labor demand the platform creates.

If an operator argues that 50 weeks is more honest, the math difference is small: about 3.8 percent lower labor cost. The headline number does not change meaningfully.

Sample calculation

A 5-truck HVAC shop running ServiceTitan with a $3,200 per month software bill and 22 hours per week of office time spent specifically on platform-driven tasks at a $32 per hour loaded cost.

The same shop running Housecall Pro at $239 per month with 8 hours per week of admin time:

Two observations about the comparison. First, the hidden cost multiple is much higher on Housecall Pro, but the absolute total cost is dramatically lower. The multiple is misleading if you stop there. The number that should drive decisions is the total cost of operation. Second, the labor cost difference between the two scenarios (8 hours/week vs 22 hours/week) is a real operating difference that operators report consistently. ServiceTitan demands more office time. That is not a criticism of ServiceTitan, it is a structural feature of a deeper platform.

What the calculator does not prove

The calculator does not prove that ProEdge Ops costs less than any specific alternative for any specific operator. We do not know what your specific labor cost would be on our platform until you run on our platform.

What the calculator does prove is that the labor required to operate software is a real cost that most operators have never measured. Once you know your hidden cost, you can evaluate any platform (ours included) against the right benchmark, which is total cost of operation rather than license fee alone.

We built ProEdge Ops to reduce the labor side of the equation. The autopilot model is specifically designed to compress the office hours required to run a shop, which is where most of the cost is hiding for most operators. Whether we actually deliver that is a question the design partner program will answer over the next 12 months. The calculator is intended to help operators evaluate any platform, not just ours.

Data sources

Updates and corrections

This methodology page is reviewed quarterly. If you find an error, an outdated data source, or a calculation we should improve, send the correction to contact@proedgeops.com. We will fix verified errors within 5 business days and credit the source if you want public credit.

The calculator and its methodology are intended to be the most defensible cost analysis tool in the HVAC and plumbing software category. Help us hold that standard.