About the calculator
What it does
If your office re-keys work orders from ServiceChannel, Corrigo and client emails, chases subcontractor photos and builds a different report for every client, that time adds up. This calculator turns it into hours and dollars, then shows what a workflow change would have to save to pay for itself, including when it doesn’t.
You’ll need your work order count and a rough idea of how many minutes each step takes. If you don’t know, log a week of work first. We don’t fill those in for you, because no reliable published benchmark exists for contractor admin time. Start with Quick start; switch to Advanced for exception rates, subcontractors, a blended team, go-live timing, cash share and detailed costs. Both use the same model.
How to measure your own admin time
- Pick 5 to 10 normal working days, including at least one invoicing cycle.
- Each person who handles work orders logs, per job: the activity (the same ones as the calculator), minutes spent, and which client platform it was for.
- Log portal-watching and monthly report time separately, as hours per week and per month.
- Average the minutes per work order for each activity. Count rework separately: how many jobs needed fixing, and how long each fix took.
- Re-run the calculator with your averages. If one week was unusual, log a second week.
Columns: date, person, work order #, client/platform, activity, minutes, notes.
What these numbers mean
- Admin cost today is what your office time costs your company, using wages plus benefits.
- Value of time freed is recovered hours × the same hourly cost. It’s capacity, not cash. It turns into money only if it reduces overtime, temp help or hiring, or if your team uses it to handle more work.
- Cash savings uses the share you entered.
- Break-even reduction is the share of admin time a change must remove to cover its costs over the period you chose. It doesn’t depend on any savings estimate, so it’s the most reliable number on this page.
- No payback is a real answer. For low volumes or expensive projects, the better choice is often your current tools, used more consistently, or an integration your field software already offers.
For the options in more detail, see how to manage work orders across ServiceChannel, Corrigo and other client portals and where custom software fits for multi-site contractors.
What vendors claim
Show vendor claims (not used in the calculator)
Software vendors publish savings claims. These are marketing statements, not independent measurements, and this calculator doesn’t use them.
- ServiceChannel says its API integrations can “lower work order administrative costs by as much as 50%”. Source (Checked October 2026)
- In a 2024 ServiceTitan press release, one commercial contractor said its ServiceChannel integration was “saving us at least 5 hours a week in just the first 90 days.” Source (23 July 2024)
- A Microsoft-commissioned Forrester study (December 2023) of seven large organizations reported 40% higher dispatcher productivity. Its composite company had 1,000 field technicians. Source (December 2023)
Methodology and sources
This calculator estimates the office time your company spends managing work orders, what that time costs, and how much of it a workflow change would need to remove to pay for itself. Default labor costs come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The default is $36.73 per hour worked, the average employer cost (wages plus benefits) for private-industry office and administrative support workers in June 2026 (Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, released September 9, 2026). Occupation and industry presets use May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics mean wages multiplied by 1.46, the ratio of total compensation to wages for office and administrative workers in the same BLS release. All time and volume figures come from you. We could not find a reliable published benchmark for how long contractors spend on portal entry, reporting or subcontractor paperwork, so we don't supply one. Automation scenarios are what-if values you choose. They are not industry averages.
Read the full methodology: every formula, the BLS series IDs, assumptions, limitations and the update log.
- BLS, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation – June 2026 (Released 9 September 2026)
- BLS, Occupational Employment and Wages – May 2025 (Released 15 May 2026)
- BLS ECEC time-series data (cm) (Files dated 9 September 2026)
- BLS OEWS time-series data (oe) (Files dated 15 May 2026)
Disclaimer. These results are estimates based on the numbers you entered and on public wage data. They are not a quote, a guarantee or financial advice.
Disclosure. Bram Nation builds custom software and integrations for maintenance contractors. We built this calculator to help contractors decide whether their current software, an off-the-shelf integration or a custom build makes sense. Sometimes the answer is "none of them".
FAQ
Why doesn't the calculator suggest how many minutes each task takes?
We looked for published studies on contractor admin time and found none that measured it independently. Using numbers from other industries would make your results look precise when they aren't.
Where does the $36.73 per hour come from?
It's the Bureau of Labor Statistics' average employer cost per hour worked for private-industry office and administrative support workers in June 2026: $25.22 in wages plus $11.51 in benefits. You can switch to a specific role and industry or enter your own pay.
Why multiply wages by 1.46 instead of adding 31% for benefits?
Benefits are 31% of total compensation, which works out to about 46% on top of wages.
Is "value of time freed" money I'll save?
Not automatically. It's money only if the freed time replaces overtime, temp labor or a hire, or lets you take on more work without adding staff.
Does this include ServiceChannel's fees?
No. ServiceChannel's 1.5% invoice fee (capped at $4) applies however you submit invoices, so it doesn't change with automation. Add platform API fees in the costs step.
How is the break-even calculated?
It's the share of admin time a change would have to remove, evenly across every task, for its benefits to equal its total costs over the years you chose, after the go-live delay. It doesn't depend on any savings guess, which is why it's the headline result.
What if the change doesn't pay for itself?
The calculator says so: "No payback" and a negative net are real answers. For low volumes or expensive projects, the better choice is often your current tools used more consistently, or an integration your field software already offers.
What are the Lower, Moderate and Higher impact presets?
Shortcuts that set every task's reduction to 20%, 40% or 60% so you can explore. They're hypothetical, not benchmarks or predictions: no independent study measures how much admin time automation removes for contractors.
Is my data stored?
No. The calculations run in your browser and the numbers you type aren't sent to us. They're saved in your browser so they're there when you come back; Reset clears them. Our analytics record that the calculator was used, not what you entered. If you share a link, your inputs are in that link, so share it only with people who should see them.
Cite this calculator
Writing about contractor admin costs? You’re welcome to link to or cite this calculator. A shared scenario link (“Copy link” in the results) lets readers open your exact example.
Bramnation. (2026). Multi-Site Maintenance Admin Cost & ROI Calculator [Web tool]. Data updated 28 October 2026. Retrieved [date], from https://bramnationweb.com/tools/multi-site-maintenance-roi-calculator
https://bramnationweb.com/tools/multi-site-maintenance-roi-calculatorWant a second opinion on your numbers?
We’ll tell you plainly whether your current software, an off-the-shelf integration or a custom build fits best, including when the answer is “keep what you have”. See what we build.