CFE guide · Estimating
Set Labor Rates and Check the Man Days Your Price Pays For
The Labor Rates sheet turns your labor price into payable man days. Enter loaded hourly rates for in-house crews and subcontractors, for standard and prevailing wage; overtime and weekend are 1.5× and double time 2×. Pick the labor type, wage and time for the job, and CFE divides the Estimate Quote’s labor cost by the daily rate: $79,715.75 ÷ $520.00 = 153.30 payable man days on the police substation sample. Compare that with the man days the work needs.
Why check labor in days, not only dollars
A labor price looks right or wrong only next to the days it has to pay for. $79,715 of labor sounds like plenty until you know the crew’s loaded rate, whether the job is prevailing wage, and whether the GC wants it done on weekends at time and a half.
CFE - Advanced Estimating Worksheet keeps your loaded rates on one sheet and works the other way round: from the labor cost on the estimate to the number of man days it pays for. Put that next to the man days the work actually needs, from your installation rates, and you know before the bid goes out whether the labor price holds.
The four steps
- Enter your loaded ratesIn-house and subs, standard and prevailing.
- Pick the job’s laborLabor Type, Wage, Time, hours per day.
- Check alternatesEach alternate gets the same calculation.
- Get rates from a subMan Day Rates › Rate sheet for a sub.
1Enter your loaded hourly rates
Open Labor Rates in the left menu. Fill in the yellow cells: the Regular loaded hourly rate for Standard Wage and Prevailing Wage, for In-house crews and for Subcontractors. A loaded rate is what an hour costs you with taxes, insurance and benefits in it, not the installer’s pay. The Multiplier column works out the rest: Overtime and Weekend at 1.5 and Double Time at 2, so $65.00 regular becomes $97.50 overtime and $130.00 double time.
2Pick the labor for this job
In Man Days on this project: Labor Type comes from the In-House / Subs selector in the project header; pick Labor Wage (Standard or Prevailing) and Labor Time (Regular, Overtime, Weekend or Double Time), and set Daily Working Hours. CFE looks up the hourly rate, works out the Daily Rate, takes the Job Labor Cost from the Estimate Quote’s labor subtotal, and shows Payable Man Days, which also show on the Estimate Quote.
Run the numbers twice on a prevailing wage job: once on Standard, once on Prevailing. If the payable man days drop below what the work needs, the labor prices on the estimate are still standard-wage prices.
3Check the alternates and change orders
Next to the project, each alternate and change order gets its own box, with the same labor type, wage, time and hours as the project: its job labor cost, daily rate, Payable Man Days and Project Man Days from your installation rates. On the police substation, Alternate #2 pays for 12.55 man days and needs 4.30.
4Get production rates from a sub
To check a subcontractor’s production, open Man Day Rates › Rate sheet for a sub. It prints your header, a sub-contractor block, every labor item with QTY per Man Day left blank, and a certification that the rates are accurate and achievable, to sign and date. Print it, save a PDF, or send the Blank CSV for the sub so their answers load back into CFE.
Worked example: payable vs needed man days
Willow Creek Police Substation: In-House, Standard Wage, Regular time, 8 hours a day.
| Base bid | Alternate #1 | Alternate #2 | Alternate #3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Job Labor Cost | $79,715.75 | $3,377.55 | $6,527.20 | $3,439.15 |
| Daily Rate | $520.00 | $520.00 | $520.00 | $520.00 |
| Payable Man Days | 153.30 | 6.50 | 12.55 | 6.61 |
| Project Man Days (needed) | 62.39 | 3.30 | 4.30 | 3.37 |
$65.00 × 8 hours = $520.00 a day, and $79,715.75 ÷ $520.00 = 153.30. The labor price pays for well over the 62.39 man days the work needs at the sample production rates. Switch Labor Time to Overtime and the daily rate is $780.00, which pays for 102.20 man days: still enough, but the margin for a slow crew is much thinner.
What to do next
Next, set your installation rates, add tax, bond and burden, and pay installers on the net area.
Check your labor price in days
Labor Rates and Man Day Rates are in the 30-day free trial. No credit card.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a loaded labor rate?
What one hour of labor costs the company with payroll taxes, insurance and benefits included, not just the installer’s pay. The Labor Rates sheet uses loaded rates.
How does CFE handle overtime and double time?
With multipliers on the regular rate: 1.5 for Overtime and Weekend, 2 for Double Time. Pick the Labor Time for the job and the daily rate follows.
What are payable man days?
The Estimate Quote’s labor cost divided by the daily rate: how many man days the labor price pays for. Compare it with the man days the work needs.
Can I price prevailing wage jobs?
Yes. Enter Prevailing Wage rates for in-house crews and subs, and pick Prevailing as the Labor Wage for the job.
Written by
Cristian Valcu – Founder & CEO, Commercial Flooring Estimating LLC
Cristian has estimated commercial flooring for over 20 years and built CFE - Advanced Estimating Worksheet around the way flooring contractors actually price, propose and track their bids.
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