Free tool · 60 seconds

What's your real profit margin?

Most pest control owners think their margin is healthy, because their field techs' wages are sitting in operating expenses instead of cost of services. Move the people who actually do the work into where they belong, and the real number shows up. It's usually lower than you thought.

The numbers

Round figures are fine. Annual or monthly, just keep all four on the same basis. The point is the magnitude.

$
Total service revenue for the period you're using.
$
Wages and burden for the people doing the actual service work, the techs in the trucks. Not office staff, not you.
$
Products applied on the job: chemicals, bait, traps, anything consumed serving accounts.
$
Costs tied directly to running routes: vehicle fuel, route vehicle upkeep, subcontracted work. Not rent, marketing, or office overhead.
Your real number
Below the healthy floor
With field labor counted as cost of service, your real gross margin is:
46.7 % gross margin
0% Where you land vs. the industry 80%
  Healthy floor 50% · Industry avg 58%  
Below healthy
Healthy range 50–55%
At or above average
You're running about 46.7% gross margin, which is below the 50% healthy floor for pest control. To clear the floor you'd need roughly $50,000 more in gross profit on this revenue, from price, route density, or cutting a direct cost. That's the gap most owners never see, because the labor was hiding in the wrong line.
True cost of services
$800,000field labor + materials + direct
Gross profit
$700,000revenue minus true cost of services
What it looked like before
86.7%margin with labor in the wrong line
Gap to the 50% floor
$50,000gross profit you'd need to add
Where this number comes from

You don't have to re-sort your chart of accounts by hand to see this. Ando reads your QuickBooks (read-only) and finds your real margin automatically, including the field labor most owners have in the wrong place. It shows you the number. It doesn't touch your books or file anything.

Read-only connection to QuickBooks · no credit card · Ando shows you the number, it is not accounting software and does not do your bookkeeping.

The math: True cost of services = field labor + materials & chemicals + other direct service costs. Gross profit = revenue minus true cost of services. Real gross margin = gross profit ÷ revenue. The "before" figure leaves field labor out of cost of services, the way it sits in many pest control books, which is exactly why the headline margin looks too high. Benchmarks are rules of thumb, your real floor shifts with your service mix and route model.
Sources: pest control healthy gross margin range of roughly 50–55% and an industry average near 58% per NPMA industry data and PCO Bookkeepers healthy-range guidance. Treat as benchmarks, not a target line for your specific business.
What to do with this number

A low margin isn't a verdict. It's a starting line.

Once you can actually see your real gross margin, you have three levers: price, route density, and direct cost. Most owners find the fix in the first two. The hard part was never the math. It was seeing the number clearly in the first place.

Read

Why your pest control margin looks higher than it is

The full breakdown behind this calculator: where field labor really belongs, why "Wages" in operating expenses inflates your margin, and what your number should look like.

Read the post →

Ando Forecast

Your real margin, found for you every morning

Ando connects read-only to your QuickBooks, sorts field labor into cost of services, and shows you the margin you're actually running, plus the one move to make this week. It shows the number, it doesn't do your books.

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See your real margin

Stop guessing at the most important number in your business.

Ando connects read-only to the books you already keep, moves field labor where it belongs, and shows you the margin you're actually running. Start free, no credit card, or see the live demo first.

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Ando shows you the number. It is not accounting software and does not file your books.