How We Calculate Your Margin Recovery

This calculator estimates the recoverable margin leaking through purchasing inefficiencies and operational friction across five areas of your business.

Overview

The calculator models five purchasing and operational value drivers based on your business profile: PO and invoice automation savings, manual process elimination, recovered billable hours, overspend and waste reduction, and supply run efficiency. Each driver uses conservative, industry-validated assumptions with a single implementation discount factor applied to account for real-world adoption variability.

Pricing Model

$65

Per stock location / month

Stock locations include trucks, vans, and warehouse locations. Ply is priced on how inventory is actually managed in the field, not per technician headcount.

Discount Factor

0.85x

Single implementation discount

A single 15% haircut is applied to all time-dependent savings categories to reflect real-world adoption variability and implementation ramp-up. This replaces the prior double-discount approach (0.75 x 0.80 = 0.60x) which overly penalized the estimates.

Five Value Drivers

PO & Invoice Automation

Purchasing savings from streamlined ordering

Input Factors

•Monthly PO volume (default: 50 POs/month)
•Hourly labor rate (default: $60/hr)
•Rush order frequency (default: monthly)
•Number of suppliers (default: 5)

Formula

PO Processing:
  POs/month x 0.5 hrs x $60/hr x 60% saved x 12

Rush Order Premium:
  Rush multiplier x $150/order x POs/month
  x 50% reduction x 12

Vendor Consolidation:
  $12,000/yr (if >5 suppliers)

Key constants: 30 min/PO processing time, 60% automation savings, $150 avg rush premium, 50% rush order reduction, $12K/yr vendor consolidation benefit.

Manual Process Elimination

Time savings from reduced supply runs per technician

Input Factors

•Number of technicians
•Supply runs per technician per day (default: 2)
•Hourly labor rate (default: $60/hr)
•Inventory method (paper, spreadsheet, software)
•Primary trade (HVAC 1.15x, multi-trade 1.2x, electrical 0.95x)

Formula

Runs eliminated = runs/day x 0.50
Monthly hrs saved =
  techs x runs eliminated x 0.75 hrs x 22 days
Base savings = hrs saved x $60/hr
             x trade mult x method mult
With scenario = base x 1.25
Annual = with scenario x 12 x 0.85

Key constants: 45 min avg trip time, 50% of runs eliminated via same-day parts availability, 25% scenario uplift, 0.85x implementation discount.

Recovered Billable Hours

Additional revenue from increased technician availability

Input Factors

•Number of technicians
•Annual revenue range (used to estimate revenue per tech)
•Primary trade multiplier

Formula

Revenue per tech =
  annual revenue midpoint / technicians
Base revenue =
  techs x rev/tech x 5% uplift x trade mult
With scenario = base x 1.55
Annual = with scenario x 0.85

Key constants: 5% revenue uplift per tech from recovered field time, 55% scenario factor, 0.85x implementation discount.

Overspend & Waste Reduction

Deadstock recovery through improved inventory visibility

Input Factors

•Number of stock locations
•Annual revenue range
•Estimated deadstock percentage (default: 15%)
•Inventory method multiplier (no system 1.3x, paper 1.2x, spreadsheet 1.0x, software 0.7x)

Formula

Inventory value = annual revenue x 8%
Deadstock value = inventory x deadstock %
Location factor =
  min(locations / 10, 1.5)
Base savings =
  deadstock x 40% x method mult x location factor
With scenario = base x 1.35
Annual = with scenario x 0.85

Key constants: Inventory estimated at 8% of annual revenue, 40% deadstock reduction rate from real-time visibility, 35% scenario uplift, 0.85x implementation discount.

Supply Run Savings

Truck and fleet efficiency from optimized stock placement

Input Factors

•Number of stock locations (trucks estimated as ~90% of locations)
•Number of technicians
•Primary trade multiplier
•Implementation speed (1-10 scale)

Formula

Estimated trucks =
  max(locations - 10% warehouse est, 1)
Complexity factor =
  max(0.80, implementation speed / 10)
Base benefit =
  trucks x $800/truck/yr x trade mult
  x complexity factor
Capped at $25,000
Annual = capped x (techs / trucks ratio)

Key constants: $800/truck/year benefit, 0.80 minimum complexity floor, $25,000 annual cap, tech-to-truck ratio scaling (capped at 2x).

Assumptions & Defaults

Parameter	Default	Notes
Labor rate	$60/hr	Industry midpoint for field service labor
Inventory method	Spreadsheets (1.0x)	Most common across SMB contractors
Supply runs/tech/day	2	Moderate run frequency; avg trip is 45 min
Deadstock percentage	15%	Conservative industry estimate
Monthly PO volume	50 POs/month	Typical for 10-30 tech operations
Number of suppliers	5	Vendor consolidation benefit kicks in above 5
Rush order frequency	Monthly (0.25x)	Moderate; daily rush orders scale to 1.0x
Implementation speed	5 / 10	Mid-range; affects truck complexity factor
Working days/month	22	Standard M-F assumption

Disclaimer

All figures are estimates intended for planning and evaluation purposes only. Actual savings will vary based on your team size, trade mix, current processes, and implementation approach. The calculator applies conservative assumptions and a single 0.85x implementation discount to reduce projection risk. Results should not be interpreted as a guarantee of financial outcome.