Which job should get the next crew slot?

You don’t need an elaborate comparison for every estimate. Build dependable rates from real jobs, then take a closer look when a decision could meaningfully change what your team earns: a recurring contract, a service mix change, a large project, or two available jobs that need the same crew or machine.

There is no magic “schedule full” percentage.

A team with gaps next week can still have no room for two jobs that both need its only qualified operator on Tuesday. Name the actual constraint: that crew’s time, a machine, a delivery window or your own supervision. If both jobs fit without disruption, you may not have to choose.

For a genuine opening, count the extra costs.

Ask what changes if you accept the work. Include additional wages and employer costs, materials, fuel and wear, travel, rentals, disposal, overtime and any other expense the decision creates. Payroll already committed for an idle period may not change; extra hours and overtime do. Keep this short-term question separate from your normal full-cost pricing.

Revenue left after those additional costs is incremental contribution: money available toward costs you would have paid anyway, and ultimately profit. A positive amount can make an otherwise empty slot worth filling. Check payment risk, customer commitments, disruption and whether the low price would become an ongoing expectation.

Positive contribution does not prove a sustainable recurring price. Across the work you sell, you still need to recover equipment ownership, overhead, a fair cost for your own work and profit. Use the full-cost calculation for that longer-term test.

When one job displaces another, compare the same scarce time.

Here is a separate scheduling example. These are Jobs X and Y, not the two $200 full-cost examples.

If you choose X and must turn away Y, the $70 contribution from the best forgone alternative is the opportunity cost of that choice. X earns $40 instead, so the net disadvantage is $30. This is a comparison between choices, not another bookkeeping bill to subtract from both jobs.

If the crew has two people, a two-hour slot uses four worker-hours. Use crew-slot hours consistently here; use worker-hours to calculate wages. Don’t mix those units.

If job durations differ, contribution per constrained hour helps compare them, but check the whole schedule. An attractive hourly figure may leave an unusable gap. Include travel between stops, setup, deadlines and work already promised. The alternative must actually be available; an imaginary better-paying customer is not forgone work.

When is the full comparison worth your time?

• Before accepting or renewing repeat work: small per-visit differences add up over a season.
• When a particular resource is booked: compare real choices for that crew, machine or time window.
• Before growing a service: sample several representative jobs and check their full costs, seasonal demand and capacity needs.
• After repeated overruns: investigate the cause and update your estimating standard.

For familiar routine quotes, use the rates and job-time assumptions you have already checked. Keep recording actual time and direct expenses; deeper analysis can be selective even when ordinary recordkeeping is consistent. Update the underlying assumptions when wages, equipment costs, routes or workload materially change.

Need help building the cost inputs? Work through the two $200 jobs first.