Callback & Rework Cost Tracker Spreadsheet
This spreadsheet works out what going back to a finished job costs you in a year, and which two or three faults are most of that money.
Every job in this trade is priced as though you go once. Some of them you go twice, and a few of them you go six times. The second visit has no quote, no invoice and no line in the accounts — it comes out of the profit on a job that already finished, and out of a day you could have spent on the next one.
What is in it
- Seven linked tabs, from Start Here through to a one-screen Overview.
- Setup — two rates, a warranty period and the level of rework you have decided you will live with.
- Jobs — 80 rows. One per finished job, including the ones that went perfectly.
- Callbacks — 400 rows. One per time somebody drove back, with hours, parts and cause.
- By Cause — the visits, the hours and the money behind each fault, ranked.
- By Job — which finished jobs paid for the return visits, and one column you fill in yourself: whose fault was it.
Who it is for
Any trade that finishes a job and sometimes has to go back: heating and plumbing, electrical, joinery, roofing, glazing, flooring, groundworks, appliance installation, IT installs, shopfitting.
The worked example
The worked year holds 42 finished jobs, $239,390 invoiced and $87,584 of profit on them. Somebody drove back 69 times, spending 194.5 hours doing it, and those visits cost $11,853.54 in wages, diesel and parts — 13.5% of the profit on those jobs. The file keeps the lost work separate: the same hours could have earned $12,059, which takes the two figures together to $23,912.54, or 27.3% of the profit.
Only 12 of the 42 jobs finished when the van drove away, so 71.4% of them came back at least once, and 22 of the 69 visits happened inside the first fortnight. The single clearest cause in the worked year is not wear: 15 visits because nobody showed the customer how the thing works — 43 hours, no parts at all, $1,472. Leaks on joints cost the most at 17 visits and $3,502, 29.5% of the total, and rework ran at 5.0% of turnover against the 2.0% the firm said it would live with.
How it works
Compatible with Microsoft Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install.
The download has two workbooks: one with the example above already filled in, so you can see what every column expects, and the same file completely blank for your own figures. A plain-English guide comes as a PDF. Order on WhatsApp — $9
Orders are taken on WhatsApp: message me and I’ll send the payment details, then the files as soon as the payment is confirmed.
A look inside the file
Questions people actually ask
How do I work out what going back to a job actually costs me?
The file counts the wages, diesel and parts a return visit takes out of the bank, and keeps separate the hours those visits could have earned elsewhere, because they are two different arguments. In the worked year 42 finished jobs invoiced $239,390 and made $87,584 of profit, while 69 return visits took 194.5 hours and cost $11,853.54 — 13.5% of the profit — with another $12,059 of work those hours could have earned. Together that is $23,912.54, or 27.3% of the profit on jobs that had already finished.
Is this just for heating and plumbing?
No — it works for any trade that finishes a job and sometimes has to go back: electrical, joinery, roofing, glazing, flooring, groundworks, appliance installation, IT installs, shopfitting. It holds 80 jobs, including the ones that went perfectly, and 400 callback rows. In the worked year only 12 of 42 jobs finished when the van left, so 71.4% came back and four jobs took a quarter of their own profit in return visits.
We do not log the small ones — where does the data come from?
Almost nobody logs them, and that is exactly why the number is always a surprise: log them for one quarter and see. Each callback needs the hours, the parts and one judgement — whose fault it was: Yours, The supplier's, The customer's or Nobody's — and that column is worth arguing about with the person who did the work rather than deciding on your own. If the customer caused it, put it in anyway and mark it theirs, because you still drove there and the file shows what faults that were not yours cost you this year.
Does it work in Google Sheets or do I need Excel?
Both — it is built as .xlsx for Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, and it loads into Google Sheets through File then Import then Upload. LibreOffice opens it too. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install and no subscription: you download the file and it is yours.
Is this about blaming the lads?
No, and the file says so in writing on the page: whoever does your biggest and most complicated jobs will always be top of the Who Went table, which is a place to start a conversation, not a verdict. It is not a job, diary or engineer scheduling system, not a quoting or invoicing tool and not a van-stock package, and it is connected to nothing — nothing syncs, nothing logs in, and I never ask for a password or your job software. It will not stop the callbacks; it tells you what they cost and which two or three faults are most of the money — in the worked year 22 of the 69 visits happened within fourteen days of handover, and 15 of them were because nobody showed the customer how the thing works.
Need it built around your business?
This file assumes a van-based trade with engineers on an hourly rate, parts bought from a merchant and callbacks you swallow yourself. If your work runs differently — service contracts where the return visits are already covered by a maintenance fee, faulty parts you claim back from the manufacturer, subcontract labour paid per job rather than per hour — I can build the same arithmetic around the way your jobs and your second visits actually work.
All other templates are listed on the Excel & Google Sheets Templates page.