Book a Systems Review
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Before you hire that admin, run the numbers.The seat versus the leaks.

A full-time office seat at about $52,000 base is roughly $65,000 to $70,000 fully loaded, every year, forever. Before you lock that in, price the work the hire would absorb: duplicate entry, quiet quotes, late invoices, phone coverage, status chasing. Conservative math. Every step visible.

At fifteen or twenty people the reflex is to add a body. Sometimes a body is genuinely the answer. Often the business is hiring a person to sit on broken handoffs. This tool is built to tell those two stories apart, including the days when the honest answer is hire.

Conservative default: $52,000 for an admin, office, or dispatch seat. That loads to about $67,600 a year at the 1.3x factor below. Use the number on the offer letter.

Tasks this hire would take on

Select every task that would actually land on this seat. These are the kinds of work a new admin usually inherits.

Rough volume for each selected task
  1. $52,000 base x 1.3 loading factor $67,600 fully loaded / year
  2. 40 records/wk x 2 extra systems x 4 min x 52 wks x $32/hr, then x 50% haircut $4,437/yr · 138.7 hrs
  3. 18 quiet quotes/mo x 12 x 12% close x $1200 avg job, then x 50% haircut $15,552/yr · 27 hrs
  4. 12 late invoices/mo x 12 x (20 min @ $32/hr + 1% of $850), then x 50% haircut $1,380/yr · 24 hrs
  5. 15 calls/day x 3.5 min x 250 days x $32/hr, then x 50% haircut $3,500/yr · 109.4 hrs
  6. 20 updates/wk x 5 min x 52 wks x $32/hr, then x 50% haircut $1,387/yr · 43.3 hrs
  7. Sum of haircut leaks across 5 tasks $26,256/yr · 342.4 hrs
The read
Do not hire yet.
Under conservative assumptions, the selected leaks do not justify a loaded salary. That is a useful answer. Spend the next month on ownership and a written process for the noisiest task. If the volume is still there after that, this calculator will say so.
Loaded hire
$67,600/yr
Leaks after haircut
$26,256/yr
Hours demanded
342.4 / 1,800 seat
Every leak takes a 50% haircut before it hits the total. Loading uses a 1.3x factor on base salary. Both are conservative on purpose. If the math says hire, that is the answer. If it says fix the process first, that is the answer too.

The fix still starts with ownership and a written process. Tools may support that sequence later. That is what a Business Systems Review looks like.

Want the full report? Your figures, the worked arithmetic, and the first three moves, formatted to print or save as a PDF. It opens here after you enter your email. Optional. The number above is yours either way.

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How the arithmetic works

No hidden math. On the default inputs the chain looks like this.

Base salary $52,000 times a 1.3 loading factor for taxes, insurance, equipment, and overhead is $67,600 fully loaded per year. That is the permanent cost of the seat.

Duplicate entry alone, on the doctrine worked example: 40 records a week into three systems (two extras) at four minutes each is about 277 hours a year. At $32/hr loaded that is roughly $8,875 before the haircut, or about $4,438 after writing half off as legitimate or temporary dual-entry.

Each selected task gets its own line, its own volume, and the same 50% haircut. The total after haircuts on the defaults is about $26,256 a year and 342 hours. The tool then reads capacity (do the hours fill a seat?) against money (do the leaks cover a loaded salary?) and says hire, fix, or borderline.

On these defaults the read is: Do not hire yet. Change any input above and the chain recomputes in front of you.

Where the defaults come from

The $52,000 base is a modeled admin / office / dispatch offer in the band most shops actually post. The 1.3x load lands near the $65,000 to $70,000 fully loaded range owners already feel in payroll. Replace both with your numbers.

Duplicate entry defaults match a published worked example: forty records a week, three systems, four minutes, $32 loaded hourly, about $9,000 a year before the haircut. Quote follow-up assumes twelve percent of quiet quotes would close with a real sequence. Invoice chase assumes twenty minutes plus one percent of value. Every one of those is a modeling assumption you can replace.

The purpose of the model is not to manufacture a large number. It is to give you a transparent starting point before a permanent salary decision.

What the number does and doesn't mean

  • It can say hire. If the hours fill a seat and the dollars cover a loaded salary under conservative assumptions, the honest answer is a clearer job description, not a lecture about process.
  • Hours and dollars are different signals. Big dollars on thin hours usually means a process problem. Full hours on thin dollars still means someone has to do the work.
  • Haircuts are deliberate. Without them the same chain prints a bigger total. That is the version a sales deck shows. This one does not.
  • The fix sequence still comes first. Even a right hire fails if nobody owns the queue and the handoffs stay broken. Name the owner, write the job around the tasks above, then decide what tools support the sequence.

When the hire is the right move

Sometimes you do need to hire. If that is what the math finds, say so out loud, and leave with a tighter description than you had before.

A permanent seat is most useful when three things are already true:

  • The hours fill most of a real week after the haircut.
  • One person will own the queue, by name, not "the office."
  • The job is written around the tasks you selected, not "and other duties as assigned."

If those pieces are missing, a new hire inherits the same broken handoffs and now two people are doing them. Fix ownership and the sequence first. Once the process is clear, the seat protects it.

Questions operators actually ask about this math

01Isn't this just a way to talk me out of hiring?
No. Sometimes the volume genuinely needs a body. When the hours fill a seat and the dollars cover a loaded salary under conservative assumptions, the tool says hire, and the output is a clearer job description built from the tasks you selected. That honesty is the whole point. A tool that only ever says don't hire is a sales prop.
02Where does the $52,000 default and the 1.3 loading factor come from?
A full-time office admin around $52,000 base commonly lands near $65,000 to $70,000 fully loaded once taxes, insurance, equipment, and overhead are in. The 1.3 factor is a planning default in that band. Replace the base with the offer you are actually considering. Your payroll person has the real loaded number.
03Why cut every leak in half?
Same discipline as the missed-call calculator. Raw volume is not pure waste. Some dual-entry is temporary. Some quiet quotes were never going to close. Some phone time is already covered. The haircut is applied out loud so the total is defensible, not dramatic. Without it the same chain prints a bigger number. This page does not make that claim.
04What if the math says fix the process, not hire?
That is often the more valuable answer. At fifteen or twenty people the reflex is to add a seat. Often the seat would inherit duplicate entry, status chasing, and manual invoicing that a named owner and a written sequence would shrink. Fix ownership first. Re-run the numbers. If the volume still fills a week, hire with a tighter description.
05Do I need software to fix this?
Not first. The fix starts with ownership and a process someone can run without asking you. Tools may support that sequence once the foundation is in place. Bought in the reverse order they just move the pile.

Related: the Missed Call Cost Calculator and the free Business Systems Assessment.