Calculate the true cost of staffing your in-house service desk
Start by entering salary and tax details
Total number of service desk engineers requiredNormally 3 for business hours or 6 (minimum) for 24/7 | ||
Annual salary per engineer | $0 $100,000 | |
Annual bonuses per engineerAssumed 2% of annual salary, or adjust to reflect your numbers | $0 $5000 | |
Annual insurance costsSingle coverage. Adjust to reflect your numbers | $0 $20,000 | |
Annual employment taxes per engineerAdjust to reflect your numbers | $0 $15000 | |
Annual IT spend per employee | $0 $15,000 | |
Annual overhead per engineerIncluding apportioned rent, utilities, mileage etc. | $0 $2,000 | |
Total base annual labour costs per engineer |
Now work out your total availability and utilisation rates
Annual working daysTypically 260 working days | 0 | |
Sick days per engineer per year | 0 15 | |
Vacation days per engineer per year | 0 30 | |
Days off for training per year | 0 30 | |
Working hours per dayTypically 6.5 to 7 hours | 0h 8h | |
Daily utilisation % per engineerTypically 75 – 80% utilisation | 0% 100% | |
Total annual productive hours per engineer |
Then factor in the cost of hiring one engineer
Job ad cost | $0 $5000 | |
Hourly rateThe rate for you or the supervisor/manager doing the hiring | $0 $500 | |
Hours spent hiringIncluding time spent writing job posts, posting job ads, conducting interviews, completing background checks etc. | 0h 20h | |
Background checks | $0 $1000 | |
Total cost to hire one engineer |
Don’t forget training, management time and staff attrition costs
Annual training costs per engineerEstimate your training costs | $0 $50,000 | |
Average number of weeks required to train an engineerAt least 3 months training is typically required | 0 20 | |
Number of engineers hired each yearAssume 1 engineer is lost each year to turnover | 0 10 | |
Technology set-up cost for new engineer | $0 $10,000 | |
Weekly supervisory hours per engineer | 0 20 | |
Annual supervisory costCalculated from the hourly rate you entered above | ||
Total training, management and staff attrition costs |
The true cost of staffing your service desk
Annual operating cost | ||
Number of users supported todayIf you don’t have this, typically assume 1.2 devices per user | 0 100 | |
Monthly cost per device | ||
True annual cost per engineer | ||
Burdened hourly rate per engineer |
This calculator was developed by 
to help you calculate the true costs of staffing your in-house service desk.
Please be aware that the figures produced by the calculator are provided for illustrative purposes only. Click here to read terms of use.