Non-Billable Time
Definition
Non-billable time is any hour a technician is paid for but is not invoiced to a customer, including drive time, shop time, training, and idle time.
What Non-Billable Time Means for Your Business
What it means
Non-billable time is the expense side of payroll. Every hour in training, in a staff meeting, at the supply house, or waiting for a dispatcher to figure out the next job is non-billable.
Why it matters
You still pay the tech for non-billable hours, but no customer is paying you. That gap is where margin disappears. Driving non-billable time down is the quiet path to higher profit without raising prices or adding calls.
How contractors use it
Shops log time in categories so they can see where non-billable hours go. Common reductions: tighter dispatch cuts idle time, truck stock cuts supply house trips, onboarding cuts ramp time.
Real-World Example
A commercial electrical contractor identified 430 hours per month of non-billable supply house runs. Better truck stock cut this in half, freeing 215 billable hours at $155 per hour or $33,300 in monthly revenue.
Related Terms
Billable Hours
Billable hours are the portion of a technician's paid time that is actually invoiced to customers as productive service work.
Technician Utilization Rate
Technician utilization rate is the percentage of a tech's paid hours that are actually billed to customers as productive work.
Truck Stock
Truck stock is the inventory of parts, tools, and materials a technician carries on their service vehicle to complete common jobs without a supply house trip.
Route Optimization
Route optimization is the practice of sequencing a technician's daily stops to minimize total drive time and fuel cost.
Effective Hourly Rate
Effective hourly rate is total billed revenue divided by total paid hours, revealing what each tech is actually earning the business per clock hour.
Put This Into Practice with Free Software
Kaldr Tech handles non-billable time and everything else you need to run your shop. $0/month, 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction.