Skip to content
Sign In

Money & Pricing

Overhead

The contractor's fixed business costs: office, insurance, vehicles, software, and administrative staff.

On a real claim

Overhead is the contractor's fixed cost of staying in business: office, insurance, vehicles, software, and administrative staff. On a claim carriers address it through overhead and profit, often only on larger or multi-trade losses. What goes wrong: a contractor who does not price overhead separately absorbs it out of margin and the job runs thin. Check that overhead is accounted for, not buried in unit prices, when you look at the bottom line.

Full guide: roofing contractor profit maximization

Common questions

What does "Overhead" mean in Xactimate estimating?

The contractor's fixed business costs: office, insurance, vehicles, software, and administrative staff.

Where does "Overhead" show up in a claim?

The term matters on estimates and scopes across the insurance restoration workflow — see the full guide for where it fits.

Put this to work

ESXPress converts carrier scope PDFs into import-ready Xactimate ESX files — line items mapped to their real code, priced for import.

Start free — 5 conversions, no card →