The Level Index
2,200+ contractors benchmarked.
Where do you rank?
Benchmarks drawn from our team’s experience across 2,200+ contractor engagements in HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, and general contracting. These are the numbers that separate the top performers from everyone else.
Compiled from financial reviews, industry interviews, PE due diligence, acquisition analysis, tax consulting engagements, and published industry research. All figures are anonymized and rounded.
2,200+
Contractors benchmarked
8+
Trades covered
50+
Metrics tracked
All 50
States represented
About the Data
The Level Index is compiled from our team’s direct experience across 2,200+ contractor engagements — including operations analytics with Astra Service Partners, CIVC Partners, and other PE-backed portfolios in the trades, financial reviews, due diligence, tax consulting, acquisition analysis, and published research across HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical trades.
Methodology
All metrics are anonymized, aggregated, and segmented by percentile. Results reflect patterns observed across contractor financials and operations. Figures are rounded and represent the personal analysis and opinions of the Level team. This analysis is observational and does not establish causality.
What the data shows
Eight findings from 2,200+ contractor engagements. Each one challenges something most owners take for granted.
Your margins aren't a trade problem. They're a visibility problem.
Key Takeaway
Contractors in the same trade, same market, same size show wildly different margins. The spread isn't explained by geography or trade type. It's explained by whether the owner can see job-level profitability.
Why This Matters
Most contractors know their total revenue and total expenses. Very few can tell you which jobs made money and which lost it. Without that visibility, profitable jobs subsidize unprofitable ones and the owner never knows.
Service agreement margins range from negative 23% to over 92%. The median is 43.8%. That means half of contractors are leaving significant margin on the table compared to their peers in the same trade.
The gap isn't about working harder. It's about knowing which service calls, which customer segments, and which job types actually contribute to profit. Contractors who can see this adjust pricing, staffing, and job mix. Those who can't keep running blind.
Some contractors lose 23% on every service agreement. Others make 92%. Same trade, same market. The difference is visibility.
Collecting faster matters more than selling more.
Key Takeaway
The median contractor collects 85% of what they bill. Top performers collect 96%. That 11-point gap, applied to a $5M contractor, is $550K per year sitting in someone else's account.
Why This Matters
Owners focus on winning more jobs. But a dollar collected is worth more than a dollar sold. Revenue you billed and never collected is the most expensive form of financing there is, because you already paid the labor, materials, and overhead.
Across 464 contractors, the median collection rate is 85.1%. The top quartile collects 92.7% and the top 10% hit 96%.
The bottom 10% collect just 38.8% of what they bill. These are not small companies. Many do $3M to $10M in revenue. They simply lack the systems to track AR aging, follow up on overdue invoices, and manage retainage schedules.
At $10M in revenue, the gap between median (85%) and top performers (96%) is $1.1M per year. That's not a rounding error. It's the difference between making payroll comfortably and scrambling every month.
Revenue you billed and never collected is the most expensive form of financing. You already paid the labor. You already bought the materials. That money is just gone.
Stuck jobs are a cash flow problem hiding as an operations problem.
Key Takeaway
Top-performing contractors invoice before jobs complete. They progress-bill, collecting cash while work is still happening. The median contractor invoices within 1 day of completion. Slow billers wait 10+ days.
Why This Matters
Every day between job completion and invoice is a day you're financing your customer's project at your own expense. Owners who complain about cash flow often have an invoicing speed problem, not a revenue problem.
Across 555 contractors, the top quartile invoices 4 days before the job is even complete. They use progress billing to flip the cash flow cycle, getting paid while work is in progress rather than after.
The bottom quartile waits 5.7 days after completion. The bottom 10% wait 10.8 days. On a $50K job, a 10-day invoice delay at 8% cost of capital costs you $110 in pure float. Multiply that across hundreds of jobs per year.
The contractors with the best cash positions aren't necessarily the ones with the most revenue. They're the ones who bill fastest.
Negative numbers = progress billing before completion. The best contractors get paid while the work is still happening. They never scramble for cash.
The crew you have is enough. The question is utilization.
Key Takeaway
The median contractor bills 96.7% of hours worked. But the bottom quartile bills under 90%, and the bottom 10% bill just 76.5%. Every unbilled hour is pure lost revenue.
Why This Matters
Owners assume they need to hire more people to grow. Often the real lever is getting more billable hours from the team they already have. A 10-person crew at $150/hr losing 20% of hours to non-billable time wastes $624K per year.
Across 654 contractors, the median billable hour ratio is 96.7%. The top quartile hits 99.6% and some exceed 100% through overtime billing.
But the spread is massive. The bottom 10% bill just 76.5% of hours worked. That means nearly a quarter of their labor cost produces no revenue. For a crew of 10 techs at $150/hr loaded cost, that's $624K per year in unbilled labor.
This metric alone explains why some contractors grow without hiring and others can't seem to keep up no matter how many people they add.
A 10-person crew at $150/hr losing 20% of hours to non-billable time = $624K/year gone. You don't need more people. You need more visibility into how your people spend their time.
You're probably undercharging. The data says so.
Key Takeaway
The median contractor bills at $90/hour. The top quartile charges $116/hr. If you're at $70/hr in a $110/hr market, you're leaving 36% of potential revenue on the table on every single hour worked.
Why This Matters
Bill rates compound. A $20/hr difference across 10 techs working 2,000 hours per year is $400K in annual revenue. Contractors who don't benchmark their rates against market data leave this on the table permanently.
Across 1,419 contractors, the median bill rate is $90/hr. The top quartile charges $116/hr and the top 10% charge $147/hr.
Bill rates vary significantly by state. Illinois averages $128/hr. California averages $113/hr. Knowing your local market rate is the minimum. Charging based on value delivered, not time spent, is what separates top performers.
A $20/hr difference across 10 techs working 2,000 hours per year is $400K in annual revenue. That's not a pricing strategy decision. It's a business model decision.
A $20/hr rate increase across 10 techs = $400K per year. Most contractors price based on what they've always charged, not what the market will bear.
You're closing most quotes. But are you closing the right ones?
Key Takeaway
The median contractor converts 73% of quotes to jobs. Top performers hit 88%. But conversion rate alone doesn't tell you enough. The question is whether you're converting profitable work or buying revenue at a loss.
Why This Matters
High conversion on low-margin work is worse than lower conversion on profitable work. The contractors who perform best pair conversion tracking with job-level profitability. They know which quotes to chase and which to let walk.
Across 409 contractors, the median quote conversion rate is 73%. The top quartile converts 81.3% and the top 10% hit 87.6%.
The bottom 10% convert less than 49% of quotes. At that rate, more than half your estimating effort produces no revenue. But even at 73%, there's a question most contractors can't answer: of the jobs you closed, which ones actually made money?
Every 10% improvement in conversion rate drops straight to topline revenue. But a 10% improvement in converting *the right* quotes drops to the bottom line.
Conversion rate is vanity. Conversion rate on profitable jobs is the metric that matters. Most contractors can't distinguish between the two.
Your maintenance visits are a goldmine you're not mining.
Key Takeaway
The median contractor generates just 10.7% of service agreement revenue from pull-through (upsell repairs discovered during PM visits). The top 10% generate 53%+. That gap is where the real SA margin lives.
Why This Matters
Service agreements are rarely profitable on their own. The profit is in what they generate: emergency repairs, equipment replacements, and system upgrades discovered during preventive visits. Contractors who don't track pull-through don't know what their SAs are actually worth.
Across 195 contractors, the median pull-through rate is 10.7%. That means for every $100K in SA revenue, the median contractor generates $10,700 in additional repair and upgrade work from SA customers.
The top decile generates 53%+ in pull-through — more than 5x the median. A $1M SA book at 53% pull-through produces $530K in downstream repair revenue. At 10.7%, that same book produces $107K. The $423K difference is often higher-margin work because the customer already trusts you and you already know the equipment.
The bottom 10% generate less than 0.3% pull-through. Their techs do the PM visit, check the boxes, and leave. No recommendations. No quotes. No follow-up. The maintenance visit that could be a $3,000 repair opportunity becomes a $0 touchpoint.
A $1M SA book at 53% pull-through generates $530K in repair revenue. At 10.7%, it generates $107K. Same customer base, same visits, completely different economics.
Your estimates are probably wrong. The question is which direction.
Key Takeaway
The median contractor comes in 20% under budget. That sounds good — until you realize it means you're consistently overestimating costs and either overpricing bids or underdelivering scope. The bottom 10% go 11%+ over budget, bleeding margin on every job.
Why This Matters
Cost variance — actual cost vs. budgeted cost — is the single best measure of estimating accuracy and job-level financial control. Contractors who don't track it have no idea whether their bids are calibrated to reality.
Across 430 contractors, the median cost variance is -20.4% (under budget). The top quartile is -38.2% under budget. This skew suggests most contractors budget conservatively — which protects margin but may cost you bids if your prices are higher than competitors who estimate tighter.
The real danger is on the other end. The bottom 10% of contractors go +11.5% or more over budget. The worst performers are catastrophic: one retail maintenance company ran +179% over budget across 6,584 jobs. One electrical contractor: +552% over budget on 143 jobs — estimating $12K per job and spending $79K.
These aren't one-off bad bids. They're systemic estimating failures. And because most contractors don't track cost variance by job, the losses are invisible until year-end when the P&L doesn't match expectations.
One electrical contractor estimated $12K per job and spent $79K. Across 143 jobs. That's not a bad estimate — it's a broken process. Track actual vs. budget on every job, or you'll never know.
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See Where You RankGet the full report: The Level Index 2026
All 9 metrics, percentile tables, state-by-state bill rates, and what top-quartile contractors do differently. 14 pages. Free PDF.
Based on operations analytics with Astra Service Partners, CIVC Partners, and 2,200+ contractor engagements. Not surveys. Not estimates.
Level Index by Job Type
Margins vary dramatically by service type. Drill into the numbers for your work mix.
Level Index by State
Bill rates vary significantly by state. Select yours to see state-specific data.
Want to know exactly where your company falls?
Book a free 15-minute call. We'll pull your numbers and rank you against the Level Index.
Disclaimer
The Level Index represents the personal analysis and professional opinions of the Level team, compiled from a variety of sources including financial reviews, industry interviews, private equity due diligence, tax and insurance consulting engagements, acquisition analysis, and published industry research. All data is anonymized and aggregated. Specific figures are rounded and should be treated as directional benchmarks, not precise measurements. No proprietary or confidential information from any single company, client, or employer is disclosed. The Level Index does not constitute financial advice. Individual results vary based on trade, geography, company size, and operational maturity. © 2026 Level. All rights reserved.