Employee Cost and Utilization Template
One document and four sheets that build each role's fully-loaded cost from actual invoices, then check it against what the role actually billed by quarter.
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Fully-loaded Cost by Role
[Company] — every role, billable or not
Burden Rate is the source-invoice figure, not an assumed percentage. Nothing here is priced from memory.
| Role | Salary | Total Burden | Fully-Loaded Cost | Burden Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — |
Burden Rate only fills in once every component traces to its own invoice or rate notice, never to a flat percentage of salary.
Corrigan Bishop Consulting, a professional-services firm, checked a flat 20 percent benefits-and-tax assumption, the midpoint calculators cite, against the real invoices behind three roles. The assumption missed in opposite directions. Dietrich Kowalczyk's Principal salary of 158,000.00 carries a real burden of 25,323.00, 24.8 percent below the flat assumption. Petra Osei's Coordinator salary of 54,000.00 carries a real burden of 13,935.00, 22.5 percent above it. A medical premium is billed as one flat dollar figure per enrolled head, not a share of pay, and that fixed figure is a bigger share of a smaller salary.
That gap in the cost is real, but it is not the reason this pack exists. Dietrich's role closes the year with a positive margin, 6,757.00, on revenue of 190,080.00 against a fully-loaded cost of 183,323.00. Underneath that total, quarterly billed hours run 264, 220, 176 and 132 as utilization falls from 60 to 30 percent, and margin falls from 17,529.25 in the first quarter to negative 14,150.75 in the fourth. Annualized, that fourth quarter projects a 56,603.00 loss the following year, a fact the positive annual figure cannot show.
Marisol Fennimore's Senior Consultant role holds 75 percent utilization every quarter and posts the same 25,816.50 margin four times running: the role that needs no second look. Petra Osei's Coordinator role carries no bill rate at all, and Fully-loaded Cost by Role still prices her at 67,935.00, labelled overhead rather than dropped from the sheet. Federal unemployment tax stops at the first 7,000.00 of each employee's wages, another reason the same flat-dollar components land so differently across a 96,000.00, a 158,000.00 and a 54,000.00 salary.
What's in the pack
Cost Basis Note
Where every burden component actually traces: the payroll register, the same one the payroll journal pack builds, the carrier's invoice, the plan document, and the rate notice. Base salary and its burden only; a plan's variable incentive pool is priced separately in the bonus and incentive accrual pack.
Fully-loaded Cost by Role
Base salary, every burden component and the resulting fully-loaded cost for every role on file, billable or not, the same figure a contractor cost comparison checks against an invoice rate.
Burden Rate Calculation
Every component with its source document named next to the number, plus what a flat 20 percent assumption would have gotten wrong on each role.
Utilization or Revenue per Head
Hours billed, utilization, revenue and margin for every billable role this year, with every non-billable role carried too and labelled overhead.
Quarterly Margin Trend
The same revenue, cost and margin split by quarter for every billable role, so a losing second half cannot hide inside a positive annual total.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Open the pack in River and let the agent build it from your own registers and invoices, or download the blank Word and CSV files instantly.
- 2
Send the documents
Your payroll register, benefits invoices, retirement plan document and workers' compensation rate notice, plus whatever billing or hours data you track by role. A register that looks off is worth a change audit first.
- 3
Build the real burden
Every component traced to its actual source rather than assumed, with a role carrying no bill rate still priced and labelled overhead, not dropped.
- 4
Join cost to what it produced
Hours billed, revenue and margin joined to that cost, by quarter as well as by year, so a turning trend shows up before the close does.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes, all of it. The Word document and four CSV sheets, no signup, no card required. Edit with AI is a separate, optional route for anyone who would rather hand over their own invoices and registers than build the sheets by hand.
Why does a flat percentage of salary get some roles wrong in both directions?
Because a medical premium and both unemployment wage bases are dollar figures fixed by the invoice or the statute, not a share of pay. On Corrigan Bishop's own roles a flat 20 percent overstated the Principal's real burden by 24.8 percent and understated the Coordinator's by 22.5 percent, because those fixed dollars land as a bigger or smaller share of a different salary.
What happens to a role with no bill rate?
It still gets a row. Fully-loaded Cost by Role prices every role, billable or not, and Utilization or Revenue per Head carries a non-billable role labelled overhead rather than dropping it. What it costs does not stop mattering just because there is no revenue line to check it against.
Why trend margin by quarter instead of reporting the annual figure alone?
Because an annual margin is an average of four quarters, and averaging is exactly what lets a losing second half hide inside a total a strong first half already covered. On the worked example, a role closes the year 6,757.00 positive while its fourth quarter alone is 14,150.75 negative, a fact no annual number can show.
Does this replace a headcount planning template?
No. Headcount planning prices a role you have not hired yet, phased by start date and wage-base timing. This space costs a role you already have, then checks that cost against what it actually billed or produced, a different question with a different answer.
What happens once a role's wages cross the Social Security wage base?
The tax stops applying to that role for the rest of the year, at 184,500.00 for 2026, and a fully-loaded cost built earlier in the year overstates the remaining months unless the burden gets recalculated. Note any role that crosses it before trusting one flat figure all year.
Does this replace a workers' compensation premium audit response?
No. This pack prices the workers' compensation line the same way it prices every other burden component, from the certificate's own class-code rate. If that rate looks wrong for a role's actual duties, disputing the class code itself is a separate, focused task.
Cost every role from its own invoices, then check it by quarter
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open this exact pack in River and let the agent build it from your own registers.
Edit with AI