A route with $150 in inspection fees does not necessarily leave you with $150 to spend. Before comparing assignments, separate three things: fees earned, the amount remaining after specified route costs, and money actually received.
The example below is fictional. It is a way to organize your own numbers, not a claim about typical inspector earnings or a recommended fee or vehicle rate.
Start with the entire route
Write down the jobs you expect to complete, the fees for those jobs, total route mileage, and time spent driving, inspecting and reporting. Include the return trip and administrative time when they belong to that route. Record tolls, parking and other direct costs separately.
Use one consistent vehicle-cost assumption. If your cost per mile already includes fuel, subtracting fuel again would count that cost twice. A blank mileage or rate is missing information, not zero.
A worked example
Suppose a route has:
- $150 in inspection fees
- 100 total miles
- An assumed vehicle cost of $0.50 per mile
- $10 in tolls and parking
- Five total hours, including driving, inspections and reporting
The vehicle-cost estimate is 100 x $0.50 = $50.
That leaves $150 - $50 - $10 = $90 after these listed costs.
Divide $90 by five hours and the result is $18 per hour after these listed costs, before other business expenses and taxes. If you have additional direct costs, subtract them before calculating the hourly figure.
The $0.50 rate is an illustration, not a tax mileage rate or a recommendation for your vehicle. Your own costs and route conditions can produce different results.
Keep payment timing separate
Completing a job, submitting its report and receiving payment are different events. A route estimate based on fees does not tell you what cash has arrived.
Track work status separately from payment status. Mark a job submitted when its report is submitted, then mark payment received when the full fee arrives. Keep partial payments and adjustments in records that support them; do not treat a partly paid job as fully settled.
Use the numbers to ask better questions
Compare routes using the same assumptions. Ask which assignments add significant travel, which reporting tasks take longer than expected, and whether a denser route changes the time and mileage picture. Do not sacrifice client instructions, safety or reporting quality to improve a spreadsheet result.
An after-mileage or route-cost estimate is not accounting or tax profit. Keep the business records you need separately and include the costs relevant to your decision.
Start with the free printable worksheet
Our free Route & Profit Calculator (https://phoenix-field-operations-rgdif3.subscribepage.io/) has room for up to 16 inspection jobs, route details, a daily snapshot and notes. Print it, enter your figures and work through the math manually. Signup includes follow-up tips and product offers from Phoenix Field Operations; unsubscribe anytime.
For ongoing tracking across vendors, see the Phoenix Field Inspector Tracker (https://payhip.com/b/HznqU). Version 1.1 supports up to 25 vendors and 1,000 job rows, with separate OPEN and MONEY views and formula-based summaries. Job entry is manual; it does not import vendor jobs, optimize routes or provide partial-payment accounting. Use the free Preview on the product page to inspect the workflow before deciding.