The maintenance plan collected $240. How much will its first year cost?

TL;DR

• In the invented example, a $240 annual membership leaves $54 before remaining fixed overhead and taxes after two visits, servicing and $60 in acquisition costs.
• After one of the two visits, $109 per member remains before assigning the second visit's planned cost. That $55 cost leaves the same $54 for the delivered year.
• Twenty extra unpaid visits across 100 memberships reduce that remainder to $43 per member. The calculation assigns zero revenue to assumed renewals, repairs and upgrades.

Your office collects an annual payment today and schedules the second included visit for later. The truck still has to make that trip.

Before increasing the signup budget, price the service year you promised. Count the visits, the time they occupy and the cost to acquire the member. Then check how much room remains for extra service.

The maintenance-agreement advertising guide covers reaching prospective members. This worksheet answers the next question: how much the first year can support in acquisition spending under your own service assumptions.

Define one membership year before assigning costs

Define one household, one covered system and one 12-month term. State the included visits and scope. Two covered systems require different cost inputs.

List the obligations the price creates. Include promised maintenance visits and the administrative work required to service the membership. If the plan waives a diagnostic fee or discounts repairs, model those costs separately using defensible assumptions. Future repair revenue cannot enter automatically.

For the example, the plan covers two maintenance visits. It includes no bundled repair work. Any extra visits shown below are separate hypothetical scenarios. The numbers are invented and describe no Lonta client or industry average.

An allocated labor rate estimates paid crew capacity consumed. A cash forecast may treat scheduled payroll differently. Label the method and avoid counting wages again in remaining overhead.

Maintenance plan first year cost: 100 invented memberships

Assume 100 households each pay $240 upfront for one year, producing $24,000 collected. All 100 payments clear, and the example assumes no refunds or payment losses.

Each included visit uses one technician hour, including its assigned travel. The shop allocates $38 per hour for loaded payroll. Consumables cost $8 and variable truck expenses cost $9 per visit. The total is $55 per visit.

Each member also requires $10 in enrollment administration and $6 in payment and plan-servicing costs for the year. Assigned advertising and campaign fees total $6,000, or $60 per acquired member.

The $54 remains before expenses the table has not assigned. It assumes both visits can be performed at the stated cost.

Keep the source of the $60 acquisition figure visible. If a campaign sells several services, document how its costs were assigned.

The second visit still belongs to this year

Assume every member receives the first visit within six months. All enrollment, servicing and acquisition costs have also been assigned by then.

The shop has assigned $5,500 to the first 100 visits, plus $7,600 for administration, servicing and acquisition. The total is $13,100. Against the $24,000 collected, that leaves $10,900, or $109 per membership.

Another 100 visits remain. Their planned cost is $5,500. Reserve that amount in the operating calculation, and the full-year remainder is still $5,400.

The calculation must also retain a deferred visit. Suppose a customer moves an appointment beyond its original month. Keep the planned cost with the membership until the obligation is delivered or resolved under your actual terms. A blank calendar entry does not establish that the service expense disappeared.

Track the enrollment term separately from the appointment date. Otherwise, a deferred visit can fall into next year's service expenses while this year's membership keeps all the apparent benefit.

This is a management worksheet, not a revenue-recognition rule. The advertising cash-flow guide also separates collected money from the timing of the work and bills.

Test extra visits before promising them

Assume the shop provides 20 additional unpaid visits during the year. These might arise from a stated benefit or a discretionary service decision. Their frequency is a hypothetical stress test, not a predicted usage rate.

At the same $55 cost, they add $1,100. The first-year remainder falls from $5,400 to $4,300, or $43 per member.

One extra visit for every member would mean 100 more visits and $5,500 more cost. That scenario leaves negative $100 before remaining overhead and taxes. The plan can collect cash upfront and still fail this service-cost test.

Extra visits may also cost more than planned maintenance. Use the likely duration, parts and travel for the extra work. A short scheduled tune-up is an unsuitable cost assumption for a lengthy emergency call.

Track included visits delivered, visits owed and extra unpaid visits for each membership. Use those counts in the next price review.

Set the acquisition ceiling from the service promise

Suppose you want the first year to leave at least $40 per member before remaining overhead and taxes. That is an owner-selected target for this example.

With only the two included visits, the acquisition ceiling is:

$240 price − $110 visits − $10 administration − $6 servicing − $40 target = $74 per member.

Spread the 20 hypothetical extra visits across 100 members and their average cost is $11 per member. The ceiling becomes $63. At the example's actual $60 acquisition cost, the plan leaves $43, just $3 above the selected target.

Confirm service capacity and acquisition measurement before using the ceiling. Visit costs and benefits change it.

Renewals, repairs and replacements remain at zero in this worksheet. Add a separate later-year view only when you have evidence for retention, collected prices and delivery costs. Keep that view separate from the first-year decision.

What this doesn't cover

The example excludes remaining fixed overhead, taxes, refunds, defaults and additional benefits beyond the stated visit scenarios. It does not recommend a membership price, predict visit usage or establish a renewal rate. Actual service terms and accounting treatment need their own review.

It also assumes the shop can supply the required hours. Two hundred included one-hour visits occupy 200 technician hours before extras. Calendar availability can constrain growth even when the arithmetic leaves money.

Do this in your account

Use 15 minutes to build one first-year worksheet for a single plan.

1. Minutes 0–3: Write the annual collected price, covered equipment and every included benefit. Choose one enrollment group and record its term dates.
2. Minutes 3–6: Estimate the delivered cost of every included visit, including assigned travel. Multiply by all visits owed, even those still unscheduled.
3. Minutes 6–9: Add enrollment, payment, servicing and acquisition costs once. State how shared campaign costs were assigned.
4. Minutes 9–12: Calculate the remainder for a fully delivered year. Run a separate extra-visit scenario using an explicit count and visit cost.
5. Minutes 12–15: Set the amount you need left before remaining overhead, then calculate the acquisition ceiling. Check the technician hours required.

Save columns for members, collected price, promised visits, delivered visits, visits owed, cost per visit, other costs and acquisition cost. Continue with the budget and season planning guides when deciding how much growth the shop can fund.

Questions owners ask

Can unused visits make the plan more profitable?

Actual usage can change delivered costs, but keep outstanding obligations in the forecast until their status is clear under your terms. An unscheduled customer may still book. Record the basis for removing any planned visit.

Should repair upsells subsidize acquisition cost?

Keep the first-year service calculation visible on its own. If you later model repair contribution, use collected revenue, delivery cost and observed purchase rates. Show that additional assumption separately so the decision does not depend on an invisible future sale.

What if members pay monthly?

Replace the assumed $240 collected with the payments reasonably supported by your records and terms. Show collection timing and failed payments separately. The promised service costs still need to follow the membership that creates them.

Sources and method

• SBA: Break-even point, read October 17, 2026. General reference for separating fixed and variable costs.
• All prices, costs, counts and scenarios are original hypothetical inputs. The source supplies no maintenance-plan price, renewal or usage benchmark.

Lonta AI manages advertising for home service businesses. Bring your plan's service costs and acquisition ceiling to a free strategy review.