Warehouse Labor / ROI
What Is Back-Office Work Costing Your Warehouse Labor Company?
Office work already costs you money every month. See how much of it FOREMAN takes off your plate — and what you keep after paying for it.
October 6, 2026 · 3 min read
Try it with your numbers
Change any number and the answer updates straight away.
The starting numbers are an illustrative example, not a measured customer result — replace them with your own.
ROI calculator
What does office work cost you today?
Pay plus taxes and benefits.
Hours a week spent on
Money lost each month to
Costs you today
$4,800a month
A month is counted as 52 weeks ÷ 12.
How much of it FOREMAN takes over
These shares are our starting assumption, not a measured result. Lower any that look high for your operation.
90%−$1,170
90%−$702
90%−$468
90%−$1,350
90%−$630
FOREMAN takes over
−$4,320a month
Use the monthly figure from your quote. The example uses $1,500.
+$1,500a month
What you keep
You keep $2,820 a month.
- Pays for FOREMAN
- $1,500
- Yours to keep
- $2,820
FOREMAN does $4,320 of your $4,800 in office work. $1,500 of that pays for FOREMAN, and the other $2,820 is yours.
That's $33,840 a year, plus 18h of office time back every week.
Where to find your numbers
Look at your last month or two, not a guess at a normal week.
- An hour of office time. Pay plus taxes and benefits for whoever does the work.
- Billing. Everything from “job done” to “invoice ready”. If it all happens at month end, time the whole close and divide by four.
- Payroll reconciliation. Matching hours to jobs and chasing missing clock-outs — here's how to price it.
- Supervisor reporting. Shift write-ups, status calls and chasing photos.
- Missed or late billing. Work that never got invoiced, plus charges you lost for sending them late.
- Errors and rework. Credits, re-sent invoices and payroll fixes. Billing errors go both ways, so count undercharges too.
Count each hour once. Time spent fixing an invoice is billing or rework, not both.
Why FOREMAN doesn't do all of it
Someone still checks and sends invoices, approves payroll and reads the reports. So step 2 starts at 90%, not 100% — our assumption, not a measured result — and you can turn any line down. It also assumes nobody on the floor works faster: software doesn't unload a container. If FOREMAN comes out costing more than it saves, wait, and run it again when you're busier.
What's not in the number
Setup time, getting paid sooner, winning damage disputes and room to take on more work are all real, but none of them happen the same way every month, so they're left out. The ROI worksheet shows how to count them.
Common questions
What is a loaded hourly cost?
What an hour of someone's time really costs you: their pay plus payroll taxes, benefits and a share of overhead. It is always more than the wage, so using the wage alone makes office work look cheaper than it is.
Why doesn't FOREMAN do all of the office work?
Because some of it should stay with a person: checking and sending invoices, approving payroll, reading the reports and billing what is waiting in the queue. The calculator starts each line at 90% rather than 100% — an assumption, not a measured result — and you can turn any of them down.
Should late billing count as a monthly cost?
Only the money you actually lose: work that never got billed, and charges written off or disputed because they went out late. Getting paid sooner is a one-time cash boost, not a monthly saving, so it stays out of the number.
What if FOREMAN costs more than it saves?
Then it is worth waiting. The office work grows with every job you run, so run the numbers again when you are busier.
Go through your numbers with us
Bring your figures to a call and we'll go through each line with you — including any that come out against us. Or see everything FOREMAN does first.