Learning goals

Decide what belongs in the overhead pool - and what does not
Pull admin labor straight from the timesheet journal with SUMIFS
Total the pool and the direct-cost base that will set the allocation rate

Concepts

What the pool holds

Overhead is everything it costs to be in business that no single job would pay for alone: shop and office rent, trucks and equipment, general liability and workers comp policies, office labor, tools and consumables, software and bookkeeping, marketing and bidding.

The pool deliberately excludes two things. Job labor is not here - it is direct cost already living in the journals. And burden is not here either: the 25% from Lesson 3 rides inside every loaded labor rate, so adding it again would double-count insurance.

Each row carries four monthly columns so you can see the rhythm of the business - marketing spikes in April when Ridgeline bids two jobs, tools tick along at $350 to $420 a month.

💡 Tips:

If an expense can be tied to one job, it is direct cost in the Cost Log, not overhead. The pool is for the costs you would pay even with zero jobs.

Admin labor arrives by formula

Row 8 does not have typed amounts. Office labor is already captured on Timesheets under job OH, so the pool reads it back with month-bounded SUMIFS - one formula per month, no double entry.

=SUMIFS(Timesheets!$J$5:$J$1004,Timesheets!$F$5:$F$1004,"OH",Timesheets!$C$5:$C$1004,">="&DATE(2026,3,1),Timesheets!$C$5:$C$1004,"<"&DATE(2026,4,1))

Sum Timesheets column J (labor cost) where the job is OH AND the date is on or after Mar 1, 2026 AND before Apr 1, 2026. DATE() builds real dates inside the criteria so no cell needs to hold them; the greater-than and less-than pair describes a half-open month window, which is the safe way to bound a month.

=SUM($H$5:$H$11)

The pool total in H12: straight sum of the seven item totals above it. For the case: $4,280.00 + $4,970.00 + $4,250.00 + $4,610.00 = $18,110.00.

The denominator sits underneath

Row 13 computes direct costs incurred, by month, with the same date-bounded SUMIFS pair you just met - job labor (job not OH) plus the whole Cost Log. Monthly: $12,960.00, $19,815.00, $22,790.00, $53,090.00, totaling $108,655.00.

Pool over direct cost is about to become the allocation rate in Lesson 12. Glance at the ratio now: $18,110.00 over $108,655.00 runs about 16.7% - meaning every direct dollar spent drags roughly seventeen cents of office cost behind it. Hold that thought against the 20% estimated margins from Lesson 6.

Practice

Fixed case (Mar 1 – Jun 30, 2026). Pale-green cells are formulas. Cell H12 on Overhead has been cleared - you will retype it.

Read the pool — The exercise opens on Overhead. Rows 5 through 11 hold the seven items; row 8's monthly amounts are formulas reading the OH timesheet rows.
Retype the pool total in H12 — Cell H12 is blank. Type =SUM($H$5:$H$11) and press Enter. The four-month pool returns $18,110.00.
Check the monthly totals — D12 through G12 should read $4,280.00, $4,970.00, $4,250.00, and $4,610.00. April is the heavy month - the $650.00 marketing spike for bidding season.
Verify the denominator — Row 13 totals direct costs by month, with H13 showing $108,655.00. Cross-check it against WIP column F's total row - the same number arrives by a different route, which is exactly how you catch a broken range.

Online exercise

The spreadsheet below is editable — follow the practice steps right on this page. Steps that need ribbon menus should be done in your own Excel with the downloadable practice file.

表格加载中…

Checklist

Work through each item; when every box passes, this lesson is done:

☐ Typed =SUM($H$5:$H$11) into H12 and got the $18,110.00 pool
☐ Confirmed the monthly pool columns read $4,280.00 / $4,970.00 / $4,250.00 / $4,610.00
☐ Verified direct costs to date of $108,655.00 on row 13 - the Lesson 12 denominator

🏗️ Lesson 11 · The overhead pool: what the office really costs