Most contractors know comebacks are expensive. Few know exactly how expensive. The calculator below adds up travel, labour, wasted materials and panel penalties to give you the real annual number — and it is almost always a shock.
The true cost most contractors miss
When a tech drives back to a job site to fix a leaking fitting or an incorrectly wired circuit, contractors typically think of the direct cost: the petrol and two hours of labour. But the real cost has four components: travel (R250 average), labour (2 hours at your rate), wasted materials (R300 average), and if you are on an insurance panel, an SLA penalty (R500 average). On a typical job that earns R1,200 in profit, a single comeback can wipe out the entire margin and turn a profit into a loss.
Use the calculator
Enter your actual comeback rate and costs below. The calculator shows your monthly and annual loss, what you would save if your rate halved, and how many revenue-generating jobs are being blocked by comeback visits.
Why comeback rates are higher than they should be
The root cause of most comebacks is incomplete on-site documentation. A tech finishes a repair, takes a mental note that everything looked fine, and leaves. Three days later the customer calls because the same problem has returned — or because a different problem was missed that the tech could have caught with a proper site inspection and photo record.
The fix is structural, not disciplinary. When your field app requires photos at every stage before a job can be marked complete, techs cannot skip the documentation step. Problems get caught on site before they become comebacks. This single change typically reduces comeback rates from 8–12% down to 2–4% within the first month.
Panel contractors: comebacks threaten more than profit
For SA field contractors, comebacks have a second impact beyond the direct cost: they damage your panel score. Insurers track comeback rates as a key quality metric. A sustained rate above 8% will trigger a performance review. Above 12%, you risk losing panel status entirely — which means losing the entire revenue stream, not just one job's margin.
The maths on prevention
If your current comeback rate is 8% on 40 jobs per month, you are spending roughly R240,000 per year on return visits. Reducing that to 3% — entirely achievable with mandatory photo job cards — saves R165,000 per year. PlanMyCrew costs R350 per month. The payback period is measured in days, not months.