How do I decide if outsourcing a task is worth it?

Price your own hour first: net annual income divided by real annual hours. If the quote — plus your time spent supervising — is meaningfully below what the task costs in your hours, the economics say hand it off. This instrument runs that comparison and shows the break-even.

How much is my time worth per hour?

Divide what you actually keep after tax by the hours you actually work, commute and evening calls included. A $240,000 net year at 50 real hours a week over 46 weeks is about $104 an hour — usually far less than people assume from their gross salary.

Does delegation ever cost more than doing it yourself?

Yes, in two common cases: when the quote exceeds your effective hourly value for the hours involved, and when the work needs so much of your oversight that you effectively do it twice. The instrument prices oversight at 0%, 10% or 25% of the task hours to expose exactly this.

Delegate or Do It Yourself — Outsourcing Calculator

The manifest — your numbers

Currency symbol display only

Your net annual income after tax

What actually lands after tax. This sets your hourly value.

Real weekly working hours

h / wk

Include the commute, the calls at dinner, the Sunday inbox. Honest hours.

Hours the task takes you

h / mo

Per month, as you actually do it — not as you'd like to.

The quote

Σ/ mo

What a competent provider charges for the same month of work.

How would they do it?

Oversight is priced at your hourly rate: none, 10% or 25% of the task hours.

Do you enjoy this task?

Enjoyment doesn't change the arithmetic. It does change the verdict's tone — deliberately.

Nothing you type leaves this page. The instrument runs entirely in your browser; there is no account and no record.

The reading

Delegate.

$104/h

your effective net hourly value · 50 h weeks, 46 weeks a year

The ledger

Your effective hourly value	—
The task, done by you — monthly	—
The quote, as given	—
Your oversight, priced at your rate	—
Annual difference from delegating	—

Three supervision assumptions, same quote

If the work comes back	All-in cost / mo	vs your cost
—	—	—
—	—	—
—	—	—

What moves this result

——
——
——

What would sink this reading

The quote is for the average provider. A bad one costs you the fee and the hours — the worst of both columns.

Your hourly value is an average, not a marginal wage. You cannot always sell the freed hour; you can, however, always sleep it, and that has a price too.

Some tasks carry information. Delegate the bookkeeping and you may stop seeing the numbers that would have warned you early.

Next on the desk

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Questions people bring to this desk

How do I decide if outsourcing a task is worth it?: Price your own hour first: net annual income divided by real annual hours. If the quote — plus your time spent supervising — is meaningfully below what the task costs in your hours, the economics say hand it off. This instrument runs that comparison and shows the break-even.
How much is my time worth per hour?: Divide what you actually keep after tax by the hours you actually work, commute and evening calls included. A $240,000 net year at 50 real hours a week over 46 weeks is about $104 an hour — usually far less than people assume from their gross salary.
Does delegation ever cost more than doing it yourself?: Yes, in two common cases: when the quote exceeds your effective hourly value for the hours involved, and when the work needs so much of your oversight that you effectively do it twice. The instrument prices oversight at 0%, 10% or 25% of the task hours to expose exactly this.

Methodology — the formula, printed

Everything below is calculated from your inputs. Nothing is fetched, nothing is looked up.

your_hourly   =  net_income / (weekly_hours × 46)
your_cost     =  task_hours × your_hourly
all_in_quote  =  quote + task_hours × k × your_hourly
ratio         =  all_in_quote / your_cost

k — oversight burden: 0 (better than you), 0.10 (good enough), 0.25 (needs oversight)

The gauge reads the ratio against a break-even line at 100%. The house bands: at or under 85%, delegate; between 85% and 115%, a line-ball — decide on energy, not money; above 115%, the quote costs more than your time does.

Limitations. 46 working weeks is a convention that allows for leave and holidays. The model prices your time at its average value; if your marginal hour is worth more (billable work waiting) the case for delegation strengthens beyond what is shown.