About CalcAuthority
CalcAuthority builds business decision calculators for contractors, owners, and operators — tools that answer three questions that decide whether a business makes money: What is this really costing me? What should I charge? Can I afford this decision? The principle behind every tool is simple: a calculator should show its work. Too many online tools return a number with no formula, no assumptions, and no explanation of where it breaks. We pair every calculator with the formula it uses, worked numeric examples, and plain-language limitations.
Founder & Reviewing Editor
CalcAuthority was founded by Gerald G., who serves as Founder and Reviewing Editor. Gerald's background is in the trades: he is a journeyman cabinet installer who worked as a subcontractor and went on to own and operate a contracting business with 18 employees. That experience — bidding jobs, running crews, meeting payroll, and living with the consequences of a mispriced estimate — is the reason CalcAuthority focuses on the practical math that operators actually face.
Gerald reviews the calculators and guides for real-world usefulness and honest framing. For contractor and trade topics, the perspective comes directly from field experience. For general small-business math, the tools rest on established formulas, stated plainly and shown in full, with Gerald acting as founder and reviewing editor rather than claiming expertise beyond the trades. We do not overstate credentials, and we do not present these tools as professional financial, tax, legal, or accounting advice.
What We Build
Our focus is decision-support calculators for people running businesses: contractors and trades (true labor cost, crew cost, break-even job pricing, bid checking, job margins, callback cost, missed-lead value) and small-business core math (cash runway, break-even revenue, overhead recovery, customer-acquisition payback, price-increase impact, and freelance rate building). We continue to maintain a library of salary, loan, and everyday math calculators as well.
Each tool answers a specific, practical question. We add calculators deliberately, prioritizing depth and accuracy over volume. A well-documented calculator that explains its formula is more useful than ten thin tools that just return a number.
Who CalcAuthority Is For
Our tools are for people who make decisions with real money and want to understand the math, not just run it:
- Contractors and tradespeople pricing jobs, running crews, and protecting margins.
- Small-business owners and operators managing cash, overhead, and pricing.
- Freelancers and independents setting rates that actually cover their costs.
- Anyone budgeting around a loan, paycheck, or regular payment.
- Anyone who wants to verify a number before acting on it.
Our Editorial Standards
Every calculator and guide on CalcAuthority is held to the same standard:
- Formulas are shown — the calculation is stated in plain language on the page, not hidden.
- Assumptions are stated — we say what the tool takes as given and what you must supply.
- Limitations are stated — each page says what the estimate does not include.
- Worked examples let you verify the tool by hand.
- Verdict bands, where used, are labeled as editorial rules of thumb rather than published statistics.
Our calculators are educational estimates for planning and comparison. They are not financial, tax, legal, or accounting advice. The full method is documented on the Methodology page, and the limits of these estimates are set out in our Financial Disclaimer.
Contact and Feedback
If you find an error in a calculator, notice outdated information, or have a suggestion for a tool we should add, please reach out. Accurate, useful tools are only possible with user feedback. Visit the Contact page to get in touch.