The Gap
You are billing 18 labor lines below your own rate card. Not below market, below the number you already decided to charge. Across 7 jobs in the last 90 days that is $14,280 of labor billed at the wrong rate, and every one of those lines was approved and invoiced without anyone noticing, because nothing in the billing flow compares the line to the rate card.
Lines Below Rate Card
| Role | Job type | Card rate | Billed | Gap |
|---|
| Technician | Water | $62.00 | $53.50 | −14% |
| Technician | Mold | $68.00 | $61.00 | −10% |
| Supervisor | Water | $88.00 | $79.00 | −10% |
| Equipment tech | Mold | $58.00 | $52.00 | −10% |
| Technician | Bio | $74.00 | $74.00 | On rate |
| Supervisor | Mold | $92.00 | $84.50 | −8% |
| Project manager | Water | $95.00 | $95.00 | On rate |
Water technician is the single largest exposure: 9 of the 18 under-rate lines, concentrated in one crew.
Where It Comes From
Every under-rate line traces to a job estimated before the March rate card took effect and invoiced after it. The rate was correct when the estimate was written and stale by the time the work was billed. Nothing flagged the difference, because the estimate is the source of the invoice and the rate card lives outside it.
What To Do
Three of the seven jobs are still open and can be corrected before final billing. That is $6,110 recoverable without a conversation with anyone.
The remaining four are invoiced and collected. Those are not worth chasing; they are worth not repeating. Re-price any open estimate written before the rate card change.