Fire alarm subcontractors carry overhead driven by NICET certification requirements, AHJ coordination, and the inspection and testing documentation that life safety systems require throughout construction and at commissioning.
These benchmarks are drawn from SPM's work with commercial fire alarm contractors and industry data. Calculate your actual overhead rate — total G&A expenses divided by total revenue for the trailing 12 months — and compare to your revenue band below.
How to use this data: If you're above the top of the range, specific categories need review. If you're below the bottom, you may be underinvesting in systems and staff. Use the benchmark as a target range, not a single number.
Trade note for Fire Alarm Contractors: Fire alarm contractors who also provide service and inspection contracts carry higher overhead than pure installation contractors — service operations require 24/7 response capability, larger parts inventory, and dedicated service technician overhead. The benchmarks above apply to installation-focused operations. Add 3–5% for combined installation and service operations.
NICET certification maintenance, continuing education, and the cost of keeping certified staff qualified and current represents real overhead that must be priced into both installation and service work.
Time spent coordinating with Authorities Having Jurisdiction — pre-submittal meetings, plan review follow-up, inspection scheduling — is often coded to overhead rather than to the specific projects requiring AHJ coordination.
System commissioning documentation, NFPA 72 testing records, and occupancy permit support documentation are direct job costs for the specific fire alarm installations being commissioned — not general overhead.
SPM tracks NICET certification costs, continuing education, and life safety compliance overhead as a dedicated category in ControlQore — supporting accurate bid pricing and revealing the true cost of maintaining certified staff.
Project-specific AHJ coordination time, pre-submittal meetings, and inspection coordination are coded to those jobs in ControlQore rather than to overhead. Jobs with difficult AHJ jurisdictions reflect their true coordination cost.
For fire alarm contractors with both installation and service operations, SPM builds separate overhead rate tracking for each division — revealing whether service overhead is being subsidized by installation work or vice versa.
Find out in a free 30-minute call. Josh will tell you straight where your overhead rate stands and what to do about it.
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