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Two independent-adjusting (IA) firms both offer a 21-working-day deployment, both with the same 2 unpaid travel days and the same daily costs — an estimating-software subscription, a hotel room, per diem, a vehicle, and mileage between claims. The only real difference is the fee schedule and the pace each firm's claim volume actually supports. Run both through the calculator and the gap is not close.
21 working days at 1.5 claims/day is 31.5 claims, 10% of them large-loss and worth a $400 bonus on top of the $550 base — a blended $590 a claim.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross revenue (31.5 claims, blended $590/claim) | $18585.00 |
| In-zone daily cost × 21 days | −$5052.60 |
| Travel-day cost × 2 days | −$374.00 |
| Fixed deployment cost (E&O / license / dues share) | −$150.00 |
| Net profit | $13008.40 |
| Effective rate | $61.94/hr worked, $565.58/day over the full 23-day trip |
A 70.0% profit margin and $412.97 profit per claim. This is a deployment worth taking, and the effective hourly rate confirms it rather than just the headline per-claim fee.
Same 21 working days, same 2 travel days, same daily costs — but this firm's territory only supports 0.8 claims a day (16.8 total, 5% large-loss with a smaller $300 bonus), and the base fee is a third lower.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross revenue (16.8 claims, blended $365/claim) | $6132.00 |
| In-zone daily cost × 21 days | −$5052.60 |
| Travel-day cost × 2 days | −$374.00 |
| Fixed deployment cost (E&O / license / dues share) | −$150.00 |
| Net profit | $555.40 |
| Effective rate | $2.64/hr worked, $24.15/day over the full 23-day trip |
Notice what did not change: the daily costs are identical, because lodging, food, software, vehicle, and travel days do not care what a firm pays per claim. Only the pace and the fee schedule moved, and together they took the margin from 70.0% down to 9.1% — a profit of $33.06 per claim instead of $412.97, and $555.40 for three full weeks away from home. Firm B's offer never shows a loss on paper. It is still very likely the wrong trip to take, and the only way to see that is to price the whole deployment rather than the fee schedule alone.
At Firm A's $590 blended fee, the deployment breaks even at just 0.45 claims a day — well under the 1.5/day this scenario assumes, so there is real room for a slow week. At Firm B's $365 blended fee, break-even climbs to 0.73 claims a day — nearly the entire assumed 0.8/day pace, which means almost any slowdown (a storm that weakens, a firm that over-promised volume, a stretch of denied or reassigned claims) tips the whole trip into a loss. A fee schedule with little pace to spare above its own break-even is a materially riskier deployment even before anything goes wrong.
Because none of its daily costs changed -- lodging, food, software, vehicle, and the two unpaid travel days cost the same no matter which firm you work for. Only the pace and the fee schedule moved, and together they cut the margin from 70.0% to 9.1%, which the per-claim fee alone never shows.
Compare break-even claims per day, not the per-claim fee. Firm A's schedule breaks even at 0.45 claims a day, well under its assumed 1.5/day pace; Firm B's breaks even at 0.73, nearly its entire assumed 0.8/day pace -- almost no slack for a slow week.
These are worked examples from user-supplied assumptions, not a guarantee any specific IA firm will match them. This page does not determine your licensing, appointment, or authority to handle a claim in any state, and it does not evaluate an IA firm's reputation, timeliness of payment, or claim-volume promises — verify those independently before accepting a deployment.