ROI Calculator

Outsourcing ROI Calculator

Is hiring a VA actually worth it for your situation? Enter what your time is worth, how many hours you want to hand off, and what a VA costs — and see your monthly ROI, time value reclaimed, and payback period instantly.

Your time

What is your time worth per hour? ($) Use your billing rate, or estimate what an hour of focused owner time is worth to your business. Hours per week on delegatable tasks Inbox, scheduling, data entry, social media, research, customer support, formatting…

VA cost

VA hourly rate ($) Philippines / India offshore: $5–$15/hr. US-based: $25–$60/hr. Platform or agency fee (%) Upwork: 10–20%. Agency: 15–35%. Direct hire: 0%.

Onboarding (optional)

One-time onboarding hours Time to train the VA and set up SOPs. Typically 3–10 hours. Weeks per month

How the ROI is calculated

The calculator compares two numbers: the value of the time you reclaim (your hourly value × hours delegated) against the cost of the VA (hourly rate × hours × platform fee multiplier).

If your time is worth $75/hr and you delegate 10 hrs/week, you're reclaiming $1,299/month in time value. A $8/hr VA with a 10% platform fee costs $380/month for the same hours. The net ROI is $919/month — a 3.4× return on VA spend.

The onboarding cost shows how long it takes to break even on the setup investment. At $919/month net ROI, a $44 onboarding cost pays back in less than 2 days.

How to use your reclaimed time

The ROI only materialises if you use freed hours productively. The best uses for reclaimed time:

Revenue-generating work — sales calls, client delivery, product development
Strategic work — planning, partnerships, marketing that compounds
Skill development — learning that makes future hours worth more
Rest and recovery — which makes all other hours more effective

If reclaimed hours would just go back into low-value work, the ROI shrinks accordingly. The real question isn't the math — it's what you'll actually do with the time.

FAQ

Common questions about outsourcing ROI.

What should I enter for 'your hourly value'?

This is what your time is worth when doing high-value work — not your salary. If you bill clients at $100/hr, use that. If you're a founder, estimate what an hour of your focus on strategy or sales is worth to the business. Most small business owners use $50–$150/hr.

What counts as 'delegatable tasks'?

Any recurring task that doesn't require your specific expertise or final judgement: inbox triage, calendar management, social media scheduling, data entry, research, formatting, customer support responses, travel booking, invoice follow-ups. If you find yourself doing it on autopilot, it's delegatable.

Why is the ROI sometimes 10× or higher?

Because the math reflects a real gap: a $10/hr VA doing 20 hrs/week of tasks frees up 20 hrs of your time worth $75/hr each. That's $1,500/month of your time reclaimed for $376/month in VA cost. The multiplier is real — the question is whether you actually use the freed time productively.

What does the platform fee cover?

If you hire through Upwork (10–20%), a marketplace, or an agency (15–35%), they charge a service fee on top of the VA's rate. Set it to 0% if you're hiring directly. The effective cost shown already includes this fee.

Is this calculator useful for part-time VA arrangements?

Yes — set delegatable hours to whatever you actually need, even 5 hrs/week. The ROI math works the same way at any scale. Many business owners start at 10 hrs/week and scale up as they build SOPs and trust.