Small engine flat-rate labor guide: how book times work and typical times for common jobs
Updated September 3, 2026 · North Trestle LLC
Flat-rate labor, or book time, means charging a set time for a job, not the clock. A mower tune-up might carry a book time of one hour. A fast tech finishes early and the shop keeps the difference. A slow tech eats it. The customer hears the price before the wrench touches the machine. Makers set book times for warranty work. Shops set their own, usually higher, book times for paying customers. This guide covers both. It has typical retail ranges for common jobs. It has a labor-code list too. You can use it in your own shop today.
Where do book times come from?
Every major outdoor power brand publishes a flat-rate time guide for its dealers. That way a shop gets paid the same for the same warranty job. It does not matter who does the work. Briggs and Stratton calls its guide the Time Analysis Repair Guide. It helps a dealer settle a warranty claim. Kohler, Kawasaki, Honda, STIHL, Husqvarna, Toro, and MTD each publish something similar. MTD makes Cub Cadet and Troy-Bilt. Most guides sit behind a dealer login. Even where a copy leaks out in public, the numbers are the maker’s own work. This guide will not print any of them. If you are a dealer, start at the source:
- Briggs and Stratton: the Power Portal
- Honda Power Equipment: the support hub
- Husqvarna: the dealer portal
- Kohler Engines: partner support
- Kawasaki Engines: support and resources
- STIHL: the support portal
- Toro: Toro Engage
- MTD Products: the dealer tech site
If you are not a dealer for a brand, you will not see its warranty book times. You do not need them to run a retail counter. The ranges below come from shop price lists and industry pricing guides instead.
What is the difference between warranty flat rate and retail flat rate?
Warranty flat rate is what the maker pays a dealer for a warranty job. It runs on the maker’s schedule, not the shop’s own. A Lawn Mower Forum thread on this exact question put it plainly. The flat-rate manual sets what the dealer gets paid by the factory. It is not what the dealer bills a walk-in customer (Lawn Mower Forum, “Billable Hours,” October 2020). Another poster in that thread explained why the two numbers differ. Warranty book time assumes a clean, new machine in good shape. A customer’s mower or saw often shows up dirty or rusted. Sometimes it was already taken apart by someone else.
Retail flat rate is the price your shop sets for a paying customer. Most shops build it from their own experience, not the OEM number. It usually runs higher than warranty time. That covers the extra cleaning and checking a real used machine needs.
What are typical retail times for common jobs?
These are typical retail ranges. They come from shop price lists and industry pricing guides. They are not OEM warranty book times. They are not numbers from a ReedPort shop. Use them as a start, then track your own times.
| Job | Typical retail range | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walk-behind mower tune-up | About 1 hour | Patrick’s Mobile | Jan 2025 |
| Carburetor clean or rebuild (mower, trimmer, blower, chainsaw) | About 1 to 3 hours | RepairDesk | Feb 2026 |
| Carburetor replacement (swap) | Under 1 hour | LawnStarter | Dec 2025 |
| Blade sharpening and balancing | $20 flat per blade | Patrick’s Mobile | Jan 2025 |
| Chainsaw chain sharpening | $5 to $9 flat | Airtasker | checked Sep 2026 |
| Chainsaw bar reconditioning | $10 to $15 flat | Airtasker | checked Sep 2026 |
| Electric motor repair | About 1 hour or less | LawnStarter | Dec 2025 |
| Electric motor replacement | About 1 to 2 hours | LawnStarter | Dec 2025 |
| Pressure washer pump repair (seals, valves, minor rebuild) | About $100 to $250 in labor | an industry cost guide | checked Sep 2026 |
Patrick’s Mobile, an independent shop, published its 2025 price list. RepairDesk, Airtasker, LawnStarter, and the pressure-washer guide are trade pricing guides, not one shop’s numbers. Treat every number as a starting point, not a rule.
How do you set a multiplier over book time?
Say you get a maker’s warranty book time. You want a retail number from it. One shop owner on that Lawn Mower Forum thread said he bills close to double the warranty time. That is for customer-pay work. That extra time covers the cleaning and checking warranty time skips (Lawn Mower Forum, “Billable Hours,” October 2020). Some shops use a flat multiplier like that. Others skip the OEM number instead. They use their own hourly rate. They use their own typical time too. That is how the ranges above were built. Either way, write the number down once, as a labor code. Do not decide it again on every ticket.
When should you bill actual time instead of a flat rate?
Flat rate works when a job is predictable. Bill actual time when it is not. A no-start with no clear cause needs real check time first. Only then can anyone quote a fix. A machine with stripped bolts or rusted fasteners will run long. So will one with a failed repair already inside it. A flat price on that job loses money. It loses money every time. One shop owner on that same forum thread adds check time on top of the flat rate. He does not eat that time himself (Lawn Mower Forum, “Billable Hours,” October 2020). A full engine rebuild is the extreme case. LawnStarter’s 2026 cost guide puts one at 12 to 16 hours. That is too wide a spread for one flat number (LawnStarter, December 2025). For jobs like that, quote a fee to check it first. Then bill the repair on actual time.
What is a labor code, and why does a code beat typing the job out every time?
A labor code is a short code for one job. It carries a description, a mode of flat or hourly, and a default time or price. Punch “11” at the counter for a carburetor clean. That beats typing the words and looking up what you charged last time. The code carries the same description and the same time onto every ticket. It does this for every tech, on every shift.
In ReedPort, a labor code has a code, a description, and a mode of flat or hourly. It also has either a default dollar amount, or a default number of hours plus your rate. Pick a code on a ticket. The description and the price fill in on their own. Hours turn into dollars using your own shop rate. Work out that rate with the calculator in the labor rate guide. See how the code lands on the ticket, next to parts and the machine, on the work orders page.
How do I get these codes into ReedPort?
Download the labor-code list below. It is a plain spreadsheet. Each row has a two-digit code, a description, flat or hourly, and a default number of hours or dollars. It matches ReedPort’s labor code fields exactly. Entering one under Settings takes a few seconds. Type the code and description. Pick flat or hourly. Carry over the default hours or amount from the sheet. Twenty codes cover a season of common jobs, with room to add your own.
Download the labor-code CSV or the labor-code spreadsheet. No email required.
Put the code on the ticket
However you price a job, flat or by the hour, write the number down the same way every time. A work order with the labor code on it settles the price before an argument starts. A fast tech and a slow tech both bill the job the same way. Set up your codes once. Punch them at the counter from here on. Let your own shop rate do the math.