Return to the Office Expense Calculator
Understand the added expenses when returning to the office for mostly on-site work.
This business case outlines the added expenses when shifting from a work-from-home arrangement (e.g. <5 days per month on-site) to spending much more time on site. This personal finance calculator includes transportation, household , and child care expenses, and even your time consumed.
Calculate your comparison below.
Option 1 is your Remote / Hybrid Work baseline
This can be used for a 100% remote position or a hybrid option. Shifting to more office or on-site work will be compared to this baseline.
Option 2 is your ‘On-site’ work arrangement
These will captured the added expenses your incur for returning more frequently to the office for work. This option will be compared against your baseline of working from home.
Use the Return to Work Expense guide below to understand the factors in the calculator. For a detailed calculator walk through, review this related article about The Costs of Returning to the Office.
Guide to the Return to Work Expense Calculator
General Information
- Days per Month when Working Mainly from Home: This is your starting point. Working remotely does not mean being 100% remote in most cases. For this item, capture how many days per month you work from home.
- Days per Month when Returning to the Office: This is your new work arrangement. You may work up to 20 days per month on-site, or more based on your job requirements or overtime. Capture your expected on-site work days.
- Daily Minutes Spent…: Capturing this information will help estimate and compare
- Driving and Vehicle Details: This is where you can enter information about your vehicle (gas, electric, hybrid), whether you own or finance, the current value, and commuting distance. All of this information will be used to reflect the changes in your transportation costs.
- Estimated Annual Maintenance Spend: With increased mileage driven, vehicle maintenance cost will increase and experience a faster depreciation rate. This has long-term financial impacts as vehicles age faster and reduce the resale value at a faster rate.
- Gas or Hybrid engine fuel costs: Enter the estimated gas price you expect to pay on average over the next five years, as well as the fuel efficiency of your vehicle. These costs will be a major part of your monthly commuting costs.
- Electric Vehicle Motor Costs: To estimate your cost of electricity for fully electric vehicles, you can capture the home charging costs, as well as the motor efficiency of your vehicle.
- Vehicle Purchase Information: Do you plan to buy a vehicle? Will it be a cash purchase, or will you make a downpayment and start making monthly payments?
Public Transportation Spend
- Public Transit Passes and Transit Lots: The monthly or annual transit pass is necessary for those reliant on public transportation.
- Rideshare and Taxis: Use for the cost of ride-sharing services or taxis. These options come at a premium cost. When working on site, you may need to rely on these services for transportation.
Vehicle and Driving Expenses
- Vehicle Insurance Premium: As you transition to office work, your insurance premiums may increase given the increase in your annual mileage, which increases the chance of a claim.
- Parking: In most downtown or populated office locations, employees often have to pay for parking in the company or other private lots.
- Tolls: Regarding tolls, we all enjoy the time saved and the smoother commute. However, those daily toll charges catch up with you at the end of the month.
- Annual depreciation rate: For depreciation, the make and model of your vehicle play a large part, as well as the mileage, condition, and keeping up with maintenance. This option is only calculated if you own or finance your vehicle. An average vehicle driving 15k-20k KM per year will depreciate at about 15%. If driving is increased significantly when returning to work, consider using a higher depreciation percentage. The estimate is based on your work-related mileage as a % of your total mileage. That is why ‘personal use’ mileage is captured as well.
Food, Social, and Tech Spend
- Coffee and Beverages: Your daily coffee and beverage expenses are likely to increase as you start to drop at your favourite coffee shop on the way into work, or on break.
- Meals, Snacks, and Restaurants: When returning to work, you can’t cook and eat at home as much, which likely results in your meals purchased each month. Capture those added food expenses.
- Wardrobe refresh: The need for a range of tailored suits, dresses, and formal shoes increases when working in the office. These costs need to be added to your budget.
- Dry Cleaning: If you need to dry clean your work attire regularly, you can expect to have these new costs on a regular basis.
- Grooming Costs: Working in an office often leads to spending more money on cosmetics, haircuts, and grooming products. The conventional grooming pressures will be re-instituted as you leave your comfortable home office.
- Internet or other tech subscriptions: When working from home more frequently, you may have paid more for internet or phone service to meet your work demands. You may benefit from reducing these costs if your performance demands are reduced.
- Other activities / social: This option is left open to capture anything specific to your situation, such as going out for dinner or drinks after work, participating in social outings, etc.
Family and Child Care Spend
Many working parents struggle with the expensive cost of childcare services. If you were remote, you may have realized savings from being able to supervise children before and after school while working from home. Returning to the office can substantially increase your spending on childcare expenses. This includes estimating before-school, after-school, daycare, and summer activities expenses.
Average Tax Rate
The last piece to consider is salary and taxes. For example, if your paycheck taxes average 30%. That means you must earn 14,285 dollars, then pay $4,285 in taxes (30%) to net out $10,000 and pay your commuting expenses. So, in reality, if you are returning to the office frequently and expect $10k in expenses, then $14,285 of your existing earnings will be related to that. Enter your average tax rate to estimate your pre-tax impact.