Job pricing calculator for contractors
Add 50% to your costs and you have not made 50%. You have made a third. That gap between markup and margin is where a lot of quotes lose money without anyone noticing, and a discount on top widens it fast. This page works from your own costs and the margin you want, so the price it gives you is one you can defend.
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Price a job from its costs
Use what this job will actually cost you. For labor, use what an hour costs the business, not just the wage: payroll taxes, workers' comp and paid time off sit on top of it.
Permits, disposal, equipment rental, a subcontractor, fuel for a long drive.
Every person's hours added together, including drive time if you pay for it.
The share of the price left after the job's own costs. It has to cover rent, trucks, office wages, marketing and your profit.
Price to quote
Add your costs
Total cost divided by one minus your margin.
Gross profit on the job
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What is left to cover overhead and profit.
The same price as a markup
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Added on top of cost, in case your estimating software asks for markup.
Check a price you already quoted
Two numbers from a job you priced: what you charged and what it cost you to do.
Gross margin
Add both numbers
Markup on cost
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Gross profit
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What a discount takes out of your profit
A discount comes straight off the gross profit, not off the price, because the job costs you the same either way. At a thin margin, a small discount can wipe out most of what the job earns.
Filled in from the first calculator if you used it.
Markup and the margin it really gives you
Markup is measured against cost and margin against price, so the same dollars read as two different percentages. If you price by markup, read across to see what you are actually keeping.
| Markup on cost | Gross margin | On a $1,000 cost |
|---|---|---|
| 20% markup | 16.7% | Price $1,200, profit $200 |
| 25% markup | 20% | Price $1,250, profit $250 |
| 33.3% markup | 25% | Price $1,333, profit $333 |
| 43% markup | 30.1% | Price $1,430, profit $430 |
| 50% markup | 33.3% | Price $1,500, profit $500 |
| 67% markup | 40.1% | Price $1,670, profit $670 |
| 100% markup | 50% | Price $2,000, profit $1,000 |
Where job prices usually go wrong
- Labor at the wage, not the cost. The hourly wage is only part of what an hour costs once payroll taxes, workers' comp, insurance and paid time off are added. Price from the wage alone and every hour earns less than the quote says.
- Margin mistaken for profit. Gross margin is before rent, vehicles, office staff, software and marketing. A job at a healthy-looking margin can still lose money once those are paid. Work out what your overhead takes each month and price so the margin covers it.
- No room for callbacks. A return visit on a warranty item costs labor and fuel and earns nothing. If you know roughly how often it happens in your trade, build it into the labor hours.
- Discounts to win the job. The section above shows what they cost. A smaller job at full price often earns more than the bigger one at a discount.
If your leads are what is squeezing the margin, our cost per booked job calculator shows what each lead source costs per job at your margin, and the price increase calculator works out how a higher price changes the numbers.
More free tools
- Cost per booked job calculatorPut your lead sources side by side with your own numbers and see which one pays for itself and which one loses money at your margin.
- Price increase calculatorSee how many customers you could lose after a price increase and still keep the same profit, then write the notice to send them.
- Google review request templatesWrite a review ask for text, email or the counter in your own trade's words, check it against the FTC and Google rules, and print a QR card.
Want a second pair of eyes on your pricing?
Send us the job type and the numbers you used here. We will tell you where the margin is leaking, whether it is the price, the leads or how many of them book, and what we would change first. You keep the plan either way.
- A free consult. A real conversation about your business, your area and what is not working yet.
- An honest evaluation. Where you stand in search, ads and follow-up next to the businesses you lose customers to.
- A plan you keep. What we would fix first and why. It is yours whether or not you work with us.
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