Pricing guides for trades and small shops
Plain-language guides to pricing your work: markup vs margin, overhead and profit, your true hourly rate, job costing, quotes vs estimates and change orders.
Start hereGetting started: set up your pricing calculator in one eveningStep by step, with pictures: open the file, fill in Shop Setup and your prices, build your first quote and send it as a PDF.Open the guidePricing guides
- Change Order Template: Price, Approve and Bill Every Extra
A change order template, a plain clause to copy, and how to price extra work, with priced surprises from roofing, painting, drywall, plumbing and more.
- Contractor Overhead and Profit: How to Calculate Both, With Real Numbers
Contractor overhead and profit with real numbers: overhead adds $4 to $17 per billable hour in 8 trade examples, and profit goes on top after you're paid.
- How to Calculate Labor Rate: Labor Burden, Billable Hours and Paying Yourself
How to calculate labor rate: wages plus labor burden plus overhead, divided by billable hours. Break-even rates from $44 to $70 in 8 worked trade examples.
- Job Costing: How to Tell if a Job Actually Made Money
Job costing in five numbers per job: quoted price, estimated and actual hours, estimated and actual materials. Losing jobs from 8 trades, worked out.
- Markup vs Margin: Why a 20% Markup Only Keeps 16.7%
Markup vs margin with real job numbers: a 20% markup is only a 16.7% margin. Chart, formulas and 8 trade quotes from roofing, painting, plumbing and more.
- Quote vs Estimate: What's the Difference, and Which Should You Give?
Quote vs estimate vs bid: which one locks your price, when a range is safer, how long a quote should last and what your win rate says about your prices.
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