Job price calculator
Job costs = crew time (including drive), materials, vehicle and fuel. Use the full cost of a person-hour: the wage plus payroll taxes and insurance. The price is before sales tax. Office costs, advertising and your own pay are not in job costs; the margin has to cover them. A simple calculator, not a quote.
What to put in each box
- People on the crew: everyone who works the job, including a helper who only loads the truck.
- Hours on site and drive hours: the hours for each person. Count the drive there and back, loading, setup and cleanup. Those hours cost the same as the work itself.
- Full cost of one person-hour: the wage plus payroll taxes, insurance and workers’ compensation. Use the labor burden calculator if you do not know it.
- Materials and vehicle: everything used up on the job, plus a fair charge for the truck and fuel.
- Margin: the share of the price you want left after job costs. That money pays for the office, advertising, software, insurance and your own pay. The margin guide explains how to choose it.
Reading the results
Price to charge is your quote before tax. Left after job costs is the money that has to cover everything that is not on the job, so it is not pure profit. Price per person-hour is the price divided by the total person-hours (each person's hours on site plus drive time, added together). Compare it with the hourly rate you need from the hourly rate calculator. If a job lands below that rate, it is paying for the work but not for the business.
What this calculator does not know
It does not know how hard the access is, how dirty the job is, or how much the customer wants it done this week. Treat the result as your floor. Quote higher when the job is awkward or when you are busy. Never quote lower without knowing what you are giving up. The pricing guide walks through the full method.
Questions owners ask
How do I calculate the price of a job?
Add up crew time (including drive time), materials and vehicle cost to get your job costs. Then divide the job costs by one minus the margin you want. A 55% margin means dividing by 0.45.
Is this a quote?
No. It is a simple calculator that shows the lowest sensible price for the numbers you enter. A real quote also reflects the scope of work, the access, the season and what the customer values.
Does the calculator store my numbers?
No. It runs in your web browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere. Your numbers are kept in the page address, so you can bookmark or share them, and they only reach CrewBrain if you choose to send them with the form under the calculator.
Why does the price go up so much when I raise the margin?
Because you divide by one minus the margin. Going from a 50% margin to a 60% margin changes the divider from 0.5 to 0.4, which raises the price by a quarter.