Labour hours, what an hour costs you and what you charge for it, materials with your markup, the skip bin and the permits, then the margin on top. The quote, your real cost and what you actually keep, side by side.
Everyone on the job, including the apprentice.
Wages or your own drawings plus super, all-in.
Not sure? Run the charge-out rate calculator first.
What the supplier invoice says, ex GST.
Covers the trip to the supplier, the account and the returns.
Skip bin, hire gear, permits, parking, subbie.
On top of labour charge and marked-up materials.
$4,538 inc GST
Quote $4,125 ex GST + $413 GST. Your real cost is $2,610. Profit $1,515 (37% of the quote).
| Labour | cost $660 | charged $1,440 |
| Materials | cost $1,800 | charged $2,160 |
| Other costs | cost $150 | charged $150 |
| Margin 10% | $375 |
Guide only. The cost rate should include super, leave and downtime; the charge-out rate should already carry your overheads. Check the figure against your books and talk to your accountant before repricing.
Most jobs get priced from the top: hours times rate, plus materials, plus a bit. The bit is where the profit is supposed to live, and nobody checks whether it survived the day the supplier was out of stock and the apprentice took twice as long.
This calculator prices from the bottom. It works out what the job costs you (hours at your real all-in cost rate, materials at the supplier price, the other costs) and what you will charge for it (hours at your charge-out rate, materials with the markup, the margin on the whole job). The gap is the profit, in dollars and as a share of the quote.
If that share is thin, you find out now, with the slider, instead of at the end of the month with the bank statement.
The cost rate is what an hour of labour costs the business: the wage or your own drawings, plus super, leave, downtime and the hours nobody pays for. The charge-out rate is what the customer pays for that hour, and it has to carry your overheads and a profit as well. Both go into this calculator, because the gap between them on this job is most of the profit. If you do not know your charge-out rate, the charge-out rate calculator on this site works it out from your income target and overheads.
Passing materials through at cost means you did the supplier run, carried the account, handled the returns and took the warranty risk for nothing. A markup covers that work. How much is your call; the materials markup calculator on this site shows what any markup gives you as a margin, so you can pick a number on purpose rather than by habit.
No. The markup on materials pays for handling materials. The margin on the whole job pays for the business to exist: slow weeks, the ute, bad debts, the next hire. If you prefer one number, set the markup to zero and put everything in the margin; the calculator shows the same profit either way.
Only if you tick the box. If you are registered for GST, 10% is added on top of the ex-GST quote and shown separately, which is how it should appear on the invoice. If you are under the threshold and not registered, leave it unticked and quote the ex-GST figure as your price.
BackOnTools runs the trade business from the ute: the phone answered and jobs booked, quotes from your price book, materials and labour costed against every job, invoices with a pay link, crew and the safety paperwork with the job.
