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EspañolWhat did that job really cost?
A job costing calculator that makes the job carry its share of the truck, the insurance, and the office, not just labor and parts. Change anything and the price moves as you type.
What this job needs to sell for
You'd quote $1,200. It needs $1,196.
That job costs you $1,017 all in, so your price clears $183 — 15.3% margin against a 15% target.
Labor, materials at cost, other direct costs, plus this job's share of overhead.
Show the arithmetic
- Loaded cost = $25.00 × (1 + 30%) = $32.50/hr
- Crew-hours = 6 hrs × 2 people = 12
- Labor = 12 × $32.50 = $390
- Materials at cost = $400
- Other direct = $0
- Direct cost = $790
- Overhead per billable hour = $45,000 ÷ 2380 = $18.91
- This job's overhead = $18.91 × 12 crew-hours = $227
- Total = $1,017
The overhead line is the one most job sheets leave out. The truck, the insurance and the phone were used on this job too — if it does not carry a share of them, the difference comes out of what you thought was profit.
Cost plus a real 15% net margin.
Show the arithmetic
- Target = total cost ÷ (1 − margin)
- = $1,017 ÷ 0.85 = $1,196
- Implied labor rate = $58.03/hr after materials
Divided, not multiplied. Multiplying $1,017 by 1.15 gives $1,169, which earns 13% — not 15%.
Labor plus marked-up materials, with no overhead share and no margin — the figure a spreadsheet produces when nobody has asked it to carry the truck. It is $306 short of what this job needs.
Show the arithmetic
- Labor $390 + marked-up materials $500 + other $0 = $890
- Missing overhead share: $227
- Missing margin: $179
Marking materials up 25% adds $100. That is real, but it is not margin on the job — it covers the sourcing, waste and warranty on those parts and nothing else.
The numbers live in the link and nowhere else — no account, nothing stored.
This prices the job before you do it. It can't tell you what it actually cost when it was done. Spanstead Works records the real labor, materials and payment against each job, so the next quote starts from what the last one did.
The line most job sheets leave out
A job that carries no overhead is not profitable, it is subsidised.
Add the crew, add the parts, mark the parts up, call the rest profit. It is quick, and on the numbers above it produces $890 for a job that actually needs $1,196. The gap is the truck payment, the liability premium, the phone bill, the software, the rent, and whoever answers the phone while the crew is out — costs paid every month whether or not a job sheet has a line for them.
The fix is to give overhead a denominator. Annual overhead divided by the billable hours the business actually produces gives a cost per billable hour, $18.91 here, and every job carries that for each crew-hour it uses — $227 on this one. Billable hours, not paid hours: a shop that pays for 40 and bills 25 has to recover overhead from the 25.
Two smaller errors ride along. Costing labor at the wage rather than the loaded figure: $25.00 an hour is really $32.50 once payroll tax, workers' compensation, paid time off and benefits are counted. And treating material markup as job margin: marking $400 of parts up 25% adds $100, but that pays for sourcing, waste and warranty. A quote that counts it as profit has priced labor at cost.
Finally, margin is division. To earn 15% you divide total cost by 0.85, not multiply by 1.15. Multiplying gives $1,169 and earns 13% — the same error our hourly rate calculator exists to correct.
Straight answers
Questions people actually ask
How do I calculate job cost?
Add three things. Labor: crew-hours multiplied by loaded hourly cost, which is the wage plus payroll tax, workers' compensation, paid time off and benefits, typically 25% to 40% above the wage. Materials: what the supplier charged you, at cost. Direct costs: subcontractors, rentals, permits, dump fees. Then add the job's share of overhead, which is your annual overhead divided by the billable hours your business produces in a year, multiplied by the crew-hours this job consumed. The total of all four is what the job actually costs you.
Should I include overhead in a job cost?
Yes. The truck, the insurance, the phone and the office were all consumed by that job, and if the job does not carry a share of them, the difference silently comes out of what you believe is profit. Spread overhead across billable hours rather than paid hours, because billable hours are the only thing a service business actually sells.
What is the difference between markup and margin on a job?
Markup is added to cost. Margin is a share of price. A job costing $1,000 marked up 20% sells for $1,200, and $200 of profit on $1,200 of revenue is a 16.7% margin, not 20%. To earn a genuine 20% margin you divide the cost by 0.80, which gives $1,250. The gap looks small on one job and adds up across a year.
How much should I mark up materials?
Between 15% and 50% is common in the trades. The markup pays for time spent sourcing, waste and breakage, warranty exposure, and the cash you fronted before the customer paid. Marking materials up is not the same as making margin on the job. The material markup covers the materials, and the job still needs its own margin on top.
Why did my job lose money even though I charged more than it cost?
Almost always one of two reasons. Either the job carried no share of overhead, so what looked like profit was actually paying for the truck and insurance, or it took longer than quoted and the extra hours came out of the margin. The only way to tell which is to cost the job after the fact, recording the hours and materials that actually happened.
Then find out what it actually cost
This prices a job before you do it. Spanstead Works records the hours, materials, and payment that actually happened against it, so the next quote starts from evidence rather than instinct.