Total on-site hours for the job
Number of workers on the job
What you pay each worker per hour
Chemicals, supplies, disposal, and consumables
Overhead = your monthly fixed costs / monthly revenue. 25% is a common starting point; adjust to yours.
Margin is profit as a share of the price. Raise it for higher-risk work like roof or soft-wash jobs.
Covers your costs, overhead, and a 30% profit margin
Effective Rate
$44.64/hr
per person-hour
Profit Margin
30.0%
of the quoted price
Direct Cost
$200.00
labor + materials
Person-Hours
8.0
hours × crew
Cost-plus pricing builds your quote from your own numbers. Add labor and materials to get direct cost, layer on your overhead rate, then divide by (1 - your margin) so the margin is measured against the final price, not the cost.
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Quick answer: how to price a job with cost-plus
Cost-plus pricing builds your quote from your own numbers, not a competitor's. Add labor (hours times crew size times hourly rate) plus materials to get direct cost, add your overhead rate as a percent of that cost, then divide by (1 minus your target margin) to get the price. Worked example: a job with $200 labor and $50 materials at a 25 percent overhead rate has a $312.50 total cost; at a 30 percent margin the price is about $446 and profit is about $134. Margin is profit as a percent of price, while markup is profit as a percent of cost, so the two differ. A common starting overhead rate is 20-30 percent of revenue, and crews aim for 65-80 percent billable-hour utilization.
The most reliable way to price a field service job is cost-plus pricing: build the quote from your own costs, then add a profit margin on top. It keeps every job profitable regardless of what the competition charges, because the number starts from what the work actually costs you.
The calculator above uses four steps. First it finds your direct cost: labor hours times crew size times your hourly pay rate, plus materials. Then it adds your overhead to cover fixed business expenses. Finally it applies your target margin by dividing the total cost by (1 minus your margin), so the margin is measured against the price you charge, not the cost you pay.
Say a job takes 4 labor hours with a 2-person crew paid $25 per hour. That is $200 in labor. Add $50 in materials and your direct cost is $250. Apply a 25 percent overhead rate and the cost with overhead becomes $312.50. To hit a 30 percent margin, divide $312.50 by 0.70, which gives a price of about $446. Your profit on that job is roughly $134, and the effective rate works out to about $56 per person-hour.
| Step | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Labor cost | 4 hrs × 2 crew × $25/hr | $200.00 |
| Materials | supplies + consumables | $50.00 |
| Direct cost | labor + materials | $250.00 |
| With overhead | $250 × 1.25 (25%) | $312.50 |
| Price (30% margin) | $312.50 / 0.70 | $446.43 |
| Profit | price - total cost | $133.93 |
Margin and markup are easy to confuse, and the difference costs real money. Margin is profit as a percent of the price you charge. Markup is profit as a percent of the cost you pay. A 30 percent margin is the same job as a roughly 43 percent markup on cost, so if you set a 30 percent markup thinking it is a 30 percent margin, you are leaving profit on the table on every quote.
This calculator works in margin, because margin is what actually determines how much of each dollar you keep. Enter your target margin and it solves for the price directly.
Overhead is everything it costs to run the business that is not tied to one job: insurance, vehicle and equipment payments, software, fuel, advertising, and admin time. To find your rate, divide your total monthly fixed costs by your total monthly revenue. Fixed costs of $2,000 against $8,000 in revenue is a 25 percent overhead rate.
A healthy overhead rate is often around 20 to 30 percent of revenue for small crews. Treat that as a common starting point, not a hard figure. Measure your own, and re-check it whenever you add a truck, a hire, or a new fixed subscription.
Cost-plus pricing sets your quote by adding up what a job actually costs you, then adding a profit margin on top. You start with direct cost (labor plus materials), layer on overhead to cover fixed business expenses, and then mark it up to your target margin. Because the price is built from your own numbers, it protects your profit regardless of what a competitor charges. This calculator applies cost-plus math to the labor hours, crew size, pay rate, materials, overhead rate, and margin you enter.
Margin is profit measured as a percent of the final price. Markup is profit measured as a percent of your cost. They are not the same number. For example, a $100 cost sold at a 30 percent margin sells for about $143, which is a 43 percent markup on cost. Field service operators often talk in markup on the shop floor, but margin is what determines how much of each dollar you keep. This calculator uses margin, so it divides your total cost by (1 minus your margin) to reach the price.
Overhead is the cost of running your business that is not tied to a single job: insurance, vehicle payments, software, office costs, advertising, and administrative time. To find your overhead rate, divide your total monthly fixed costs by your total monthly revenue. If you spend $2,000 a month on fixed costs and bill $8,000, your overhead rate is 25 percent. A rate around 20 to 30 percent of revenue is a common starting point for small field service crews, but you should measure your own and update it as your business changes.
Your margin should reflect the risk, skill, and difficulty of the work, not just what feels safe. Routine, low-risk jobs can run a lower margin because they are predictable. Higher-risk work, such as roof cleaning or soft-wash jobs where a mistake is expensive, deserves a higher margin to cover the added liability and callback risk. Many operators start around 30 percent and adjust up for specialty or hazardous work. Enter different margins in the calculator to see how each changes the price you would quote.
Price on the value you deliver plus your real costs, not on being the cheapest option in the market. Racing a competitor to the bottom erases the margin you need to cover overhead, replace equipment, and pay yourself. Use competitor pricing as a sanity check on whether your market can bear your number, but build the quote itself from your own labor, materials, overhead, and target margin. If your cost-plus price is well above the market, look for ways to lower cost or raise perceived value rather than cutting your margin.
Billable-hour utilization is the share of your working hours that you can actually bill to customers, as opposed to driving, quoting, invoicing, and maintenance. If only part of your day is billable, your billable rate has to cover the unbillable time too. Many service crews aim for 65 to 80 percent utilization. The lower your utilization, the higher your billable rate needs to be to hit the same take-home, which is one reason the effective hourly rate in this calculator can be higher than the wage you pay your crew.
The calculator multiplies labor hours by crew size and your hourly pay rate to get labor cost, adds your material cost to get direct cost, multiplies by (1 plus your overhead rate) to add overhead, then divides by (1 minus your margin) so the margin lands on the final price. It also shows the effective rate per person-hour so you can compare the quote against your wage. Every figure comes only from the inputs you enter; the tool does not pull any external or market rate data.
This calculator is built for field service operators who want a fast, defensible number instead of a gut-feel guess. Enter the same inputs the same way on every quote and your pricing becomes consistent, which makes it far easier to spot the jobs that are actually worth taking.
Pair it with a service-specific estimator like the pressure washing price estimator or the lawn mowing calculator to size the labor hours, then use this tool to turn those hours into a price. Manage all your estimates, jobs, and invoices in one place with CrewNest — sign up free to get started.
