Bid Price Engine
Price any job at the profit margin you need. Enter labor, materials, subs and equipment, add contingency and overhead, and get the price, your walk-away number, and how far labor can run over before the job stops paying. One calculator for 120+ trades; pick yours for starting inputs and a link to its specialist calculator.
The job
Work out my overhead % from last year's books
Which margin wins the most money? Learn it from your own bids
A margin that looks right on the cost side ignores the bids you lose by quoting high. After each quote, log whether you won it. From eight bids with at least two wins and two losses, the page fits a win-chance curve to your history and shows the margin with the best expected profit per bid. The log stays on this device; nothing is uploaded.
Close out the job: what it really left
When the job is done, enter what it actually took. The bid above is the comparison. Closed jobs are kept on this device only; after three, the page shows how far your jobs run over and the contingency that would have covered it.
Questions
What is the difference between markup and margin?
Markup is the percentage you add on top of your cost. Margin is the share of the final price that is profit. A 25% markup is a 20% margin, and a 25% margin needs a 33.3% markup. This tool takes the margin you want and works out the price as cost divided by one minus the margin, so you never have to convert in your head.
How do I price a job so that I actually make money?
Add up what the job costs you in labor (wages plus payroll burden), materials (plus the waste you buy), subcontractors, equipment and travel. Add a contingency for surprises and your overhead, then divide by one minus the profit margin you need. That figure is the price; anything lower trades profit for the chance of winning the job.
What overhead and burden percentages should I use?
The defaults on the page are planning starting points for the kind of work you pick, not industry benchmarks. For burden, use your payroll taxes, workers' compensation and benefits as a share of wages. For overhead, divide last year's non-job costs (insurance, vehicles, office, software, owner's admin time) by last year's direct job cost; the helper on the page does that sum.
Does it work for my trade?
It prices any job built from labor, materials, subcontractors and equipment. Pick your trade to load starting inputs for that kind of work and a link to the specialist calculator for it, which models the details that are particular to that trade, such as dump weight for junk removal or squares for roofing.
What does the walk-away price mean?
It is your full cost: direct cost, contingency and overhead, with zero profit. Below it you lose money on the job once the business's own costs are counted. The cash floor is lower, only what you spend out of pocket, and is the figure to compare against a bid you are tempted to match in a slow week.
Is my pricing sent anywhere?
No. Every figure is calculated in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded, there are no accounts, and a share link stores the inputs in the web address after the # sign, which your browser never sends to a server.
Is this legal, tax or accounting advice?
No. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. It does not know your licensing, bonding, sales tax, prevailing wage or lien rules, and it makes no promise that a job will cost what you entered.
Guide: markup vs margin, with a conversion table. Running a trade with its own quirks? Every specialist bid calculator, by trade. Then send the number as a document with Estimate Maker, or test what price wins with Bid Win-Rate Optimizer.