1. What you quote
2. The crew and the truck
Hours are per person. A crew of 3 with 5 hours each is 15 paid crew hours.
3. What the job costs to run
4. The tent and your year
Fill in the numbers, then click Check this job.
Result
| Line | Per job |
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5. Compare with a second job
Job A is everything above. Job B shares your wages, truck, supplies, reserve, fees, tent and yearly overhead, and has its own price, crew, hours and miles.
How it is built
Job costs: crew labor (crew size × hours per person × wage × (1 + payroll burden)), fuel (miles ÷ mpg × price), truck wear per mile, supplies, damage reserve, card fees on the whole quote, the tent's price ÷ expected rentals, and a fixed share: yearly storage, insurance and truck payment ÷ jobs per year. True profit is the quote minus those costs, before tax.
Lowest quote: the costs that do not depend on price, divided by (1 − card fees − target margin). The test suite checks that quoting exactly that amount earns the target margin for hundreds of random jobs. Payback: tent price ÷ what one rental earns above its direct costs, which excludes the tent's own depreciation so it is not counted twice.
Common questions
How do I price a tent rental so it makes money?
Add up the crew hours the job really takes (loading, driving, setup, takedown and cleaning for every person), multiply by the loaded hourly cost, then add fuel and truck wear, supplies, a damage reserve, card fees, the tent's wear per rental and a share of your yearly storage, insurance and truck payment. Divide the costs that do not scale with price by one minus your card-fee percentage and your target margin to get the lowest total quote.
How many times does a party tent have to be rented to pay for itself?
Take what one rental earns above its direct costs (everything except the tent's own depreciation) and divide the tent's price by that. The calculator shows the rentals and the years at the rate you expect to rent it, and warns if the answer is more than the rentals you expect in the tent's life.
Why does my quote look profitable but the job loses money?
Most of the cost is crew time that never appears on the quote: the warehouse load and clean, the drive and the takedown after the event. A three-person crew on a five-hour job is fifteen paid crew hours, so labor is often more than half of the job's cost.
Should I charge for delivery separately?
Charging delivery and setup as its own line makes the cost visible to the customer and to you. The tool adds it to revenue, so you can see whether a free-delivery promotion pushes a job below your target margin.
Which job should I take when my crew can only do so many?
Compare profit per job and profit per crew hour. When crew hours are the limit, the job with the higher profit per crew hour fills the calendar better even if another job makes more by itself.
Is my data uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser, there are no accounts, and nothing is sent to a server. Use Save to download a scenario file.
Is this tax, insurance or business advice?
No. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. The set-aside is only a percentage you choose, and your insurance, permits, payroll and sales tax depend on where you operate. Check with an accountant or your insurer.