Enter what you quoted, actual hours spent, real material cost, and your overhead — get the true net profit on any job. Run this after every job for a month and you'll know exactly where your estimating is leaking.
Free spreadsheet: log each job's quoted price, actual hours, and real cost — see your monthly average profit margin, your worst estimating leaks, and your best job types. Runs in Google Sheets or Excel.
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You deposit the check and move to the next job. That feels like profit. But without tracking actual hours against actual costs, you have no idea whether you made 40% or lost money — and you can't improve what you don't measure. This calculator forces the post-job accounting most tradespeople skip.
A job that feels smooth — good customer, no surprises, clean site — is not the same as a profitable job. Many tradespeople consistently underprice their best customers because smooth jobs feel fast, and they forget to track actual time. Run this on 10 jobs and you'll find two or three categories that consistently underperform.
Your labor cost and your labor rate are different numbers. Your cost is what it actually costs you per hour — your wage, plus any helpers. Your rate is what you charge. This calculator uses cost, not rate, to measure profitability. If you're a solo operator paying yourself $50/hr, your labor cost is $50, even if you charge $100. The difference is your margin.
For service trades (plumbing, electrical, HVAC), a gross margin of 40–55% on labor is typical for a healthy operation. Below 30% and your business is working hard for thin results. Above 60% consistently means you may be leaving money on the table or underreporting your overhead. Most tradespeople who track this discover their average is 20–25% — half of where it should be.
Overhead per hour is not just "truck payment divided by hours." It includes insurance ($3,000–12,000/year), tools and equipment replacement, phone and software, licensing and continuing education, and your own unpaid administrative time. Use the Overhead Per Hour calculator to get an accurate number — most tradespeople discover their real overhead is $20–40/hr, not $10.
Job profitability tracker, overhead calculation worksheet, flat rate pricing template, and the business systems to price every job correctly before you take it — not discover you lost money after you finish it.
This calculator tells you whether a completed job actually made money — not just whether the invoice got paid. Enter your quoted price, actual labor hours at burden rate, real material costs, and subcontractor spend, and you'll see your actual profit and margin on that job. Run it after every job and patterns will emerge: where you're undercharging, where your estimates are off, and which job types actually make you money.