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HeizerDesk Job Cost Calculator
Most jobs that lose money look profitable on the estimate, because the estimate counted wages and materials and nothing else. Put your real numbers in and this shows the true cost, the price that hits your target margin, and what you actually keep. Use it as a free Job Cost Calculator on site — the working is shown underneath, not hidden.
Your numbers
Result
Price to quote
$7,196
- True cost of the job
- $5,757
- Profit you keep
- $1,439
- Labour incl. burden
- $1,456
- Wages aloneWhat the estimate usually counts
- $1,120
- Overhead absorbed
- $751
- Direct costs
- $5,006
- Effective rate
- $180/hr
How this is calculated
- True labour = hours × wage × (1 + burden %).
- Direct costs = true labour + materials + subs + other.
- Overhead absorbed = direct costs × overhead rate.
- Total cost = direct costs + overhead.
- Price = total cost ÷ (1 − target margin). This is MARGIN, not markup — dividing is the step most people get wrong.
- Profit = price − total cost.
Before you order
- Margin and markup are not the same thing and the difference is where the money goes. A 20% markup on cost leaves a 16.7% margin. To keep 20%, you divide by 0.80 — a 25% markup.
- Labour burden is the line most estimates omit entirely. At 30%, a $28 wage actually costs you $36.40 an hour before overhead.
- Overhead rate is your own number: last year's total overhead divided by last year's revenue. Guessing it low is how a busy year ends with no money in the account.