Construction & trade job costing
Trade & Contractor Quoting and Job Cost Estimator
Calculate exact labor burden, material scrap factors, equipment rentals, overhead markups, and target profit margins. Generate professional, client-ready PDF proposals with payment milestone schedules.
Every figure is calculated in your browser. No job costs, client details or margins are transmitted or stored.
1. Contractor, Client & Project Scope
2A. Trade Labor & Labor Burden
Subtotal: $12,369.28 (Direct: $9824.00 + Burden: $2545.28)
| Role / Trade | Hours | Hourly Wage | Burden % (Taxes/Ins) | Line Total | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $4751.36 | |||||
| $5080.32 | |||||
| $2537.60 |
2B. Materials & Waste / Scrap Factor
Subtotal: $18,742.98 (Base: $17750.00 + Scrap: $992.98)
| Description | Qty | Unit | Unit Cost | Waste % | Line Total | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $8450.00 | ||||||
| $6177.60 | ||||||
| $1046.50 | ||||||
| $2042.88 | ||||||
| $1026.00 |
2C. Equipment & Rentals
Subtotal: $1,560.00
2D. Subcontractors & Permits
Subtotal: $7,350.00
3. Overhead & Profit Margins
Covers office rent, insurance, estimator salaries, advertising, and fleet vehicles.
Net profit retained after all project expenses and company overhead allocations.
4. Progress Payment Milestones
The Fundamentals of Accurate Trade Job Costing
The vast majority of subcontractor and general contractor failures stem not from a shortage of work, but from underbidding caused by phantom labor costs and margin confusion.
When you pay a journeyman carpenter $40/hour, their actual cost to your business is significantly higher:
Always ensure that company overhead (fixed monthly operational costs) is factored into your bids before applying your target profit margin.
How to use this tool
Enter your company and the client
Business name, licence number, contact details, client name and site address. These head the PDF proposal.
Build the labour lines
Add each trade role with hours, hourly wage and burden percentage for payroll taxes and insurance. Burden is what turns a wage into a cost.
Add materials, equipment and subcontractors
Materials take a waste or scrap percentage per line. Equipment rentals, subcontractors and permits are separate subtotals.
Set overhead and profit
Choose margin on selling price or markup on cost — they are not the same. A 20% margin means dividing cost by 0.80, while a 20% markup yields only 16.6%.
Download the quote
Review the payment milestone schedule, then download the client-ready PDF proposal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I use Markup on Cost or Margin on Selling Price?
Professional estimators prefer Margin on Selling Price because company financial statements (P&L) measure gross and net margins as a percentage of total revenue. If your project costs $10,000 and you want a true 20% margin, you must price the job at $10,000 / (1 - 0.20) = $12,500. If you simply apply a 20% markup, you will charge $12,000, which yields only a 16.6% margin, leaving you short on profit.
Why are payment milestones critical for contractors?
Financing a construction project out-of-pocket exposes your business to extreme cash flow risk. Milestones ensure you are never operating upside down. Requiring a 30% deposit upon contract signing covers major material procurement and mobilization before your crew sets foot on site.
Are my labor rates and contractor markups confidential?
Yes, 100%. All computations, hourly wage burdens, scrap factors, and PDF quote renderings execute strictly inside your local browser memory using client-side JavaScript. Zero bids, client names, or proprietary labor rates are ever transmitted to any remote server.
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