Estimate a project price from complete job costs and your selected target margin
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Example values are prefilled for demonstration. Replace every field with your own job costs and target margin.
Gross wages for employees, helpers, and working owners on this job
Employer payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, and paid non-billable time
All materials, supplies, and equipment rental
Permits, rentals, subcontractors, disposal, travel, and job-specific fees
Your allocation for insurance, tools, vehicles, facilities, software, and other overhead
Use your own history for warranty work, rework, scope risk, and price changes
Your selected job margin target; this is not the same as markup
Transparent methodology
The calculator estimates a job price from the costs and target margin you enter. It does not estimate company-wide net profit and does not determine what your market will accept.
Labor burden, overhead, and the reserve are applied using the percentages you enter. Your accounting method may allocate overhead using revenue, labor hours, or annual billable capacity instead. Avoid counting a cost in more than one input. Add every cost that matters to your business, including taxes, payment fees, discounts, permits, financing costs, and job-specific risk when applicable. Example inputs are illustrative—not industry averages or pricing advice.
Methodology materially reviewed August 2026 by Blake McAmis, Pocket Boss owner and product builder. General informational tool only; not accounting, tax, legal, engineering, or financial advice.
Separate the margin on a job from company-wide net profit. NAHB reports that residential remodelers averaged a 29.9% gross margin and a 6.3% net margin in 2024. Those figures describe that group, not a target for every trade. This calculator applies your chosen margin after the direct costs, overhead, and reserve you enter; it does not calculate your company net margin.
Source: NAHB's residential remodeling study summary, April 10, 2026. The study covers 2024 results; source checked August 27, 2026. Gross and net margins use different cost definitions, so compare like with like.
First add the overhead allocation to your complete direct job costs. Then divide that total by one minus your target margin. For example, $8,000 in direct costs plus 15% overhead is $9,200. With no additional reserve and a 20% target margin, the price is $11,500 and the amount left after those costs is $2,300.
Overhead and profit example
These are illustrative inputs, not recommended rates. Adding 15% overhead and a 20% markup directly to $8,000 would instead produce $10,800. After $9,200 in costs, the $1,600 left is only a 14.8% margin. An overhead percentage and a profit margin have different bases.
"10 and 10" describes added percentages, not a 20% profit margin. If both 10% amounts use the same $10,000 estimate base, the total is $12,000. If the second 10% applies after adding the first, the total is $12,100. Xactimate supports both methods through its cumulative overhead and profit setting. The added $2,000 or $2,100 covers overhead and profit together; it is not all profit. This calculator separately allocates overhead costs before applying your chosen job margin. Check the estimate's calculation base and settings before comparing totals. These examples explain the arithmetic, not what an insurer owes on a claim.
Source on the calculation settings: Xactware's overhead and profit parameter documentation. Checked September 11, 2026.
Labor burden is everything you pay for an hour of work beyond the wage: payroll taxes, workers' comp, health and retirement contributions, paid leave, training and the paid hours that are not billable. As a reference point, the Bureau of Labor Statistics measured private-industry employer benefit costs at $14.07 per hour worked on top of $32.82 in wages in June 2026, 30.0% of total compensation, or about 43 cents per wage dollar (BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026). Your rate depends heavily on your workers' comp class, so take it from your own payroll records and enter it in the labor burden field.
Markup is the percentage added to your costs to determine price.Margin is the percentage of the selling price that is profit. A 25% markup equals a 20% margin. Use our markup vs margin calculator to see the exact conversion, or try the contractor estimating software to build consistent quotes from your own cost inputs.
ThePocketBoss tracks your actual project costs, compares them to estimates, and helps you identify where estimates and actuals differ. Use the job cost calculator to estimate individual projects, then calculate the contractor hourly rate and break-even point implied by your own cost records.
Match the tools to your plan
Customers can add a drawn signature when approving an estimate in the portal. Standard estimates and the customer portal are available on Solo and above.
On Essentials and above, connect QuickBooks Online to sync invoices and their payments. Enable automatic sync or run a manual sync, then review the sync status.
Choose review requests after paid invoices or completed appointments. Delivery follows your enabled triggers, channels, contact details, and cooldown settings.
Enable email reminders for eligible overdue invoices and unanswered estimates. The reminders use the document status and your follow-up settings.
Attach a checklist to an appointment, record completed items, and send its report by email. Available on Solo and above; sending the report is a separate action.
Manage employees, dispatch, and crew time on Essentials and above. Solo includes the separate job timer for one-person work.
Text messaging requires Essentials or above and follows plan allowances and usage charges. Compare current plan inclusions.
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