Service Call Price Calculator

How the math works

The calculator builds a price bottom-up:

1. Labor cost = fully-loaded wage × hours on job. Loaded means wage + payroll tax + workers' comp + benefits — typically 1.2× to 1.4× the bare hourly wage.
2. Overhead allocation = overhead per hour × hours on job. This is your truck, fuel, insurance, software, office time — divided across billable hours.
3. Parts with markup = parts cost × (1 + markup %). Typical contractor markups on parts run 30-100% depending on trade and item.
4. Total cost basis = labor + overhead + parts-with-markup.
5. Customer quote = total cost basis ÷ (1 − target margin). Reverse-engineering the price that hits your margin target.

Common mistakes that under-price service calls

• Using bare hourly wage as labor cost. A tech making $30/hour costs you $36-$42/hour all-in. Charging based on $30 means you're losing on every hour.
• Forgetting travel time. The 30-minute drive each way is part of "time on job" — it's hours your tech can't spend on another call.
• Ignoring overhead. The truck, the insurance, the software, and the office aren't free. If you don't allocate them per hour, the year-end P&L will surprise you.
• Discounting from gross. A "10% off" discount on a 20%-margin job leaves you at 11%. Two of those a week and you're working for free.

Want quotes that build themselves?

CrewConductor uses your saved labor rates, parts pricing, and overhead defaults to suggest a price as you build the estimate. Start a free 14-day trial.