Jobs, revenue, overdue invoices and timesheets, answered from your live data.
Markup and Margin Calculator
Work out what to charge from your cost and see the margin you actually keep. There is also a job pricing calculator for labour and parts.
Markup and margin calculator
Enter your cost, then any one of the other three.
Price a job from labour and materials
Adds up your costs, then applies the margin you want to keep.
Loaded labour cost is the wage plus payroll taxes, workers' comp and benefits, not the wage alone.
Doing this every week?
See the real margin after the job, not just at estimate time
The price you set is only half of it. Clevra adds up the labour hours, parts and expenses on each job and shows what you actually made.
- Profit and margin on every job from line items, labour and expenses
- Timesheets with a timer that feed labour cost
- Price book items on every estimate
- Reports on revenue, expenses and team productivity (Pro)
Job costing is on every plan. Who sees costs is set by role.
The math
Markup and margin, worked out
Both numbers start from the same profit. They just divide it by something different.
The formulas
Price = cost × (1 + markup)Markup = (price - cost) / costMargin = (price - cost) / pricePrice = cost / (1 - margin)when you start from the margin you want
Example
A water heater costs you $400 with fittings. Add a 50% markup and you charge $600. Your profit is $200, which is 50% of the cost but only 33.3% of the price. If you wanted 50% of every dollar the client pays, you needed to charge $800.
Markup to margin table
| Markup | Margin | Price on a $400 cost |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | 9.1% | $440.00 |
| 15% | 13% | $460.00 |
| 20% | 16.7% | $480.00 |
| 25% | 20% | $500.00 |
| 30% | 23.1% | $520.00 |
| 35% | 25.9% | $540.00 |
| 40% | 28.6% | $560.00 |
| 50% | 33.3% | $600.00 |
| 60% | 37.5% | $640.00 |
| 75% | 42.9% | $700.00 |
| 100% | 50% | $800.00 |
| 150% | 60% | $1,000.00 |
Loaded labour cost
The hourly figure in the job calculator should be what an hour of a tech really costs you: wage, payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits and paid time off. A $32 wage often lands somewhere near $45 once those are added. Use your own payroll numbers.
Markup and margin FAQ
What is the difference between markup and margin?
Markup is profit as a share of your cost. Margin is profit as a share of the price. A part that costs $100 and sells for $150 has a 50% markup and a 33.3% margin. Same dollars, different base.
How do I convert markup to margin?
Margin = markup divided by (1 + markup). A 25% markup is 0.25 / 1.25 = 20% margin. Going the other way, markup = margin divided by (1 - margin).
What markup do I need for a 50% margin?
100%. You have to double your cost. Adding 50% to your cost only gives you a 33.3% margin, which is a common pricing mistake in the trades.
What margin should a contractor aim for?
It depends on your overhead. Add up a year of truck, insurance, office, software and your own salary, then divide by the jobs you expect. The margin has to cover that before any of it is profit.
Should labour and materials get the same markup?
Not always. Many contractors put a smaller markup on big-ticket equipment and a larger one on small parts and labour. The job pricing calculator applies one margin to everything, so run lines separately if you price them differently.
More free tools
No signup on any of them. See all free tools.
All-in-one operations platform for trades.
You run a crew, not a tech company. Clevra handles the office stuff so you can stay on the tools.