Job Cost Calculator
Total job cost from materials, labor hours, burden, equipment, and subs.
Wage + burden. See labor burden calc.
As % of direct cost
- Labor cost
- $2,200.00
- Direct cost
- $4,950.00
- Overhead allocation
- $742.50
- Total job cost
- $5,692.50
Materials + labor + equip + subs
Before markup and profit
The five cost buckets on every job
Every contractor job breaks down into five cost categories: materials, labor, equipment, subcontractors, and overhead allocation. Miss any bucket and the estimate is wrong before markup is even applied. Miss overhead and you make gross profit but lose money at year end.
Materials: everything that stays on the job when you leave. Concrete, lumber, fixtures, hardware, permits, dumpster. Include tax and delivery. Always include waste allowance appropriate to the material (5 to 15 percent depending on trade).
Labor: crew hours times loaded rate. Loaded rate is wage plus payroll taxes, workers comp, health insurance, PTO accrual, and any other cost you pay per hour of labor. See the labor burden calculator for the multiplier from base wage to loaded rate.
Overhead is the number that sinks small contractors
Overhead is the cost of being in business regardless of any single job. Truck payments, insurance, phone, software, office rent, admin salary, marketing, licenses. Add it up annually and divide by expected annual revenue (or direct cost) to get the overhead percentage.
A one-truck contractor with $50,000 annual overhead doing $500,000 annual revenue carries 10 percent overhead on every job. Same contractor doing $250,000 revenue carries 20 percent overhead. This is why undersized businesses feel like they can never get ahead: their overhead ratio is crushing their profit.
Common overhead allocation methods: as a percent of direct cost (used here), as a percent of labor cost only (works if labor scales with job size), or as a dollar amount per estimator-hour (works for design-build shops). Pick one, apply it consistently, and update annually.
Cost vs price is not the same thing
This calculator gives you total job cost, not price. Cost is what you spend to deliver the work. Price is what the customer pays. Price equals cost plus markup, and markup is a business decision separate from cost.
Contractors who confuse cost and price take a $10,000 cost job, add 10 percent, quote $11,000, and wonder why they cannot pay bills at year end. The correct math is cost times markup multiplier equals price. See the contractor markup calculator for how to get from cost to a price that produces the profit margin you actually want.
Common estimation mistakes
Underestimating labor hours. Small contractors are optimistic on how fast their crew works. Track actual hours by task for 20 jobs and you will find your bids run 10 to 30 percent short on labor.
Skipping equipment. If you own a $60,000 mini-excavator, every hour on a job needs to include a cost recovery number ($30 to $60 per hour is typical). Skipping this recovery bankrupts the equipment side of the business over time.
Forgetting mobilization and demobilization time. Every job has 2 to 6 hours of setup and cleanup that does not directly build the product. Include it in labor.
Ignoring warranty and callback allowance. Every job has some probability of callback. Add 1 to 3 percent of direct cost as callback reserve.
For any contractor selling estimated work
Accurate cost math is the difference between a business that grows and one that stalls. Peak Local Leads builds and ranks local trade sites for one contractor per Texas market. Free week of calls, flat monthly after.
Frequently asked.
- How do contractors calculate job costs?
- Sum materials, labor at loaded rate, equipment, subcontractor cost, then add overhead allocation (typically 10 to 25 percent of direct cost). That gives total cost before markup.
- What is a loaded labor rate?
- The wage rate plus all per-hour costs of employment: payroll taxes, workers comp, health insurance, PTO. Typically 1.3 to 1.6 times base wage.
- How much overhead should I charge per job?
- Divide annual fixed overhead by expected annual direct cost (or revenue) to get your rate. Most residential contractors run 10 to 25 percent overhead depending on business size.
- Should I include profit in job cost?
- No. Cost is what you spend. Profit is what you add on top. Keep them separate so you know your break-even and can adjust markup by market conditions.
Make the phone the busiest tool on the truck.
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