How to Price Trades Jobs Accurately (Without Leaving Money on the Table)

Most trades businesses lose money not because they're slow, but because they price wrong. After analyzing thousands of jobs across landscaping, painting, HVAC, roofing, and pest control, one pattern is clear: the crews that survive past year three know their true cost-per-hour. The rest are guessing.

This guide walks through the exact pricing formula we recommend to every Crewistry customer — the same one used by 7-figure trades operators.

1. Calculate your true labor burden

Your tech costs more than their hourly wage. Add payroll taxes (7.65%), workers' comp (varies by trade — 4–18%), benefits, paid time off, and downtime between jobs. A $25/hr tech often costs you $38–$45/hr fully burdened.

• Base wage × 1.30 = approximate burdened rate for most trades
• Add 12–18% for non-billable time (travel, breaks, callbacks)
• Add tool / vehicle allocation per hour ($3–$8 typical)

2. Mark up materials honestly

Material markup isn't greed — it's covering shrink, returns, pickup time, financing the purchase, and warranty risk. Industry-standard markups range from 25% (commodity materials) to 100%+ (specialty items you stock and warranty).

3. Recover overhead in every quote

Your office rent, software, insurance, fuel, and admin salary need to be paid by billable hours. Divide annual overhead by expected billable hours to get your overhead-per-hour rate. Add this to every estimate.

The 3 mistakes that kill margin

• Quoting from memory instead of a templated price book
• Not tracking actual vs estimated hours per job
• Discounting on the spot instead of offering trade-down options

How Crewistry helps

Crewistry's estimator builds in your burdened labor rate, material markups, and overhead recovery automatically. Every quote shows you target margin before you send it. Track actual job costs against estimates with the Profitability report so you can refine your price book every quarter.