Job Profit Calculator
Are You Actually Making Money On That Job?
Calculate your real hourly earnings after materials, labour, subcontractors, travel, buying time and hidden costs — then see what you should be charging to reach your target hourly rate.
Enter Your Job Details
Include all the time and costs connected to the job, not just the hours spent working at the customer’s property.
If employees, labourers or helpers worked on the job, enter their wage details here. Leave the fields at zero if you worked alone.
Your Results
This shows what the job is really earning you once costs, labour and all your own time are taken into account.
What should you have charged?
Enter your figures to see the price required to reach your target hourly earnings.
How Profitable Is This Job?
Let's see how your job performs
Your score is based on how your true hourly earnings compare with the hourly target you entered in the calculator above.
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Create My First Quote →How to Calculate the Real Profit on a Trade Job
The amount you charge a customer is not the same as the amount you actually earn from a job.
Materials, labourers, subcontractors, fuel, travel and other direct expenses all reduce the money left over. Your own hidden time can make an equally large difference.
Time spent driving to the customer, collecting materials, preparing quotations or dealing with job administration is still part of the time your business has committed to that job.
The Job Profit Calculator above is designed to help tradespeople, handymen and small contractors get a clearer picture of what each job is really earning.
Start With the Customer Price
Enter the total amount you are charging the customer for the work. This is the starting point for calculating the job's profitability.
If you are still preparing the quotation, you can experiment with different selling prices to see how they affect your expected hourly earnings.
Include Every Direct Job Cost
Include materials, fuel, parking, disposal fees, equipment hire and any other expenses that only occur because you are carrying out that particular job.
Missing small costs can make a job appear more profitable than it really is.
Add Labour & Subcontractors
If employees or labourers are working with you, their wages form part of the cost of completing the job.
Payments to subcontractors such as plumbers, electricians, plasterers or other specialists should also be included when assessing the profitability of the job.
Count Your Hidden Hours
Don't only count the hours physically spent working at the customer's property.
Travel, buying materials, preparing the quote and other job-related administration all use time that could otherwise be spent earning money.
Example: A £600 Job May Not Really Be a £600 Job
Imagine you quote a customer £600. The job takes six hours on site, but there are also materials, travel and preparation time.
After £145 of direct costs, £455 remains. Across eight hours of your actual time, that works out at approximately £56.88 per hour before wider business overheads and taxes.
Should Employee Wages Be Included When Pricing a Job?
Yes. If an employee or labourer is being paid because they are working on a particular job, their wage is part of the cost of delivering that job.
For example, two labourers each working eight hours at £15 per hour creates a direct labour cost of £240.
Businesses may also have additional employment costs that are not represented by the worker's hourly wage. These can vary by country and employment arrangement, so the calculator allows you to add additional costs separately where appropriate.
Should You Charge for Travel Time?
You do not necessarily need to show travel as a separate charge on the customer's quotation, but you should understand how travel affects the profitability of the job.
A one-hour journey each way adds two hours to the amount of your working day committed to that customer.
If you only calculate your hourly earnings using the time spent physically working on site, your actual earnings may appear much higher than they really are.
Don't Forget the Time Spent Buying Materials
Collecting materials can easily add an hour or more to a job. Preparing quotes, arranging appointments and dealing with customer messages also use business time.
These hours may not appear on an invoice, but they still affect how much you really earn from the job.
Materials: Cost, Markup and Profit
A common mistake is to think that charging the customer exactly what you paid for materials means those materials have cost the business nothing.
Materials often involve additional work such as:
- Finding and comparing suitable products.
- Ordering or collecting the materials.
- Transporting them to the job.
- Handling returns or shortages.
- Carrying the risk of damaged or unused materials.
Some businesses therefore apply a markup to materials rather than simply passing them on at purchase cost.
What Is a Good Profit Margin for a Tradesman?
There is no single profit margin that is suitable for every trade business.
Required margins vary depending on the type of work, skill level, location, competition, demand, insurance, tools, vehicles, administration, warranty risk and other operating expenses.
For this reason, the calculator focuses on something immediately useful: how much money remains after the direct costs of the job, and what that represents for each hour of your own time.
Business Costs That Are Easy to Forget
A job can look profitable in isolation while the overall business still struggles to make enough money.
Your pricing may also need to contribute towards wider business costs such as:
- Van purchase, finance, servicing and repairs.
- Business insurance.
- Tools and equipment replacement.
- Mobile phone and software.
- Advertising and website costs.
- Accountancy and administration.
- Training and certification.
- Time spent quoting jobs you do not win.
- Holidays, sickness and other non-billable days.
These costs are one reason why the amount a self-employed tradesperson charges per hour cannot be compared directly with an employee's hourly wage.
Job Profit Calculator FAQs
Common questions about calculating job costs, hourly earnings and trade pricing.
What is job profit?
Job profit is the amount remaining from the customer price after the costs associated with completing that job have been deducted.
How do I calculate my true hourly earnings?
Start with the amount charged to the customer, subtract the direct job costs, then divide the amount remaining by the total number of hours you personally committed to the job.
That can include site time, travel, collecting materials and job-related administration.
Should I include my own wage as a job cost?
The calculator currently treats the amount remaining after direct costs as the money available to reward your own time. Your own hours are therefore used to calculate your true hourly earnings rather than being entered as an employee wage.
Should I include subcontractors?
Yes. If you need to pay another contractor in order to complete the job, that payment reduces the amount remaining from the customer's price and should normally be considered when assessing the job's profitability.
Does the calculator include VAT or sales tax?
Not automatically. Tax systems differ between countries and business structures. If a tax or other charge represents a direct cost relevant to your calculation, you can include it within the other job costs field.
Does the calculator calculate income tax?
No. Income tax and similar business taxes depend on factors beyond an individual job, including total income, allowable expenses, business structure and local tax rules.
Why is my hourly rate lower than I expected?
This commonly happens when travel, materials, labour, subcontractors or non-site working time are taken into account.
A job that appears to pay well based only on site hours can look very different once the full time and cost of completing it are included.
Can I use this calculator before sending a quote?
Yes. In fact, that is one of the most useful ways to use it. Enter your expected materials, labour, travel and time, then adjust the proposed customer price until the resulting hourly earnings are close to the target you want to achieve.