Job Cost and Profit Calculator for Contractors

Add up materials, labor, subs and equipment, then see gross profit and margin on a contract price — or the price that hits your target margin.

Materials

Labor

Subcontractors

Equipment

Other

Overhead, as % of your revenue

Don't know it? The overhead & break-even calculator gives you this number.

How to price

I have a contract price I want a target margin

Contract price

Target gross margin

Gross profit

$12,000

Gross margin

23.1%

Net after overhead

$5,760

Net margin

11.1%

The job

Total job cost $40,000

Price $52,000

Equivalent markup 30.0%

Overhead share $6,240

Obra tracks every recorded cost against the contract on each project, so the margin you see is the one you actually achieved — not the one on the estimate.

Start free

How it works

Job cost is everything the job itself makes you spend: materials, labor with its burden, subcontractors, equipment, and the odd line that fits nowhere else. Permits, dump fees, and the rental you forgot all belong here. What the client pays minus that cost is your gross profit.

gross profit = price − job cost · gross margin = gross profit ÷ price

Pricing for a margin

price = job cost ÷ (1 − target margin)

If you know the margin you need, divide the cost by one minus that margin. $40,000 of cost at a 25% margin is $40,000 ÷ 0.75, or $53,333. Multiplying by 1.25 gives $50,000 — a 25% markup, which is only a 20% margin, and the missing $3,333 comes straight out of your pocket.

Gross versus net

Gross profit is what the job leaves before it pays for the business. Net is what is left after the job carries its share of overhead — the truck, the insurance, the office, your own salary. A job with a healthy gross profit can still lose money once overhead is charged to it.

Overhead is applied here as a percentage of revenue because that is how it is usually recovered: every dollar you bill has to carry a slice of the year's overhead. Divide your annual overhead by your annual revenue and that is the rate — the overhead & break-even calculator works it out.

Questions

01 How do I calculate profit on a construction job? +

Add up every direct cost — materials, labor with burden, subs, equipment, and the rest — and subtract it from the contract price. That is gross profit. Then subtract the job's share of overhead to get net profit, the number that actually stays in the business.

02 What is a good profit margin for a contractor? +

There is no single right number. Your gross margin has to cover your overhead rate plus the net profit you want, so a business with 20% overhead that wants 10% net needs a 30% gross margin on every job. Work out your own overhead rate first.

03 What is the difference between markup and margin on a job? +

Markup is profit as a share of cost; margin is profit as a share of price. A $12,000 profit on a $40,000 cost is a 30% markup but only a 23.1% margin of the $52,000 price. Switch the mode above to price by margin instead of by contract price.

04 Should overhead be included in job cost? +

Keep it separate. Job cost is what the job itself spends; overhead is what the business spends regardless. Charging each job a share of overhead as a percentage of its price tells you the net, without muddying the direct costs you compare estimates against.

Free download

Not ready for an app? Start with our free Excel template.

A ready-made spreadsheet to track costs and income per project — with categories and the totals already set up.