Mobile Detailing Calculator | Auto Detailing Estimate Template | Car Detail Job Profit Pricing Spreadsheet | Excel + Google Sheets

Your price was right. The drive was not.

A detail forty minutes away can pay you less per hour than a wash on your own street, and nothing on the invoice tells you that. The car was the same. The price was the same. You just spent an extra hour of your life on the motorway and nobody paid for it.

This workbook prices one vehicle at a time and charges every cost against the hours you were actually away from home.

Built for mobile detailers running one van.


THE DRIVE TRAP

A crossover, average condition, complete inside and out, plus pet hair removal. Five hours fifty on site. You quote 515 dollars.

Five minutes away, that is a 35.2 percent margin and 29.83 dollars for every hour door to door.

Twenty-five minutes away, the same 515 dollars is a 28.3 percent margin and 22.16 dollars an hour. You lost a quarter of your hourly earnings and no line on the quote moved.

Priced properly for the distance, the job is 570 dollars and you are back to 30.52 an hour.


WHAT IT DOES

- Prices one vehicle from its size, its condition and the service booked
- Scales the hours automatically - a three-row SUV full of pet hair is not a clean sedan
- Six add-ons with their own hours and chemical cost, switched on and off per job
- Separates on-site hours from door-to-door hours and prices against the second
- Works out labour, van, equipment, chemicals, mileage and overhead for the job
- Gives you break-even, minimum and target price, then a recommended quote
- Tests the price you actually plan to charge and tells you if it is too thin
- Reports profit per door-to-door hour, the figure that ranks jobs honestly
- Fills a customer-ready quote with deposit and terms
- Logs 40 jobs so you can see which work is worth keeping


WHAT'S INSIDE (6 tabs)

1. START HERE - plain English setup. No spreadsheet skills needed.
2. MY RATES - labour, van, equipment, overhead. Set once.
3. VEHICLE AND CONDITION - size and condition multipliers, five services, six add-ons.
4. JOB QUOTE - one vehicle in, real cost and honest price out.
5. CLIENT QUOTE - a clean quote to send, with deposit and terms.
6. JOB LOG - 40 jobs ranked by profit per door-to-door hour.


THE PART THAT SURPRISES PEOPLE

Most detailers price by the job and check the total at the end of the month. By then the good jobs and the bad ones have been averaged together and you cannot tell them apart.

Sort the job log by the last column and they separate instantly. The work at the bottom is not the cheap work. It is usually the work that was furthest away.


ALSO WORTH KNOWING

Your own hours are priced in here at a real wage, even though you are the owner. Owner time that costs nothing is how a busy year ends with no money in it.


TRY IT FIRST

A free one-screen version is at jobcostlabs.com/mobile-detailing-pricing-calculator - pick the service, size, condition and add-ons and see your cost, a quote and profit per door-to-door hour. This workbook is the full version: a rates tab that builds your true cost per hour from wage, burden, van, equipment and overhead, editable service and condition tables, minimum and target margins, a printable client quote and a job log.


WHAT YOU RECEIVE

- One .XLSX workbook (Microsoft Excel 2016 or newer, Windows or Mac)
- A link to copy the same workbook into your own Google Sheets
- A PDF setup guide

Instant download. Nothing is shipped. Yours to keep - no subscription, no login, no monthly fee.


IMPORTANT

- Every rate in the file is a placeholder. Two matter more than the rest: your real cost per mile, and your real hours. Time one full detail door to door, phone call to packed van, and put that number in first.
- This is a digital download, so it cannot be returned once purchased. If something does not work, message me and I will fix it.
- This tool does not provide legal, tax, insurance or accounting advice.
- For your own business use. Please do not resell or redistribute the file.