Contractor Markup and Margin Calculator - Job Pricing Spreadsheet for Trades, Excel and Google Sheets, Instant Digital Download

★ Editable Excel & Google Sheets file, not a printable and not an app. No macros or add-ons to install. Instant digital download, works on Mac & Windows. Built by a commercial-finance professional; every formula is tested against a separate model, so the number holds up.

You added your usual markup, won the job, and still cannot say what margin it actually paid.

Your real cost per job, marked up to the margin you actually keep, not the markup that quietly leaves you short. One job at a time.

WHAT'S INSIDE
• Dashboard — Your price, margin and markup on one screen
• Start Here — Five steps from opening it to a priced job
• Job Price — Trades, hours and materials for one job
• Client Quote — The page you print and hand over. No costs on it.
• Rate Card — What each trade really costs you an hour
• Settings — Overhead and target margin
• Instructions — How it works, and what to do if a number looks off
• About — Version, license and support
• Data — Where the sums happen. Hidden and locked.

PERFECT FOR
• Contractors who mark up cost and hope it holds
• Trades pricing one job at a time without a whole system
• Anyone who has confused markup with margin and lost the difference
• Builders moving from gut-feel pricing to a costed price

HOW IT WORKS
1. Open Rate Card. Enter your all-in hourly cost for each trade, wage plus burden, not the rate you bill.
2. Open Settings. Set your overhead percentage and the profit margin you want every job to earn.
3. Open Job Price. Name the job and enter the scope size.
4. Add trades and hours. Rates pull from the card automatically.
5. Add materials and any equipment for the job.
6. Read the right-hand block: the price and your effective margin are there, and the Dashboard shows markup beside margin.

GOOD TO KNOW
Q: Does this work in Excel and Google Sheets?
A: Both. Google Sheets: File > Import, or open and make a copy. Excel 365: open it directly. No macros, no add-ons, nothing to install.

Q: What is the difference between margin and markup?
A: Markup is a percentage of cost; margin is a percentage of price. A 20% markup on $10,000 gives $12,000 and a 16.7% margin. This workbook solves for margin, so 20% means you keep 20%.

Q: How is this different from the Multi-Trade Bid Estimator?
A: Same engine, smaller and cheaper. This one prices one job with a short rate card. The full Multi-Trade Bid Estimator adds a bigger card, service tiers and add-on uplifts for detailed estimating.

Q: What should go in the rate card?
A: Your all-in hourly cost: wage plus payroll taxes, insurance, workers' compensation and any benefits. Not the rate you bill the client.

Buy it once. It's yours to keep and edit.