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Job profit calculator: did you actually make money on that job?

Put in what you charged and what the job cost you: materials, labor hours at your rate, subs, and the small stuff. Get the straight answer in dollars and margin, plus what you should have charged to hit your target. It all runs in your browser; nothing you type leaves this page.

The contract price the customer pays, extras included.
The share of the price you want to keep.
What the job cost you
Lumber, fixtures, fasteners: the receipts pile.
What you paid subcontractors on this job.
Everyone's hours on this job, yours included.
A real loaded rate per hour, not minimum wage.
Permits, dump runs, fuel, blades, rentals.

The mathHow to tell if a job made money

Job profit is what you charged minus what the job cost you, all in. The costs that count are the ones that walked out the door because of this job: materials off the receipts, every labor hour at a real rate (your own hours included), what you paid subs, and the small stuff that never makes it into the guess: permits, dump runs, fuel, blades.

The whole calculator is three lines:

Total cost = materials + (labor hours x rate) + subs + other
Profit     = price charged - total cost
Margin     = profit / price charged x 100

Worked example: the deck job

You charged $18,500 for a deck. Materials came to $6,200, the crew put in 120 hours at $55, so labor is $6,600, the electrician cost $1,800, and permits plus dump runs added $400. Total cost: $15,000. Profit: 18,500 - 15,000 = $3,500, an 18.9% margin. Whether that is good depends on your target: to keep 20 cents of every dollar, the same job needed a price of 15,000 / 0.80 = $18,750.

Margin is not markup

Markup divides by cost; margin divides by price. Adding 20% on top of a $15,000 cost gives an $18,000 price but only a 16.7% margin. If your target is a margin, price by dividing: cost / (1 - margin). The calculator above shows the price your target margin actually needed, so the next quote starts from the right number instead of the optimistic one.

Put it to work per job: the free construction job costing template runs this breakdown as a spreadsheet, and the change order log catches the extras before they eat the margin.

This is one job, once. The template does every job, live.

The number above goes stale the next time a receipt lands. The free construction job costing template runs the same math as a spreadsheet, per job, with a row per cost and totals that compute themselves. And in Wisegrid it stays literally just like Excel to use: type =[Qty]@row * [Unit Cost]@row once and every line prices itself as the receipts come in, on a sheet the whole crew can see from their phones.

Get the job costing templateStart free
Frequently asked
How do I figure out if I made money on a job?
Add up everything the job cost you: materials off the receipts, your labor at a real hourly rate (including your own hours), what you paid subs, and the small stuff like dump runs, permits, and fuel. Subtract that total from what the customer paid you. Positive means the job made money; the margin tells you whether it made enough. Most small crews who feel busy but broke are profitable on paper only because they never priced their own hours.
How do I calculate profit margin on a construction job?
Margin is profit divided by the price, times 100. If you charged $18,500 and the job cost $15,000, profit is $3,500 and the margin is 3,500 / 18,500 = 18.9%. Margin is the share of every customer dollar you keep. It is not the same thing as markup, which divides by cost instead of price; the same deck job is an 18.9% margin but a 23.3% markup, and quoting one number while meaning the other is a quiet way to underprice every job.
What is the difference between margin and markup?
Markup is what you add on top of cost when you price the work: cost times 1.25 is a 25% markup. Margin is the share of the final price that is profit: that same job is only a 20% margin. The two drift apart fast as the numbers grow, so decide which one your target is and price with the right formula. To hit a chosen margin, divide cost by (1 minus the margin): a $15,000 job priced for a 20% margin is 15,000 / 0.80 = $18,750, not 15,000 x 1.20 = $18,000.
Should I count my own hours as a job cost?
Yes, at a rate you would pay someone else to swing the hammer. If you spent 60 hours on the job and your labor is worth $50 an hour, that is $3,000 of real cost, whether or not you wrote yourself a check. A job that only turns a profit when the owner works free is a losing job with good marketing. Pricing your own time also tells you which kinds of work are worth taking when the calendar gets tight.
What costs do people forget when they price a job?
The usual leaks: their own hours, the helper's drive time, waste on materials (ordering 10 sheets and using 9 still costs 10), dump fees, permits, fuel, blades and consumables, callbacks, and the unpaid "while you're here" extras that never made it onto a change order. The other cost is what the job did NOT let you do: three extra days on a mispriced job is three days you could not start the next one. Log the extras and the hours while they happen and the number at the end stops being a surprise.
Is this calculator free, and where do my numbers go?
Free, no sign-up, no email gate. Every calculation runs on this page in your browser; prices, costs, and rates are never sent to a server. The "Copy link" button packs your inputs into the link itself so you can reopen the same numbers or send them to a partner. When you want the same math running live on every job, the free job costing template below does it in a spreadsheet, and Wisegrid keeps it computing as the receipts come in.

Know the number on every job.

Wisegrid is the familiar spreadsheet with a job brain underneath: budgets that total themselves, a change order log the homeowner can see, and a schedule that reshuffles when a sub slips. One plan, $19 per editor per month. 7 days free, no credit card required.

Start free trialJob costing template →

More for the money side of the job: Change order log · Draw schedule