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Pricing methodology

Handyman Pricing calculates a planning estimate from numbers you provide. It does not currently use market averages, ZIP-based rates, or customer acceptance data.

1. Compensated time

Labor time and round-trip travel time are added together. That time is multiplied by your desired hourly compensation and the number of workers.

2. Direct economic costs

Raw materials, allocated overhead, job expenses, and optional vehicle costs are added to planned labor compensation. Monthly overhead is divided by expected monthly billable hours, then allocated across job and travel time.

3. Separate pricing adjustments

Material markup adds an exact dollar adjustment: $100 of materials with 20% markup adds $20. Difficulty applies only to planned compensation, overhead, vehicle cost, and job expenses, so it does not increase materials or their markup.

4. Contingency and margin

The contingency/risk reserve applies to direct costs plus difficulty, excluding material markup. The minimum target price equals all planned allocations divided by one minus the target margin. A 20% margin is not the same as adding a 20% markup.

5. Quote allocation

The results separate compensation, materials, overhead, expenses, adjustments, risk reserve, and target-margin surplus. This is a pricing plan rather than an accounting profit statement; unused reserves or adjustments may become surplus after the job, while overruns may consume them.

6. Quote rounding

Suggested quotes are rounded up to a practical increment: $5 below $100, $10 from $100 through $500, and $25 above $500. Rounding may make the resulting margin slightly higher than the selected target.

Current limitation

Local market benchmarks are being developed. ZIP code is stored only in your browser and does not change the recommended price.