Free tool

Cost the job, then price it on purpose.

Add labour, materials, equipment, travel and subcontractor costs, set your overhead, contingency and target margin, and get a suggested quote — with the margin-vs-markup math shown, not hidden.

This page doesn't save anything. Everything below lives in memory only, for as long as this tab stays open — the browser can't keep your rates, materials or past jobs between visits, and can't turn this number into a quotation you can send and track. That's what "Download quotation" below and the Ochre app are for.

General arithmetic only, not pricing, accounting or tax advice. Confirm the correct tax treatment and any pricing rules for your business before you send a real quote.

Reviewed 2026-08-11

Setup

Project / quote reference (optional)

Client name (optional)

Market (sets currency & a tax preset)

Labour

Labour lines: role, hours, hourly rate and the resulting cost for each row
Role	Hours	Hourly rate	Cost	Actions

Materials

Materials lines: item, quantity, unit cost and the resulting cost for each row
Item	Qty	Unit cost	Cost	Actions

Equipment

Equipment lines: item, days, day rate and the resulting cost for each row
Item	Days	Day rate	Cost	Actions

Travel

Travel lines: description and amount for each row
Description	Amount	Actions

Add a mileage lineOchre maintains no official mileage rate — enter your own, the same honest rule as the dedicated mileage calculator.

Subcontractors

Subcontractor lines: name and amount for each row
Name	Amount	Actions

Overhead, contingency & margin

Overhead

Overhead percent

Contingency

Contingency percent

Desired margin % (of the sell price, not the cost)

Tax rate

Margin vs. markup — the single most common pricing mistake. Margin is profit as a fraction of the sell price; markup is profit as a fraction of your cost. A 50% markup on a $100 cost gives a $150 price — which is only a 33% margin, not 50%. This calculator asks for a target margin and solves for the price that actually achieves it, showing the equivalent markup alongside it below.

Results

Total internal cost (direct)

—

Overhead

—

Contingency

—

Cost base

—

Suggested quote (before tax)

—

Profit

—

Effective markup %

—

Tax

—

Total to invoice

—

Per-section breakdown

Section	Subtotal

Convert to a quotation

Downloads this cost breakdown — including overhead, contingency and your target margin as line items — as an Ochre document file. Open it with the estimate generator to turn it into something you can send. Tax is calculated fresh there, so it isn't double-counted.

Questions

What's the difference between margin and markup?

Margin is your profit as a fraction of the sell price; markup is your profit as a fraction of your cost. They are different numbers for the same job — a 50% markup on a $100 cost gives a $150 price, which is only a 33% margin, not 50%. Confusing the two is the single most common pricing mistake: aim for a margin and price using markup and you'll under-price every job. This calculator asks for a target margin and works out the price that actually achieves it.

How is the suggested quote calculated?

Price = Cost ÷ (1 − target margin). Cost here is your direct cost (labour, materials, equipment, travel, subcontractors) plus overhead and contingency. A target margin of 100% or more is rejected with an explanation rather than shown as an impossible or infinite price.

Does Ochre maintain an official mileage rate for the travel section?

No. Same as the dedicated mileage calculator: there is no live official rate baked into this page. You enter the rate you want to charge for travel, and the tool does the arithmetic from there.

Does this save my numbers anywhere?

No — this page keeps everything in memory only, for as long as the tab stays open. Nothing is uploaded, and nothing is written to local storage. Use "Download quotation" before you close the tab if you want to keep it, or open it later in the Ochre app for that.

More free tools

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What this page cannot do

A job costed once is a job costed again next month.

This adds up labour, materials, equipment, travel and subcontractors for one job, then forgets all of it — nothing here is saved between visits. Ochre has no project-tracking feature, but it does have a price book of products and services with their own rates, so the numbers you work out here do not need retyping every time you quote something similar.