What to charge for: a handyman's guide to pricing materials and labor
Underpricing a job usually comes down to one of two things: forgetting to charge for materials, or guessing at labor instead of pricing it properly. Here's how to get both right.
Separate materials and labor before you total anything
The most common pricing mistake is bundling materials and labor into one gut-feel number. Once they're combined, it's hard to tell later whether a job was actually profitable, or whether the labor quietly ate the margin. Pricing each line item as materials plus labor, rather than one lump sum, makes it obvious where the money in a job is actually going.
Pricing materials: cost plus markup, every time
Materials should be billed at what you paid plus a markup — not just passed through at cost. Even a modest markup covers the time spent sourcing and picking up materials, and the risk of price changes between quoting and buying. Skipping the markup on "just the materials" is a quiet way to work for free on part of every job.
Don't forget the small stuff
Fasteners, caulk, tape, disposal fees — the small items that don't feel worth tracking are exactly the ones that get forgotten, and they add up across a job. If a line item in a quote doesn't have a price attached yet, that's a signal to account for it before the job moves forward, not after.
Pricing labor: hours times your rate, not a feeling
Labor should be your hours on the job multiplied by your set hourly rate — not a number that feels roughly right for the size of the job. A rate you've actually set, applied consistently, protects you from the tendency to shave time off a quote because a job "shouldn't take that long," even when it does.
Letting the numbers follow you from quote to invoice
None of this works if materials and labor get re-estimated every time you move from a quote to an invoice — the two should use the same line items and the same math. In Second Shift, a line item that still needs pricing can be priced directly, with materials and labor captured and totaled for you, so it flows straight into the invoice with nothing re-guessed along the way.
If pricing jobs accurately is where you lose time or money, see the full feature list or try Second Shift free for 7 days.
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