by FantasyLab

Know your real number before you text the price.

Apps help you send a price faster. This works out what the price should be first. Six numbers you already know, about a minute, and it all stays on your phone.

1 of 6 Free · no email
  1. sample
    What you'd text a customer today. Leave it empty to skip the comparison.
  2. sample
    Door to door. Driving and paperwork count.
  3. sample
    52, minus vacation, holidays, sick days and rain days.
  4. sample
    Your wage, before income tax. Profit comes on top of it.
  5. sample
    Truck, fuel, insurance, phone, tools, software, ads. Not your pay.
  6. sample
    As a rule of thumb, most solo shops land around 60 to 65%. Driving, supply-house runs, free estimates and invoicing eat the rest of the week.

    You work 12.6 weeks a year for free.

    At $65 an hour, a full year of work brings in what 35.4 weeks should at $88.15. 3.0 of the missing weeks are your own bills and pay. The other 9.6 are the profit. Right now the truck gets paid before you do.

    Sends your weeks figure and the link. Your costs and your rate stay off it.

    • Paid 35.4 weeks
    • Bills and pay not covered 3.0 weeks
    • Profit not charged 9.6 weeks

    "For free" is measured against your target rate, which is your costs, your pay and the profit you set. It's an estimate from the numbers you typed, not financial or tax advice.

    Before you text the price

    Price a job

    Priced at your $90 shop rate. Pick the job, check the hours, add the parts. Doing more than one job on the same visit? Add each one. The trip, the minimum and the small-job buffer get charged once, the way the kit prices a ticket.

    The sample is a kitchen faucet. Type your job.

    The job

    80 jobs from the kit's price book, or type your own.
    The kit starts it at 1.5 h each. Typical is 1 to 2 h. Use your own time if you know it.
    The small stuff ($20 of supplies) is already in the price. Type what you pay for the fixture or parts. It gets marked up 25%, same as in the kit.

    Price to text

    $230

    • Replace kitchen faucet1.5 h at $90$160
    • Small-job buffer, under 4 h$24
    • Trip charge, once a visit$35
    • Contingency, 5%$11
    • Price to text$230

    Covers your bills and your pay, with 45.2% profit on top. Your target is 20%.

    Trip $35, a 15% buffer on visits under 4 hours, 5% contingency and a $195 minimum are the kit's starting settings. In the kit you set your own. Your rate and costs never go in the text.

    Your numbers, on one card.

    Screenshot it. Keep it on your lock screen or clipped to the visor, so the number's there when the customer asks "what do you charge?"

    The three rates come from your six numbers. The rest are the kit's starter settings for every job. In the kit you set your own.

    True RateMy numbers

    I price jobs from

    $90an hour

    Break-even
    $70.52
    Target, 20% profit
    $88.15
    Paid hours a year
    1,339

    On every job

    Minimum
    $195
    Trip charge
    $35
    Deposit
    30%
    Jobs under 4 h
    +15%
    Parts
    +25%
    Sample numbers from the kit's worked example.
    After the job

    Was that job worth it?

    Four numbers from a job you just finished. You'll see what your time earned on it, held up against your break-even.

    The sample is the bathroom refresh from the kit's own job log. Type yours.

    The whole job, change orders you billed included.
    Door to door, including the estimate visit, supply-house runs, the drive and the cleanup. If you were on it, count it.
    What you paid, not what you billed.
    The "while you're here" stuff. 0 if none.

    Below target

    Your time earned $75.94/hr What's left after materials and extras, per hour on the job. Your break-even is $70.52/hr.
    Real margin5.1%
    Your target20%
    To make your margin it needed $4,035

    It covered you, barely. Your time earned $75.94 an hour against a $70.52 break-even, a 5.1% margin. To make your 20% on those real numbers it needed $4,035: $635 more.

    Real cost = real hours × your break-even + materials + extras, the same as the kit's Was I Right? tab.

    The kit prices every job like this.

    The price-a-job tool above is one line of the kit's Price This Job sheet. The kit is a spreadsheet you own. Fill in My Numbers once and everything else prices off it.

    It's Google Sheets or Excel, and it runs in the free Google Sheets phone app, so you can price the job in the driveway. One-time $39. No subscription, no login.

    Get the kit · $39 Compare it with Jobber and pricing books
    1. 1

      My Numbers

      Your break-even, target and shop rate, from your truck, insurance, phone, tools, pay and the hours you can bill.

    2. 2

      Markup and margin

      Type the margin you want and it gives you the markup you need. A 30% markup is only a 23% margin, and the sheet keeps the two straight.

    3. 3

      Price Book: 80 jobs

      Starter hours, a typical range and a flat price from your rate. Change the hours to how long they take you. Add your own.

    4. 4

      Price This Job

      Tasks, materials and subs on one ticket, with the trip charge, the minimum and the small-job buffer. The margin box goes red if the price doesn't cover you.

    5. 5

      Was I Right?

      Your estimate next to what the job actually took. After a few jobs you'll see which tasks you under-bid, and by how much.

    6. 6

      Client estimate

      A clean estimate to print or send as a PDF. It shows the customer a price, not your math.

    7. +

      Get Paid Texts

      Copy-paste wording for change orders, deposits and final-payment reminders. These are templates, not legal advice, and the rules vary by state.

    What's in the download

    These are the kit's own tabs, filled in with the same worked example as the calculator above. Yours fill in from your numbers.

    Tab 1, My Numbers: break-even rate $70.52, target rate $88.15, shop rate $90.00, and the reality check at $65 an hour: $31,002 left on the table a year and 12.6 weeks a year worked for free.
    Tab 1, My Numbers. Your break-even, target and shop rate, and what your current rate costs you a year.
    Tab 4, Price This Job: a sample job with six tasks picked from the price book, quantities and line prices, beside the job settings: shop rate $90, trip charge $35, minimum job charge $195, deposit 30%.
    Tab 4, Price This Job. Pick tasks, add materials, read the margin box.
    Tab 6, the client estimate: line items, a $2,076 total, a $623 deposit, payment and change-order terms and a signature line.
    Tab 6, the client estimate. The customer sees a price and terms, not your math.
    Tab 5, Was I Right?: four sample jobs logged with estimated and real hours, real margin and a result column, and a report card saying the jobs took 116% of the estimated hours.
    Tab 5, Was I Right? Estimate against actual, so you see which jobs really paid.
    The kit
    True-Rate-Price-This-Job.xlsx, 131 KB, seven tabs. It opens in Excel or Numbers. On your phone, use the one-click Google Sheets "make a copy" link instead.
    Get Paid Texts
    A page of wording for change orders, deposits and final-payment reminders. Copy it into your phone's text replacements.
    Quick-start guide
    Every tab in the order you'll use it, plus a 3-minute first run on the download page.

    The Going Rate doesn't pay your truck.

    "What the other guy charges" is the number everybody uses and nobody figured. He doesn't know his costs either, and he doesn't pay your truck payment.

    What contractors say online. Phrases from public forums, lightly edited. These aren't customers or testimonials.

    • Pulling numbers out of my behind.
    • 6 years in and still under-bidding.
    • Made 8% on a job I thought was 25%.

    Get the kit

    $39

    One time. The file is yours.

    • My Numbers: your break-even and shop rate
    • Price Book of 80 flat-rate jobs
    • Price This Job with trip and minimum charges
    • Markup and margin converter
    • Was I Right? estimate-vs-actual log
    • Client estimate
    • Bonus: Get Paid Texts
    Get the kit · $39
    1. Pay on Stripe's checkout page. Stripe handles the card. We never see the number.
    2. You land on your download page. Make your Google Sheets copy or download the Excel file right there, on the phone you paid with.
    3. Do the 3-minute first run. Your numbers from this site go into tab 1, then you price one real job.

    If it's no use to you, email us within 14 days and you get the full $39 back. True Rate is made by FantasyLab, and the person who built it answers the support email.

    Running a crew with scheduling and dispatch? Field-service software may fit you better. The comparison lays out the trade-offs.

    Straight answers

    Does anything I type get sent anywhere?

    No. The math runs on your phone. Your numbers are saved only in this browser so they're there next time, and "Start over with the sample numbers" clears them. The price text goes nowhere until you paste it.

    Google Sheets or Excel?

    Both. You get an .xlsx file for Excel and a one-click "make a copy" link for Google Sheets. Google Sheets is free and runs in the phone app, so that's the one to use if you price jobs on site.

    Are the price book's prices "right" for my area?

    Every task is priced from the rate you set, and you can change any task's hours. Each one shows a typical range so you can sanity-check your edits. It's a starting list, not a market survey. You know your area better than a spreadsheet does.

    Is it specific to my state?

    No. It works from your costs, your pay goal and your hours, so it fits anywhere. Sales tax, licensing and contract rules vary by state and city. The kit doesn't handle those for you.

    What happens after I pay?

    Stripe sends you straight to your download page, with the Google Sheets copy link, the Excel file, Get Paid Texts and the quick-start guide. It works on a phone. Stripe also emails a receipt to the address you paid with.

    What if I lose the download or get a new phone?

    Your Google Sheets copy lives in your Google Drive, so a new phone just signs in and it's there. The download page remembers your order on the device you bought on for 30 days, and it has an "Email me this link" button. After that, email us from the address you paid with and we'll send the files again.

    What if it's not for me?

    Email us within 14 days of purchase for a full refund. Support: our support inbox.

    I already use Jobber or Housecall Pro. Do I need this?

    Maybe not. Those tools handle scheduling, invoicing and payments. True Rate is for working out the right number in the first place. You can set your rate here and then put it into your software. See the comparison.

    Is this accounting, tax or legal advice?

    No. It's a pricing tool and a set of templates. It doesn't replace a bookkeeper, accountant or attorney, and it doesn't guarantee any result.