Short answer
Add up the cost of one job: hours times the hourly pay you want, plus materials, travel and a share of monthly overhead (overhead divided by jobs per month). Then divide by 1 minus your profit margin. ProfitDrawer's free price per job calculator uses this formula. Example: 3 hours at $25 an hour, $15 of materials, $10 of travel and $20 of overhead cost $120; at a 20% margin the price is $150.
Step by step:
- Time: count every hour, including setup, travel time on site and clean-up.
- Your pay: choose an hourly rate you want to earn.
- Materials and travel for this job.
- Overhead share: monthly insurance, phone, software and advertising divided by your jobs per month. $600 a month over 30 jobs is $20 a job.
- Margin: price = cost / (1 minus margin). With a 20% margin, 20% of the price stays in the business as profit.
Then sanity-check it:
- Compare with local prices. If you are far above the market, look at your hours or overhead rather than only cutting the margin.
- Find your break-even: monthly overhead divided by what each job leaves after your pay, materials and travel, rounded up. In the example, each $150 job leaves $50, so 12 jobs cover $600 of overhead.
- Remember taxes. Self-employment tax is 15.3% on 92.35% of net profit in 2026, on top of income tax.
Source: Price Per Job Calculator for Service Businesses · Updated
Tools and spreadsheets for this
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General information, not tax, legal or financial advice. Check the rules for your state and your situation.