# Know exactly how much to charge, not guessing, not eyeballing

Nobody teaches pricing. You learn the trade at work and the numbers on your own, usually by winning jobs you should have lost and finding out at the bank account. Other contractors will not tell you what they charge, so you price by gut, close way too many jobs, and the guy on your payroll ends up making more per hour than you do.

This page prices one real job, start to finish, in the AEC Stack quote builder. By the end you will have a quote where every cost sits on its own line, a markup you chose on purpose, HST and holdback computed for you, and one screen showing every number you have out the door. The screenshots are a demo electrical business you can open yourself, no signup.

## How contractors describe the problem

The pain here is not made up. This is how people running crews talk about pricing, in their own words:

> "I’m trying to get a read on average prices in my area does anyone have any tips on how to do that? I find talking to other trades to be pretty unproductive, no one likes sharing what they charge. Right now, I know I am too low as I close way too many jobs and on the most recent job which has been 2 1/2 months. The guy I have working for me is making more than I am when it comes down to hours worked."
>
> [a new business owner on r/skilledtrades](https://www.reddit.com/r/skilledtrades/comments/1etw0hd/just_started_my_own_company/)

> "I’ve never ran a job on my own but I have bid jobs and I always seem to underbid. Typically what we charge is $500 a day ($250/day for me and my dad) plus material. No overhead no deposits no nothing but we always seem to get screwed."
>
> [a father and son remodeling outfit on r/Construction](https://www.reddit.com/r/Construction/comments/18zijvh/how_do_you_guys_bid_residential/)

The math underneath was never taught either:

> "Let’s get something straight: markup is not margin. If you don’t know the difference, sit down, and pay attention. Your gross profit margin needs to be at least 45%, AT LEAST… and if that makes you clutch your pearls, it’s because you have no clue what it actually costs to run your business."
>
> [a plumber on r/Construction](https://www.reddit.com/r/Construction/comments/1jan9wm/new_plumbing_business_owners_are_ruining_the/)

And the hours it takes come out of the only unbilled time you have left:

> "hungry small time contractors will meet you after work hours for free estimates, I miss a lot of suppers with my family trying to win future work. Most small contractors work all day then do free estimates at night."
>
> [an electrician on r/HomeImprovement](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/18nvvm0/water_heater_install_quote/keewjum/)

The fix is not a secret rate sheet. It is a structure that refuses to let a cost hide, and math that runs itself.

## Put every cost on its own line

Open [Quotes in your back office](/ops?tab=quotes) and open a draft, or hit New Quote. The top of the builder holds the job facts: client, project, scope of work, and an exclusions box that is half the battle on its own, because the jobs that go sideways are usually sunk by work that was never priced and never excluded.

Below that are the line items. Every line has a type (labor, material, equipment, subcontractor, allowance, other), a description, a quantity, a unit, and a rate, and the amount column multiplies it out:

![The AEC Stack quote builder open on a draft electrical quote, with labor, material, and equipment costs each on their own line](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/how-to-price-construction-jobs/builder-hero.png "A draft quote in the builder: labor, material, and equipment, each cost on its own line.")

The rule that saves you from the pergola story, where two friends charged $1,000 for labor and cleared $225 each after gas and trips: if it costs you money, it gets a line. The boom lift is a line. Traffic protection is a line. Disposal is a line. The builder makes the honest version of the job the easy version to write, because adding a line is one click and hiding a cost means deleting one.

## Add markup on purpose, not by feel

Markup and margin are different numbers, and confusing them is how a contractor who thinks he priced for profit ends up working for wages. Markup is what you add on top of cost. Margin is the share of the final price that is not cost. A 15 percent markup is a 13 percent margin. The 45 percent gross margin the plumber above insists on takes roughly an 82 percent markup on cost to reach. Whatever number is right for your overhead, know which of the two you are typing.

In the builder, markup is a column, not a vibe. Set it line by line, or type one number in Markup all and hit Apply:

![Fifteen percent markup applied to every line item at once, with the markup column filled in and the amounts and totals recomputed](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/how-to-price-construction-jobs/markup-applied.png "Type one number in Markup all and every line carries 15 percent, amounts and totals recomputed on the spot.")

Every amount and the totals recompute on the spot, and nothing is saved until you hit Save Quote, so you can try 10, 15, and 20 percent against the same job and watch what each does to the bottom line before you commit to one.

## Let the tax and holdback math do itself

Two pieces of Ontario math come standard. Pick the province on the quote and the right tax applies itself: Ontario is HST at 13 percent, and if you take a job in another province the picker swaps in that province's GST and PST instead. No looking anything up.

Then there is holdback, the one that surprises people on their first commercial job. Type the rate your contract calls for, 10 percent is the Construction Act standard, and the totals split themselves into what you can bill now and what waits:

![The quote totals card with Ontario HST calculated automatically and a 10 percent holdback split out to show net payable](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/how-to-price-construction-jobs/totals-holdback.png "Ontario HST and the 10 percent holdback handled in the totals: what you bill now and what waits.")

That Net Payable line matters because holdback is real money you will not see for months. A quote that shows it up front is a cash flow forecast, not just a price.

## Price from the truck

The builder is the same object on a phone, with each line as a card you can edit:

![The quote builder on a phone, with each line item as a stacked card showing type, quantity, rate, and markup](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/how-to-price-construction-jobs/builder-mobile.png#portrait "The same quote on a phone: adjust a quantity, a rate, or the markup from the truck.")

When the client calls to add two more units, the change happens in the moment, on the record, instead of becoming tonight's 9 pm job at the kitchen table. That is how estimates stop eating suppers.

## Know what is out and what it is worth

Every quote lands on one list with a status and a dollar value, and the numbers roll up at the top: what is in play, what you have won, what is sitting unpriced. When a client opens a quote you sent, its status flips to viewed, which is more than a mailed PDF will ever tell you. And when one is about to expire, it shows up as a priority action instead of a memory test:

![The Quotes tab of a demo electrical business: draft, sent, and viewed quotes with dollar values, and a priority nudge that one quote expires in three days](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/how-to-price-construction-jobs/quotes-list.png "Every quote with its status and value, and a nudge when one is about to expire.")

The contractor who closes way too many jobs has never seen his own close rate. This screen is where you finally see yours, and a close rate near 100 percent is not good news, it is the strongest underpricing signal there is.

## What it costs and what it is not

Building and sending quotes is free, and there is no monthly subscription. The platform fee is 2.5% of each invoice processed through AEC Stack.

Be clear about what this is not. It is not a rate book, and it will not tell you what to charge: the dollar figures in these screenshots are seeded demo numbers, not published prices, and your rates and markup stay yours to set. Structure catches the forgotten boom lift and runs the markup, tax, and holdback arithmetic without mistakes, but it cannot know your overhead. Work that number out once, honestly, and the builder applies it to every job after.

> **On AEC Stack:** when a client accepts, the quote converts into an invoice in [Invoices](/ops?tab=invoices) without retyping a line, so the number you priced is exactly the number you bill.

Start in [the quote builder](/ops?tab=quotes) if your business already runs here. If not, [open a demo business](/start-your-business): pick your trade and you land inside a company already in motion, quotes out and money in play, including a draft like the one on this page, ready to price before any of it is yours.
