Enter your true job costs and target margin — get the exact price to charge instantly. No more guessing, no more leaving money on the table.
| Target Net Margin | Flat Rate to Charge | Net Profit | Your Recommendation |
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This is the most common and costly pricing mistake in the HVAC industry. Markup and margin sound similar but produce very different results. Confusing them means underpricing every job.
Price = Cost ÷ (1 − Target Margin)
Example: $200 part at 50% margin = $200 ÷ (1 − 0.50) = $400. The markup is 100% but the margin is 50%.
A service menu or flat-rate price book should cover every common job type at your target margin. To build it properly for each job type, you need four inputs: your average parts cost, average labor hours, your fully burdened labor rate, and your overhead percentage. The Price Builder above handles the math — your job is to gather the right inputs.
Update your flat-rate book at minimum twice per year: once before peak season (May) when demand justifies higher prices, and once in the fall when labor and equipment costs often shift. Many contractors leave 8–12% of annual revenue on the table by not keeping their rates current.
Your "fully burdened labor rate" is what a tech actually costs per hour when you add payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, and PTO. For most HVAC contractors this is 1.28–1.40× the base wage. A tech at $28/hr all-in costs $36–$39/hr. Never price flat-rate work using the base wage — you'll lose money on every labor-heavy job.
Overhead is the silent killer in flat-rate pricing. If your overhead rate is 22% and you forget to include it when pricing a $600 job, you've just lost $132 before a single dollar of profit. The Price Builder applies overhead as a percentage of the selling price, which is the correct method — overhead is a function of revenue generated, not of cost.
Some HVAC contractors simplify flat-rate pricing by calculating a single divisor: 1 − Overhead% − Target Margin%. Divide all direct costs by that number to get the flat rate. Example: direct costs = $330, overhead = 20%, target margin = 30%. Divisor = 1 − 0.20 − 0.30 = 0.50. Flat rate = $330 ÷ 0.50 = $660.