Every pricebook item has a Price (what the customer pays) and a Cost (what it costs you). Enter both and Run a Call shows your margin while you set prices, on the pricebook list, and under the total when you build an estimate.
Run a Call prices from margin: type the cost and the margin you want on the part and the price is figured for you. There is no separate markup field; use the table below to turn the markup you're used to into a margin.
Price an item from its cost and margin
- Go to Pricebook, open the item's folder, click the item's ⋯ menu and choose Edit (or click New item).
- Enter Cost ($) and Margin (%). Price ($) fills itself: cost ÷ (1 − margin). A $15.50 part at 50% is $31.00.
- If the job takes time, enter Labor (hours). Hours × your Labor rate ($/hr) are added to the price, so the customer sees one flat-rate line. The same part with 3 hours at $150/hr is $481.00.
- Read the line under the fields: it spells out the part at its margin plus the labor, and what you keep on the part. It turns amber when the part margin is under 30% and warns you if cost plus labor is higher than price.
- Click Save changes (or Add item).
To price by hand, type the Price directly. That clears Margin and the line below shows the margin your price implies.
Shop-wide defaults
Under Settings → Business → Pricing, set your Labor rate ($/hr) and Margin on parts (%) once. Every new item starts from them, and the section shows a worked example (A part that costs you $100.00 is priced at $200.00, and two hours of labor add $300.00). Items you already have keep their prices. Leave the margin blank to price every item by hand.
Markup vs margin
They use the same two numbers but divide by different things.
| Term | Formula | Example (cost $50, price $100) |
|---|---|---|
| Markup | (price − cost) ÷ cost | 100% |
| Margin | (price − cost) ÷ price | 50% |
To price from a markup: price = cost × (1 + markup). A $40 part at 150% markup is $40 × 2.5 = $100, a 60% margin.
| Markup | Margin |
|---|---|
| 25% | 20% |
| 50% | 33% |
| 100% | 50% |
| 150% | 60% |
| 200% | 67% |
Run a Call shows margin.
Where your cost and margin show up
| Place | What you see |
|---|---|
| Add item / Edit item form | The Margin (%) field and the You keep… line under the price. |
| Pricebook list | Cost, Price and Margin columns (choose columns with Columns in List view). |
| Estimate builder | Under the total, a Cost and Profit line with margin, marked Only you see this. Lines can also show a Your cost column. |
| Job page | Job costing shows the job's material, labor and expense costs. Owners and admins can also choose Show your costs in a line's menu to see and edit Your cost per line. See Adding items to jobs, estimates, and invoices. |
| Reports | The job profitability report. See Job profitability report. |
Cost and margin never appear on what the customer sees: estimates, invoices, PDFs, pay pages or the mobile app's item search.
When a supplier raises prices
Use More actions → Adjust prices to raise prices by a percentage across the pricebook, some categories, or items matching a brand name. Tick Change what you paid too under More options to raise costs by the same percentage. See Adjusting prices in bulk.
Good to know
- Changing an item's price or cost affects lines you add from now on. Lines already on estimates, jobs and invoices keep their price.
- If you leave Cost at 0, the margin shows as 100%. Fill in costs to get meaningful profit numbers.
- Labor hours on an item have no cost of their own (the tech's pay is tracked on the job), so the list's margin column counts the labor as margin. The editor reads the margin on the part separately, with the labor shown beside it.
- With inventory tracking on, parts also carry an Avg cost based on what you actually paid on received purchase orders. See How purchase orders receive stock.