Most plumbers price by gut feel. That works until it doesn't. Plug in your actual numbers and see what you need to charge.
Your costs in, your minimum price out.
If you are still writing estimates on carbonless paper, Jobber lets you build and send quotes from your phone between jobs. Customers can approve with one tap.
FreshBooks keeps your invoicing clean, and QuickBooks Self-Employed is solid for tracking mileage and expenses at tax time.
I talk to a lot of plumbers who charge $75/hour because that's what they charged five years ago. Meanwhile their supply house prices went up 30%, their insurance doubled, and they added a second truck. The rate never moved. If that sounds familiar, you're probably working harder every year for the same money.
Residential plumbing rates in the US typically range from $65 to $130/hour depending on your market and specialization. Drain cleaning sits at the lower end. Repiping, gas line work, and anything requiring specialized licensing commands higher rates. The national average for a service call lands around $150-350 all-in, but that number means nothing if your costs don't match the average.
Your rate needs to account for:
Standard plumbing parts markup ranges from 25% to 100% depending on the item. Small fittings and common parts tend toward higher markups. Water heaters and fixtures get marked up less but make up for it in volume. Whatever you choose, be consistent. Customers can smell it when the markup on a $3 coupling is 500% but the water heater markup is 10%.
Your competitor might have a paid-off truck, lower insurance, and a spouse doing the books for free. Or they might be going out of business slowly. You don't know. Price based on what YOUR business needs to be profitable, then compete on service quality and reliability instead.
The free ProTradeOps starter kit includes estimate templates and a job costing spreadsheet that makes this easier to track over time.
Lessons from plumbing shop owners who figured out the money side.
After-hours and weekend calls should be 1.5x to 2x your standard rate. You're giving up personal time and paying overtime if you have employees. Price accordingly.
A $49-89 trip charge that applies to the job if they approve the work protects you from tire-kickers and covers your gas when they don't.
If the job requires a permit, that cost plus your time at the permit office goes on the estimate. Eating permit costs is a quick way to lose money on bigger jobs.
If you're going back to 5% of jobs for free warranty work, that's 5% of your revenue you need to bake into every price. Most plumbers don't account for this.
Estimate templates, job costing sheets, scheduling tools, and more. Built for plumbers who want to run a business, not just do plumbing.
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