Job Profit Calculator – Updated for 2025/26 Rates
Quote Profitability Calculator for Contractors
Pricing intelligence for contractors
Most pricing tools tell you what a job costs.
RateCheck tells you whether the job makes business sense — before you commit to it.
Most quotes look fine until you include the business costs people forget. RateCheck compares a job against your sustainable rate so you can see whether it actually works before you send it.
★★★★★ 4.8 — rated by 127 contractors · Free to use
Improve your profitability
RateCheck gives you three things most contractors never have: a true break-even rate, a profitability check on every quote, and a real picture of business performance.
Break-even calculation
Know the minimum rate your business needs to survive — built from your real overheads, taxes, and non-billable time, not a guess.
Quote profitability check
Test every fixed-price or daywork quote before it goes out. See the margin, cash buffer, and a clear profitable / not profitable verdict.
Business performance insight
Track your income progress against your annual target and see whether your current pricing is keeping you on track across the full year.
What RateCheck helps you do
Check if a quote is profitable before you send it
Enter the job total, materials, equipment and days. RateCheck compares it against your real business costs and tells you immediately whether the quote works or needs adjusting.
- Profitable / not profitable verdict with the numbers behind it
- See margin percentage and cash buffer on every job
- Get a clear send / adjust decision before the quote leaves your hands
See your income progress and sustainability at a glance
RateCheck tracks your income against your annual target and sustainable rate — so you can see whether your current pricing is keeping you on track or falling short.
- Track income progress versus your annual target
- See your sustainability verdict across all active jobs
- Identify the revenue gap before it becomes a cashflow problem
Understand exactly what your pricing position means
RateCheck explains your pricing position in plain language — whether your rate is sustainable, where you sit relative to break-even, and what a small rate change would mean in real money.
- See your pricing position and sustainability verdict clearly
- Understand the impact of a small rate change across a full year
- Get insight into hidden costs that reduce what you actually earn
See how completed jobs performed against your estimates
RateCheck shows you a clear breakdown of how each completed job tracked against your original quote — so you can spot patterns, understand variances, and price more accurately next time.
- Compare estimated vs actual labour, materials, and resources
- Identify which job types consistently over or under run
- Build a track record that sharpens every future quote
That's just the start.
See all features →What RateCheck does differently
Most pricing tools tell you what a job costs. RateCheck tells you whether the job makes business sense — before you commit to it.
- Shows your true break-even rate, not just your day rate
- Checks every quote against your real business costs before you send it
- Reveals hidden costs contractors regularly miss — travel, consumables, follow-ups
- Shows whether your overall pricing mix is sustainable across the year
- Learns from completed jobs so your estimates get sharper over time
RateCheck is pricing intelligence, not job management software. It focuses on the financial questions that solo operators rarely get clear answers to.
Why I built this
I've been working solo for over 20 years. I've undercharged, accepted busy-but-broke jobs, forgotten about tax until it hurt, and worked long weeks just to cover costs. Every mistake came from the same problem: I couldn't see the full picture.
I knew my day rate, but not whether a quote actually made money after materials, fuel, equipment, and overhead.
And that's before the extras that never make it into the quote. The travel that eats an hour each end of the day. The job that runs three days over because the scope kept shifting. The consumables bought and not charged for. The follow-up calls, the snagging visit, the invoice chasing. None of it gets counted, but all of it reduces what you actually earned per hour.
Individually each one feels small. Across a full year of jobs, they compound into thousands of pounds of income that quietly disappears. You stayed busy, worked hard, and still ended up short. That's not bad luck. It's a pricing gap that's invisible until you measure it.
RateCheck doesn't tell you what to charge. It shows what you need to earn to survive, whether each job gets you there, and where you stand financially after every quote. Track your running annual cashflow as you go, so you're never caught short at year end.
— Chris, Founder
Contractor Pricing & Profitability Guide
Everything you need to understand how to price your work sustainably — from calculating your break-even rate to checking quote profitability on every job.
How to use a contractor pricing calculator
A contractor pricing calculator helps you understand what you need to charge to cover your real business costs. Unlike a simple day rate calculation, a proper contractor pricing calculator accounts for overhead, taxes, non-billable time, and desired income. RateCheck builds your sustainable rate from all of these inputs and then checks every quote against it.
What is a quote profitability calculator?
A quote profitability calculator lets you test a fixed-price or daywork quote before you send it. You enter the job total, materials, fuel, equipment, and days — and the calculator tells you whether the quote actually generates a profit after your real costs are deducted. RateCheck does this by comparing the quote against your personal break-even rate, not an industry average.
Job profit calculator for fixed-price work
A job profit calculator is essential for contractors who do fixed-price work. When you quote a price for a complete job, the risk of undercharging is yours. A job profit calculator quantifies that risk before the quote goes out — showing you the margin, cash buffer, and whether the job is worth taking. Most contractors discover they're undercharging by 10–30% once they include all real costs.
How to calculate a break-even rate as a contractor
Your break-even rate as a contractor is the minimum daily or hourly rate you need to charge to cover all costs — including overhead, insurance, vehicle, tools, taxes, and non-working time. Most contractors underestimate this figure because they calculate it from take-home goals without accounting for business expenses. The correct method: add all overhead costs to your income target, then divide by realistic working days (typically 200–220 per year, not 250).
Why fixed-price jobs require profitability checking
Fixed-price jobs shift financial risk from the client to the contractor. If materials cost more than expected, if the job takes longer, or if hidden costs weren't included in the quote — you absorb the loss. A fixed-price job profitability calculator surfaces these risks before the quote is sent, so you can adjust the price or decline the job before committing to it.
How to price contractor jobs sustainably
Sustainable pricing for contractor jobs requires more than knowing your day rate. You need to know how each quote fits into your annual income target, whether your current mix of jobs is covering your overhead, and whether you're building enough buffer for slow periods. RateCheck models all three — and updates them as you add and complete jobs throughout the year.
Simple, Transparent Pricing
Start immediately. No credit card needed.
Free
Quote checking and sustainable rate calculation. No trial. No expiry.
- Run job profitability checks
- Calculate minimum sustainable rate
- Basic cost tracking
Professional
For businesses that need more visibility and history.
- Everything in Free, plus:
- Saved job history
- Advanced cost breakdown
- Export & reporting
Advanced reporting, forecasting and pricing intelligence tools. Launching soon.
Free plan remains free permanently.
Frequently Asked Questions
Free Contractor Rate Calculator
If you're unsure what hourly or day rate you should charge, you can start with our simple contractor rate calculator.
It provides a quick estimate based on income, overheads and working days.
However real quotes usually include additional costs such as materials, subcontractors, equipment, travel time and risk.
For testing real quotes against your full business costs, use RateCheck.
Estimate your ratePopular calculators
Use the right tool for your question, then test a real quote in RateCheck.