Auto repair & detailing
Parts Markup Calculator
Set parts pricing that recovers sourcing, stocking and warranty rather than a flat percentage on the invoice cost.
Result
Markup is measured against your cost, margin against the price you charge. A 50% markup is a 33.3% margin, not a 50% one. Pricing off the wrong one is the most common way a job that looked profitable turns out not to have been.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Part cost band. A flat multiplier badly underprices inexpensive parts and produces indefensible numbers on expensive ones.
- Warranty exposure, which is the cost of fitting the part twice if it fails.
- Whether the part is stocked, which ties up cash, or ordered per job, which costs time.
Where this one goes wrong
The customer who priced the part online. They are comparing a boxed component against a fitted, warranted part sourced same day, which are different products. The answer is to explain that plainly rather than to match the price.
Questions
About this calculator
Why does a flat percentage fail on cheap parts?
Because sourcing, receiving, stocking and warranting a part costs roughly the same whether it is inexpensive or not. Doubling a low cost part recovers almost none of that handling.
How does a sliding scale work?
A higher multiplier on low value parts falling as the part price rises, so each band recovers its real cost. It also produces figures that survive a customer checking prices.
Should customer-supplied parts be fitted?
That is a policy decision worth making explicitly. If you do, the labour rate has to account for having no parts margin and for warranty on a component you did not choose.
The formula
price = cost x (1 + markup%); margin = profit / price
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How to use this calculator
- Your cost ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $280.
- Markup on cost (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 45%.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to price, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Your cost | $280 |
| Markup on cost | 45% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Price main result | $406 |
| Gross profit | $126 |
| Margin that gives you | 31.0% |
A 45% markup on $280 prices the job at $406, which is 31.0% margin, not 45%.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only your cost, this is what happens to price. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Your cost ($) | Price |
|---|---|
| $140 | $203 |
| $210 | $304.50 |
| $280 example above | $406 |
| $420 | $609 |
| $560 | $812 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Your cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $280.
- Markup on cost (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 500, starting at 45%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Price | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Gross profit | A money figure. |
| Margin that gives you | A percentage. |
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.