Auto repair & detailing
Auto Repair Markup Calculator
Apply a markup to what a repair costs you and see the margin that markup actually produces.
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
- Whether the cost being marked up is the full cost or only the part price.
- Parts and labour usually carry different markups, because they carry different risk and handling cost.
- Warranty exposure, which is a real cost that markup has to cover.
Where this one goes wrong
Applying a margin target as if it were a markup. A 40 percent markup is roughly a 29 percent margin. If you wanted 40 percent margin you needed a 67 percent markup, and the gap is invisible per job and large across a year.
Questions
About this calculator
What markup gives a 50 percent margin?
One hundred percent. Doubling your cost is the only way to keep half the selling price. A 50 percent markup produces a 33 percent margin.
Should parts and labour carry the same markup?
Rarely. Parts tie up cash, carry warranty risk and can be price-checked online. Labour carries your overhead. Pricing them identically is simpler rather than correct.
Does marking up shop supplies make sense?
It is more defensible to show supplies as a visible line at a fair figure than to bury the cost in a higher labour rate. Customers accept a stated charge more readily than one they discover.
The formula
price = cost x (1 + markup%); margin = profit / price
Put this calculator on your site
Free to embed. Paste this where you want it to appear. It stays up to date automatically because it loads from BDEVY.
Please keep the attribution line. It is the only thing we ask in return.
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.