Auto repair & detailing
Car Detailing Pricing Calculator
Set detailing prices from what a vehicle costs you in time and product, then check the margin the price actually returns.
Result
Overhead and margin are taken as shares of the selling price, which is why the cost is divided rather than multiplied. Adding 15% to cost does not produce a 15% margin. Gross profit is what is left after the cost of doing the job. Overhead comes out of that: the building, the office wages, the vans, insurance, software and advertising. A healthy gross margin still loses money if overhead is larger.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Hours by service tier, measured rather than estimated.
- Product cost per vehicle, which is genuinely calculable and usually underestimated.
- How many vehicles a bay or a working day can actually take.
Where this one goes wrong
Building a tiered price list where the tiers differ mainly in price. Customers pick the middle option, so the middle tier has to be the one you actually want to sell and the one that returns a proper margin.
Questions
About this calculator
How many price tiers should a detailer offer?
Few enough to explain in a sentence each. Three is common because it gives a clear middle choice, and every tier has to be work you would genuinely do rather than a decoy.
Should add-ons be priced separately?
Yes, particularly the ones that consume a lot of time such as pet hair removal, odour treatment and heavy decontamination. Bundling them means the worst vehicles subsidise nothing.
How do I know whether my prices work?
Time a sample of real vehicles per tier and compare against the price. Most detailers find one tier is carrying the business and another is close to break-even.
The formula
price = direct cost / (1 - overhead% - margin%)
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How to use this calculator
- Labour cost ($). Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $180.
- Other direct costs ($). Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%). Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 15%.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to price to quote, 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 |
|---|---|
| Labour cost | $240 |
| Materials cost | $180 |
| Other direct costs | $0 |
| Overhead rate | 22% |
| Target net margin | 15% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Price to quote main result | $666.67 |
| Direct cost | $420 |
| Overhead recovered | $146.67 |
| Net profit | $100.00 |
| Gross margin | 37.0% |
| Markup on direct cost | 58.7% |
Quote $666.67 to cover $420 of direct cost, recover $146.67 of overhead and leave $100.00 of net profit. That is a 58.7% markup on cost.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only labour cost, this is what happens to price to quote. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Labour cost ($) | Price to quote |
|---|---|
| $120 | $476.19 |
| $180 | $571.43 |
| $240 example above | $666.67 |
| $360 | $857.14 |
| $480 | $1,048 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Labour cost ($)
- Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $180.
- Other direct costs ($)
- Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%)
- Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 80, starting at 15%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Price to quote | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Direct cost | A money figure. |
| Overhead recovered | A money figure. |
| Net profit | A money figure. |
| Gross margin | A percentage. |
| Markup on direct cost | 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.