Painting
Painting Gross Profit Calculator
Works gross profit on a job, where the hours against estimate decide it.
Result
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 AuditHow the calculation works
Revenue less direct cost gives gross profit and margin, with direct cost being burdened labour and material. Because material is a small and predictable share in painting, job profitability is almost entirely a question of whether the hours came in at estimate. A job that ran over on preparation loses its margin in labour while the material line is unchanged, which makes hours tracking the single most useful discipline in the trade.
What moves the number
- Actual hours against estimated hours.
- Preparation time, which is the usual source of overrun.
- Material waste and part-used tins.
- Whether rework or touch-up visits were needed.
Where this one goes wrong
Record actual hours against the estimate on every job, because the error in painting estimates runs toward optimism on preparation and a business that does not measure it keeps absorbing the difference. Over a season that data also improves the estimating directly, which compounds. Touch-up visits are the other quiet loss: a customer walkthrough generating a list of small corrections is normal, and a job priced without an allowance for it absorbs a trip that nobody budgeted.
Before you quote
- Record actual against estimated hours on every job.
- Review overruns for whether preparation was underestimated.
- Include a touch-up allowance rather than absorbing the visit.
Questions
About this calculator
What loses money on a painting job?
Hours on preparation. Material is a small and predictable share, so the margin is made or lost on whether the labour came in at estimate, and the estimating error runs toward optimism on condition. Without recording actual against estimated hours, that keeps repeating.
Should a touch-up visit be budgeted?
Yes, with an allowance rather than hoping it is not needed. A customer walkthrough producing a short list of corrections is normal rather than a failure, and a job priced with no allowance for it absorbs a trip, the materials and the time.
Does material waste matter?
Less than hours but it is not nothing. Part-used tins that cannot be returned, colour mixes specific to one job, and over-ordering all accumulate. Keeping a tighter order and tracking what gets left behind is worth doing, though it will never move margin the way hours do.
The formula
gross profit = revenue - direct costs
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How to use this calculator
- Revenue ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $40,000.
- Direct labour ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $16,000.
- Materials and equipment ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $11,000.
- Other direct costs ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $2,200.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to gross profit, 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 |
|---|---|
| Revenue | $40,000 |
| Direct labour | $16,000 |
| Materials and equipment | $11,000 |
| Other direct costs | $2,200 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Gross profit main result | $10,800 |
| Gross margin | 27.0% |
| Total direct cost | $29,200 |
| Profit per working day | $490.91 |
That is $10,800 at a 27.0% margin, about $490.91 for every working day. Overhead still has to come out of it.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only revenue, this is what happens to gross profit. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Revenue ($) | Gross profit |
|---|---|
| $20,000 | -$9,200 |
| $30,000 | $800 |
| $40,000 example above | $10,800 |
| $60,000 | $30,800 |
| $80,000 | $50,800 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Revenue ($)
- A money amount, starting at $40,000.
- Direct labour ($)
- A money amount, starting at $16,000.
- Materials and equipment ($)
- A money amount, starting at $11,000.
- Other direct costs ($)
- A money amount, starting at $2,200.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Gross profit | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Gross margin | A percentage. |
| Total direct cost | A money figure. |
| Profit per working day | A money figure. |
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.