Painting
Painting Material Markup Calculator
Works markup on paint, where the customer can look up what you paid.
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 AuditHow the calculation works
Markup is measured against your cost, producing a price and a margin that is always lower than the markup, and both are shown. In painting the constraint is that paint has retail prices anyone can check, so the markup it will bear is modest. Trade pricing gives a genuine advantage over retail which is where a reasonable markup lives, and attempting more than that invites the customer to buy the paint themselves.
What moves the number
- The gap between your trade price and the retail price.
- Whether the customer is likely to compare.
- Whether the markup is covering collection, storage and waste.
- Consistency, since variable markup across a quote invites questions.
Where this one goes wrong
A 50% markup is a 33.3% margin, and applying a markup while believing it earns the same margin is a third short. Both figures appear here for that reason. On paint specifically, the markup is doing real work rather than being pure margin: somebody collects it, stores it, carries the waste on part-used tins and warrants the result, and that is worth charging for. The sustainable position is a modest markup justified by that service, with the margin living in the labour where the customer cannot price-check it.
Before you quote
- Check the resulting margin, not just the markup applied.
- Keep paint markup within the trade-to-retail gap.
- Price collection, storage and waste as part of what the markup covers.
Questions
About this calculator
How much can I mark up paint?
Modestly, because retail prices are visible and a customer who feels overcharged will buy their own. The trade-to-retail gap is where a reasonable markup lives, and it is justified by collection, storage, carrying part-used waste and warranting the result.
Is a 50% markup a 50% margin?
No, it is a 33.3% margin, because markup is measured against cost and margin against price. Applying a markup while believing it earns the same margin is a third short on that line, which is why both figures are always shown together.
Should I let customers supply their own paint?
It is a reasonable option and worth pricing honestly, because you lose the markup and you also lose control over the product and the warranty position. Making clear that you cannot warrant a finish in a product you did not choose is fair rather than obstructive.
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 $1,700.
- 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 | $1,700 |
| Markup on cost | 45% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Price main result | $2,465 |
| Gross profit | $765 |
| Margin that gives you | 31.0% |
A 45% markup on $1,700 prices the job at $2,465, which is 31.0% margin, not 45%.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only your cost, this is what happens to price. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Your cost ($) | Price |
|---|---|
| $850 | $1,233 |
| $1,275 | $1,849 |
| $1,700 example above | $2,465 |
| $2,550 | $3,698 |
| $3,400 | $4,930 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Your cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $1,700.
- 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.