Overview
Carpentry and handyman work is the hardest trade to price because no two jobs are the same shape. A door is a door until it is a door in a wall that is out of plumb, and the guy who quoted it in the driveway is the guy who eats the extra half day.
This starts from your real hourly cost and prices per unit from there. Linear foot, square foot, each. Change your rate and all 207 lines move.
Fill in the calculator with your real overhead, your vehicles, your wages and your billable hours. It works out what an hour on the job actually costs you. From that one number all 207 carpentry prices build themselves. Put your insurance up in January and every price in the book moves with it.
How it runs
Three steps, and you only do the first one once.
- Fill in the calculator. Overhead, vehicles, wages, billable hours. About twenty minutes, and you are done with it.
- Pick a service. Job Entry lists all 207. Choose one and the three prices fill themselves in.
- Hand over the proposal. Good, Better and Best on one page with a line to sign.
What's inside
One Excel workbook, eight tabs:
- Start Here, a menu that jumps you to any tab
- Job Entry, pick a service and the prices fill themselves in
- Presentation, the three-option proposal your customer reads and signs
- Job Log, one line per quote so you can see what you sent and what closed
- Flat Rate Book, 207 services across 16 categories, three tiers each
- Cost Breakdown, your hours, material and profit on every line
- Software Export, all 207 services formatted for Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan and Jobber
- Calculator, your break-even rate and the premium you bill over it
Sample line items
These are the prices the file ships calibrated at. Yours will differ the moment you put your own numbers in, which is the whole point of it.
- Interior door, prehung, install in existing opening: $320
- Pressure treated deck, per square foot: $48.99
- Crown molding, per linear foot: $14.40
- Drywall patch, up to 2 feet square: $280
Also included
Three more files in the same download, all sold separately in the shop:
- Contractor Customer Manager, leads, quotes, follow-ups and reviews across a thousand customer rows. $49.99 on its own.
- Job Profitability Tracker, what each job actually made against what you charged. $49.99 on its own.
- IRC Carpentry Code Quick Reference, IRC code reference, sixteen tabs covering framing, spans, decks, stairs and fasteners. $19.99 on its own.
Bought separately those three plus the price book come to $288.95.
How this differs from the price book
The Carpentry Flat Rate Price Book at $99 is the book on its own. It ships with a calibrated rate in it and a settings sheet you can change.
The System is the book with the rate removed and a full break-even calculator wired in behind it, plus the proposal, the job log and the export. The book has a rate. The System has yours. If you already own the book and you know your numbers, the book is fine. If you have never worked out what an hour costs you, start here.
Who it's for
Handymen, remodelers, finish carpenters and general contractors who quote their own work. If you price by the day and hope it works out, this is the fix.
Who it isn't for
Full custom builds and anything estimated off architectural drawings. This prices the repeatable work, not a ground-up house.
Why buy this one
- One rate, one place. No book with its own numbers sitting next to a calculator that does not talk to it.
- One purchase. No per-technician licensing, no renewal, no losing access if you stop paying.
- Nothing between you and the formula. It is a spreadsheet. Every price shows its work and you can change any part of it.
- Quote from anywhere. Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, LibreOffice. Works on a tablet in a basement with no signal.
- Direct support. Message through Etsy and the person who built it answers.