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Quote Margin Calculator
Enter what the job costs you and what you add on top. You get the price, your province's tax, the total and the deposit — plus the number most trades never check: what percent of the client's money you actually keep.
A 30% markup is a 23.08% margin. If those look like the same number, this page is for you.
Your Numbers
Nothing is sent anywhere. It all runs in this browser tab.
Everything the job takes out of your pocket: labour, materials, subs, rentals, dump fees.
Sets the tax line the client sees. Alberta bills GST; Ontario bills HST.
A percent of the total, taken before the truck rolls.
Markup On Cost
30%
$750.00 added to a $2,500.00 cost.
Margin On Price
23.08%
You keep $23.08 of every $100 billed before tax.
What The Client Sees
Alberta · tax charged on the marked-up price, not on your cost
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Job cost | $2,500.00 |
| Markup (30%) | $750.00 |
| Price before tax | $3,250.00 |
| GST (5%) | $162.50 |
| Total the client pays | $3,412.50 |
| Deposit (25%) | $853.13 |
| Balance due on completion | $2,559.37 |
QuotingAI does this on every line item automatically — your cost, your markup, your province's tax, the deposit collected by card the moment the client signs.
See It On A Real QuoteThe Distinction
Markup And Margin Are Not The Same Number
Markup is measured against your cost. Margin is measured against the price. Same dollars, different denominator — so margin is always the smaller number.
A job costs you $1,000. You add 30%, so you charge $1,300 before tax. Your profit is $300. As a markup that is 30% — $300 on $1,000 of cost. As a margin it is 23.08% — $300 out of the $1,300 the client hands you. Both describe the same job.
This is where money goes missing. A contractor who needs a 30% margin to cover overhead, and adds a 30% markup to get it, is short by about a quarter of the profit they planned on. Do that on every job for a year and the shortfall is the truck payment.
The arithmetic: margin = markup ÷ (100 + markup). Going the other way, markup = margin ÷ (100 − margin). A 100% margin has no answer — it would mean the job cost you nothing.
| If you add this markup | You keep this margin | On a $1,000 cost you charge | And keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | 9.09% | $1,100.00 | $100.00 |
| 15% | 13.04% | $1,150.00 | $150.00 |
| 20% | 16.67% | $1,200.00 | $200.00 |
| 25% | 20% | $1,250.00 | $250.00 |
| 30% | 23.08% | $1,300.00 | $300.00 |
| 40% | 28.57% | $1,400.00 | $400.00 |
| 50% | 33.33% | $1,500.00 | $500.00 |
| 67% | 40.12% | $1,670.00 | $670.00 |
| 100% | 50% | $2,000.00 | $1,000.00 |
Prices shown before tax. Notice that doubling your markup does not double your margin.
Two Things People Get Backwards
Tax Goes On After The Markup. The Deposit Covers Materials.
Why Tax Comes Last
Sales tax is charged on what you sell, not on what you bought. So it lands on the marked-up price — the $1,300 — not on your $1,000 cost.
Taxing the cost first and marking up after gets you a smaller, wrong number, and it quietly marks up the government's money instead of your work. The order is: cost → markup → price → tax → total.
The tax you collect is not revenue. You are holding it for the CRA until you remit it. The GST or HST you paid on materials comes back to you as an input tax credit — through your filing, not through the quote.
The rate and the name both change by province. An Alberta shop bills GST (5%). An Ontario shop bills HST (13%). Printing the wrong one on a proposal is both wrong money and a wrong tax label.
What A Deposit Is Actually For
A deposit does two jobs. It buys the materials so you are not financing the client, and it turns a verbal yes into a commitment — people who have paid something show up for the install date.
Set it against your material bill, not against a habit. If materials are 40% of the job, a 25% deposit means you are funding the difference out of your own account until the final invoice clears.
On longer jobs, split it: a deposit to book, a progress draw at rough-in, the balance on completion. The deposit line on this calculator is the first of those.
Whatever you choose, put the number and the trigger in writing on the quote. “25% to book, balance on completion” is a sentence that prevents an argument.
A Quick Sanity Check Before You Send
- Is your cost really your cost? Loaded labour rate, not the hourly wage. Overhead sits on top of it, and it comes out of the margin.
- Does the margin, not the markup, clear your overhead? Take last year's overhead, divide by last year's revenue, and that percentage is the floor.
- Does the deposit cover the material invoice you are about to sign for?
- Is the tax line named the way your province names it, at the rate your province charges?
QuotingAI Does This On Every Line Item Automatically
Describe the job, and every line comes back priced from your own cost and margin, with your province's tax and your deposit already on it. The client e-signs and pays the deposit by card from the same link. This calculator is one job; that is every job.