Costing and pricing is a key issue in tendering and quoting for work and it must be correct and commercially attractive. A common problem with how to calculate markup price is getting simple mathematics wrong.
When pricing a tender or quote people start with quantities and costs for labour and materials. A markup is added to the cost. e.g. for a cost base of $2,000 add 20% – equals a sell price of $2,400.
WHERE DOES THIS FALL DOWN?
It falls down in the language and assumptions. The boss says “the job margin target is 20%” and staff use this figure and slot it into the markup %. When this happens the actual margin then drops to 17% (see our calculated example below)
With actual cost blowouts in job delivery, the margin often ends up less than 10%, sometimes down to low single digit percentages. You then have to try and cover overheads and end up with a profit for shareholders.
In our calculated example below you can see that the effect on the dollars is 20% extra gross profit by getting it right i.e. $500 instead of $400. Now imagine getting this wrong on much bigger jobs or lots of them.
Well worth thinking about!
How to Calculate your Mark-up
Gross Margin Calculator
| Cost | $2,000.00 |
| Markup (20%) | $400.00 |
| Sale Price | $2,400.00 |
| Gross Margin – Markup/Sale Price (17%) | $400.00 |
Markup Calculator
| Gross Margin (Markup/Sale Price) | 20% |
| Sale Price | $2,500.00 |
| Cost | $2,000.00 |
| Mark-Up | $500.00 |
| Markup Percent | 25% |
