Running the Business · Part 2
Template: the price-book starter. Forty service tasks, each with the line that builds its price
A price book is forty tasks and one formula. This template gives the forty tasks a residential service plumber quotes most, grouped so the book can be carried on two pages, with a line under each task for the labor units, materials, and computed price, and marks which tasks can go on the service and repair contract and which are always a home improvement contract. Two tasks are worked through so the format is clear. Fill the units from your own jobs, compute the prices once from your own rates, and rebuild the book whenever the rates at the top change.
What the full lesson covers
- Every task is priced once, with the worksheet formula: (hours × loaded rate) + (hours × overhead rate) + materials tax-paid + pass-throughs + contingency, divided by (1 − margin).
- Mark the form for each task. Anything that will exceed $750, or that you sold rather than the customer requesting, is a home improvement contract regardless of how it was quoted.
- The service charge is a separate book item, charged once per visit, and its treatment (applied to the work or not) is stated on the book and on the phone.
- Publish the common prices where customers look. A published price is a promise under B&P 7161(e).
- Rebuild the book when the loaded rate, overhead rate, or supply-house costs move; date the book.
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- 11Template: the estimate worksheet, blank and worked
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