Free tool

Job profit margin calculator

Contract price minus labor, materials, subs and the rest. See the real margin on the job — and what a cost overrun does to it.

Your crew's hours at their fully loaded cost.

Everything you buy for the job, with tax and delivery.

What the subs are charging you.

Permits, fees, rentals, disposal.

Profit on this job$12,200$48,500 contract − $36,300 costs
Margin25.2%Profit ÷ contract price
Markup33.6%Profit ÷ costs
Break-even overrun33.6%Costs can rise this much before the job makes nothing.
If costs run 10% over$8,57017.7% margin on $39,930 of costs

Gross profit, before overhead. If your overhead runs 10–15% of revenue, a job under about 20% margin is working for free.

Reading the numbers

  • Profit here is gross profit: the contract minus the job's direct costs. Overhead still comes out of it.
  • Margin is profit as a share of the contract price; markup is profit as a share of costs. Both describe the same dollars.
  • Break-even overrun is how far costs can climb before the job makes nothing. Under 15% means one surprise behind the drywall ends the profit.

The honest version of this calculator runs every week of the job, with the real receipts and the real change orders — that's what BuildRTX does.

Questions about job profit

What's a good profit margin for a construction job?

Gross margins of 20–35% are common for remodelers and specialty trades; new-construction general contracting often runs lower. What matters is what's left after overhead: if overhead is 12% of revenue, a 20% gross margin is an 8% net margin, and a single bad week erases it.

Why does the calculator ask what happens if costs run over?

Because they do. The break-even overrun tells you how much room the job has: at a 20% margin on costs of $40,000, a 25% overrun takes the whole profit. Knowing that number before you sign is the difference between a tight job and a loss.

Should subcontractor costs be marked up too?

Yes. You're carrying the sub's schedule, quality and warranty, and your overhead runs while they're on site. Most general contractors mark up sub costs the same as their own work, or close to it.

How does BuildRTX track this on a real job?

Contract, change orders, invoices, payments and every receipt roll up into one profit number per job, so the margin you see at the estimate is the margin you watch while the job runs. The first 3 days are free.

Know the profit while the job is still running.

BuildRTX rolls contract, change orders, payments and costs into one number you can check from the truck.

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