How to build a price book for a contracting business

Short answer: Build a price book by listing every service you sell, timing each one, and pricing it from your fully loaded hourly cost plus materials, overhead and the margin you need. Start in a spreadsheet. Buy a flat rate book or pricing software only after your own numbers exist, so the software reflects your costs, not an average.

Updated October 12, 2026. Requirements and fees change; confirm with the agency named on this page.

A price book turns "let me get back to you" into a number on the spot. Housecall Pro's definition is as plain as it gets: "A price book is a list of your services and their prices." The hard part is not the list. It is knowing what each line should cost so you stop guessing on the driveway. This guide builds one from scratch.

What goes in a contractor price book?

Every service you sell, with a name a customer understands, the time it takes, the parts it uses and the price. A plumbing book might have 150 lines. A handyman book might have 40. Start with the 20 jobs you do most. Those cover most of your revenue, and you can add the rest as they come up.

Step 1: Know your real hourly cost

Your price book is only as good as the hourly cost behind it. That is not the wage. It is wage plus payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, paid time that is not billable, and the truck, phone and insurance that ride along. Our labor burden calculator works it out from your own payroll. In Washington, workers' comp is charged per hour, so it belongs in this number.

Step 2: Add overhead per billable hour

Rent, software, advertising, the office phone and your own salary have to be paid by the hours you bill, not the hours you work. Divide monthly overhead by the hours you can bill in a month. A one-truck shop that bills 100 hours a month with $4,000 of overhead carries $40 of overhead on every billed hour (example figures). The break-even calculator does this for you.

Step 3: Time each service and price it

For each line: hours multiplied by your loaded hourly cost, plus materials at your cost, plus the overhead share, then the margin you want on top. Price the whole task, not the hour. Customers buy a fixed toilet, not 1.4 hours. Round to a clean number. Our guide on pricing a job without losing money walks through the margin math, and markup vs margin explains why a 30% markup is not a 30% margin.

Step 4: Build good, better, best where it fits

For repair and replacement work, three options at three prices let the customer choose instead of negotiate. The flat rate vendors are built around this. The New Flat Rate says: "With built-in 5-option menus, your techs stop selling and start showing". You do not need five options to start. Two or three, written down, beats one price argued over.

Do you need price book software?

Not to start. A spreadsheet with service, hours, parts and price is a price book. Software matters once technicians need it in the field or you want options presented on a tablet. Housecall Pro says "Every Housecall Pro account includes a built-in price book." and lets you "add services, set prices, and include details like taxes, durations, and photos." Jobber, Workiz and Service Fusion include similar line-item catalogs. Bought flat rate books add preloaded pricing: The New Flat Rate says pricing "starts at" ninety-nine dollars "per tech" per month. Profit Rhino sells a digital price book and a printed book but does not publish prices. Our price book software comparison lays them out side by side.

How often do you update it?

Review prices every quarter and any time a supplier raises material costs or you give a raise. A price book built in January and untouched until December quietly loses margin all year. Put the review on the same calendar as your weekly owner review.

A short build order

1. List your 20 most common services.
2. Work out your loaded hourly cost and overhead per billable hour.
3. Time each service and price it as a task.
4. Add a second and third option for repair and replacement lines.
5. Put it in a spreadsheet, then in your software when your techs need it.
6. Review every quarter.

Prices checked October 13, 2026 on each vendor’s own pricing page. Vendors change prices and plan names without notice; confirm before you buy.

This guide is general business education, not legal, tax or financial advice. Your numbers come from your own books.

Common questions

Sources

Official pages checked on 2026-10-12.

• www.housecallpro.com/features/price-book/
• www.thenewflatrate.com/
• www.profitrhino.com/pricing