Electrician quote calculator
Price electrical work from separate labor, parts, and expense lines, using rates you type yourself. The estimate shows your cost, discount, and profit. The customer preview and the printed quote show the selling price without that internal detail.
Give feedback on this calculator. Leave out prices and customer details.
What to include
- Labor. Time on site for rough-in, trim, panel work, testing, and cleanup. If a helper is on the job, include the hours you want this quote to recover.
- Materials and parts. Devices, cable, boxes, breakers, fittings, and consumables you buy for this job. Enter what you expect to pay, or your marked-up material cost if you already build markup into that number.
- Additional expenses. Permit or inspection fees, parking, equipment rental, and a travel cost if you bill travel as money rather than hours. Count each cost once.
- Tax. Leave tax out unless you want a specific tax amount included as an expense. This page does not look up sales tax.
On the job
- A service call can be a short number of hours, a flat amount in additional expenses, or both. Use the amounts you actually intend to charge. This website does not suggest a call-out fee.
- If the customer supplies fixtures, enter materials as what you will still buy, or 0 if you buy nothing.
- Do not add the same travel twice, once in hours and again as a flat fee, unless you mean to charge for both.
How the quote is calculated
Each line cost is quantity times the unit price you enter, rounded to the nearest cent. Direct cost adds the labor lines, the material lines, and the other expense lines. The target final price is direct cost divided by (1 − margin ÷ 100). Margin is profit as a share of that final selling price, not a markup added on top of cost.
With a discount, the price before discount is the target divided by (1 − discount ÷ 100). The discount amount is that pre-discount price multiplied by the discount, rounded to the nearest cent, and the final price is the pre-discount price minus the discount. The list price is raised so the discount does not pull the selling price below the margin target. A margin or discount of 100% or more is rejected. Cent rounding can move the actual margin slightly. Your estimate shows both figures. The printed quote shows customer prices and the discount, not your costs or margin.
Arithmetic example, not a suggested price. Suppose the line costs you entered add up to 800 in the currency you selected, your margin is 20%, and your discount is 10%. The target final price is 800 ÷ 0.80 = 1,000. A 20% markup on 800 would have been 960, which is a different question. Profit here is 200, which is 20% of 1,000. The price before discount is 1,000 ÷ 0.90 = 1,111.11. The discount is 111.11, and the customer still pays 1,000. Overhead, tax, and costs you did not enter are not inside that profit.
Questions
Where should a trip charge or service fee go?
Put a flat fee in additional expenses. Put travel time in labor hours if you want it paid at your hourly rate. Use one of those, or both only when both are real charges.
Does this add a markup on top of my material cost?
No. Each material line is added at the quantity and unit price you enter. Profit comes from the margin, which is a share of the final selling price. If a unit price is already marked up, the page does not add another materials markup.
Can I include a permit or inspection fee?
Yes. Put that fee in additional expenses. The calculator does not know local permit prices, so type the fee you expect to pay.
Why is the price before discount higher than the final quote?
The discount is taken off the quote. The price before discount is raised so the amount after the discount still meets the margin you entered. If the discount is 0, those two prices match.
Will this tell me the going rate in my city?
No. It only calculates from the numbers you type. It is not a wage survey or a parts catalog.
Job categories
The category menu only fills the job title. Lighting installation, outlet or switch replacement, circuit wiring, and panel-related work are labels, not prices. Use a labor line for the hours and a materials line for the devices, cable, or breakers you will supply. Buttons under each group insert a description so you still type the quantity and unit price.
Common estimating mistakes
- Entering a markup in the margin field. The example above prices 800 at 1,000 for a 20% margin, and at 960 for a 20% markup.
- Counting travel as hours and again as an expense.
- Reading estimated profit as money you will keep after tax, overhead, or a callback.
- Sending the printout without reading the customer preview. That preview hides unit costs and margin on purpose.
Other calculators
If the job is mostly another trade, use that calculator. The math is the same. The prompts match the work.
Read how the site treats your entries in the privacy policy, and what a result is not in the terms of use. The calculation runs in your browser and does not upload the form. A saved draft stays in this browser until you delete it or clear site data.