How Markup Works

Last Updated By Michael Croteau

Updated at May 12th, 2022

Below your project details, you’ll find the “Markup” section. This is where you will add markup percentages to your project. 

You have three markup settings: “Material”, “Labor”, and “Subcontractor”. These allow you to set your markup percentages for each of the three types of costs:


Parts can have any combination of material, labor, and subcontractor cost. 

The costs we include in our library are the cost to you. Then, you can markup each cost category separately. Let's imagine we have a part for providing and installing cabinets. The costs for that part might look like this:

Materials- $500

Labor- $100

Total- $600

It is important to remember that this is the cost before any markup is applied (the cost to you - not the customer.) 

Now, let’s decide our markup percentages. You can adjust markup using the + and – buttons:


In this example, we'll use these markup percentages: 

Materials- 50%

Labor- 25%

These percentages will be used to calculate the markup for all of the material and labor costs in the project. Let's see how the markup gets calculated, in dollars: 

Materials- $500 x 50% = $250

Labor- $100 x 25% = $25

Total- $275

The total costs for the project will be:

Materials- $500 + $250 = $750

Labor- $100 + $25 = $125

Total Cost- $875

Now you see how markup is applied to your parts. You can set your default markup percentages (so you don’t have to change them for each project) in Options-> Miscellaneous. 

Want to markup an individual line item?

No problem! We've got a walkthrough guide for that too!

Overview

In this example, we'll show how you can customize the markup for one particular line-item. Its extremely easy to do, let's take a look!

Simple Steps:

Let's say your item is using 50% markup for Material, Labor, and Subcontractor costs (this is the default in Clear Estimates) but you want to use 25% for Materials, 10% for Labor, and 75% for Subcontractor costs. Well, that's easy!

  1. First, Open the Part from your project by clicking the pencil
  2. In the "Material Cost Calculation" section, click the "Markup" dropdown on the right side
  3. Un-check the "Use Project Markup" box
  4. Type in 25% for the Material Markup
  5. [OptionalRepeat these steps for the Labor and Subcontractor costs

See It In Action!



You can see which items have custom markup from your Projects page. Simply find the blue icon in the item's total: 

If you hover over the blue dot, you can see the markup breakdown: 



Hope this helps! 



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