Originally Posted by [LEFT naytep[/left];350591]I have a formula which seams to work well in my shop.
Raw material + 15% (this includes needed scrap)
Overhead (insurance+electric+cost of the machine/lifespan)
Tooling specific to job
Total hourly age of oporator (includes any benifits )
Profit (20% generally , sometimes market will allow more)
The total gets me pretty close most of the time. The thing that is more important han the quote is getting paid. You have to run a lot of jobs to make up for one dead beat customer.
Good Luck |
naytep
has it right, I've worked as a contract administrator in both the structural steel and general contracting fields and his formula looks about right. I set up an Excel spreadsheet and input the following information:
- man-hours (I separate the general laborers from the foreman to get a more accurate price)
- raw materials (I only include the actual material used for the job, no consumables)
- consumables (when I was quoting for a welding fabrication yard I would use a "yard charge", my yard charge was $3.50 an hour and this would cover the cost of welding rods, electricity, miscellaneous bits that were needed to get the work done. But in your case you may want to line item specific consumables for more accurate quote)
- Galvanizing and or painting charge (having formulas and charts that tell the square-foot surface area of individual components really help in estimating how much painting or galvanizing is going to cost)
- sometimes I would put a CMA (cover my ass) line item charge into my bid to cover any unforeseen expenses. (I usually would only do this on jobs that were $80,000 plus)
Afterwards I would take the total and add between 15% and 20% profit to it. The spreadsheet would also add up all the man hours and automatically calculate state taxes and insurance into the final price. With this formula I would win around three out of every five bids, which really isn't that bad I think. If you want some pointers or tips on how to set up an Excel spreadsheet like this just drop me a line, I'll help out best I can.
Good luck.