Stop guessing what to charge for each job.
See what the job needs to produce for your business before you commit to the price.
If you keep asking “How much should I charge?”, “What should my minimum be?” or “Is this job even worth my time?”, this gives you a repeatable way to put numbers behind the decision.
You know how to do the work. Pricing it is the messy part.
A customer asks “How much?” and suddenly you are combining the job, drive, store run, materials, overhead, uncertainty and the margin you actually need.
Other people's rates still do not tell you what this job needs to produce for your business.
A tiny repair can still consume a meaningful piece of the day once travel and setup are counted.
Without your own thresholds, customer pushback can turn into guesswork instead of a deliberate decision.
The job takes more than the time your tools are in your hands.
A 30-minute repair can still mean driving there, talking through the work, unloading, sourcing a part, completing the repair, cleaning up and driving away. Your business also has costs on the days those things happen.
The first number you need is not what another handyman charges. It is what this job requires from your own business.
See your thresholds before you send the price.
Instead of one guessed number, separate the economics underneath it.
Personal Pricing Engine — Handyman Edition
A reusable pricing calculator built around your own business economics. Configure your business once, then reuse the same engine on new jobs.
Configure once. Price the next job in four steps.
No AI decides what to charge. The workbook applies visible formulas to the numbers you provide.
Set your baseline
Desired owner compensation, overhead, realistic billable hours, minimum margin and target margin.
Enter the job
On-site, travel, sourcing/admin, materials, helper costs, direct costs and contingency.
Read the thresholds
Break-even, protected cost, minimum price and target price calculate automatically.
Check your price
Enter the number you were thinking of charging and see its estimated margin and classification.
Useful when the price is the question.
Count hidden time
Separate on-site, drive and sourcing/admin so a small job is not reduced to tool time alone.
Know your minimum
Ground the calculation in your costs and usable capacity.
Make uncertainty visible
Add contingency separately instead of hiding it inside profit.
Check $X before sending it
See whether your proposed price is below break-even, below minimum, viable below target or at/above target.
Run scenarios
Change time, costs, contingency or margin and see how the thresholds move.
Compare market context
Add a manual market range without allowing it to overwrite your own economics.
One complete, reusable workbook.
Personal-Pricing-Engine-Handyman-v1.0.xlsx
Works offline. No macros. No API. No account.
00_START
Quick start, definitions, common mistakes, interpretation and limitations.
01_BUSINESS_BASE
Set your economics once and create the baseline used by future jobs.
02_PRICE_A_JOB
The reusable pricing engine, Price Checker, scenarios and manual market reference.
03_WORKED_EXAMPLE
A fully solved example showing how the calculation works from input to decision.
See the math instead of trusting a black box.
The tool does not claim $700 is the “correct market price.” It shows what $700 means for the economics entered.
The job is real, but the price is still uncertain.
Small job
Count the drive and other time before deciding whether the job makes sense.
Hourly → flat rate
Build a flat rate from the economics underneath it.
Customer asks for a discount
Put the lower number into the checker and see what it leaves behind.
3 hours… or 5?
Run both scenarios before committing to the risk.
Review your minimum
Compare a typical small job against what your business baseline requires.
No hidden pricing algorithm.
The workbook uses deterministic formulas you can inspect. Follow business capacity → cost of time → direct costs → contingency → margin → price.
What this tool does not pretend to know.
Your inputs matter. This is decision support, not a guarantee of profit or customer acceptance.
Technical duration
It does not automatically know how long the work will take. You provide the estimate and can test alternatives.
What a customer will pay
It does not predict willingness-to-pay or automatically determine a local market price.
Taxes, licenses or legal scope
It does not calculate tax rules or determine whether you are licensed or legally permitted to perform a job.
Quick answers.
Is this estimating software?
It helps with the pricing decision before the estimate. It does not send estimates, invoices or manage customers.
I already use Jobber, Joist or another system. Do I need this?
Not necessarily. Personal Pricing Engine is specifically for deciding what the number means for your business before entering it into your estimating system.
Couldn't I build this myself in Excel?
Yes. The purchase saves you from designing the calculation logic, validation, workflow, interpretation and example yourself.
Do I need to know my overhead?
You need reasonable inputs. The workbook explains what overhead means and what kinds of costs to consider, but it does not invent your numbers.
What if I don't know exactly how long the job will take?
Test multiple scenarios. The workbook does not automatically estimate technical duration.
Will it tell me what customers in my area will pay?
No. You can enter a market range manually for context, but it never changes your economic calculation.
Can I reuse it?
Yes. Set the Business Base once, then reuse Price a Job for new jobs.
What do I need to open it?
Microsoft Excel or another application compatible with .xlsx files.
Digital download after successful payment once commerce and fulfillment are connected in the next stage.
Know what the job needs to produce before you commit to the number.
Configure your business once. Run the job. See your thresholds. Then make the pricing decision yourself.
Get the Tool — $49