Build a flat-rate price book for my service trade business
Flat-rate task prices built from real labor, material, and overhead costs, so every tech quotes the same profitable price.
The prompt
Help me build a flat-rate price book for my trade service business.
Trade: [PLUMBING / ELECTRICAL / HVAC / HANDYMAN]
Common tasks: [e.g. "replace toilet flapper", "install GFCI receptacle", "replace 50-gal water heater" - list 10-40]
Typical time per task: [HOURS, INCLUDING SETUP AND CLEANUP - or "estimate and mark"]
Typical material cost per task: [COSTS]
Annual overhead: [RENT, TRUCKS, INSURANCE, SOFTWARE, OFFICE STAFF, MARKETING]
Billable hours per tech per year: [e.g. "1,100 of 2,000 paid hours"]
Tech pay and burden: [WAGE, PAYROLL TAXES, BENEFITS, WORKERS' COMP]
Target net profit: [e.g. 15%]
Current service call fee and warranty policy: [DETAILS]
Steps:
1. Calculate my break-even cost per billable hour (labor + burden + overhead), showing the math.
2. Calculate the hourly selling rate that hits my target net profit.
3. Set material markup tiers (e.g. higher markup on low-cost parts).
4. Price each task: (hours x selling rate) + marked-up material, rounded to a clean number. Show a column for the margin.
5. Suggest good/better/best add-ons where natural (e.g. shut-off valve upgrade with a faucet install).
6. Flag tasks where my times or costs look unrealistic or where a fixed price is risky (unknown conditions); recommend diagnostic or T&M pricing for those.
Return: the cost and rate calculation, a price book table (Task, Hours, Material, Price, Margin %, Notes), a list of tasks to price as T&M, and rules for techs on when to deviate from the book.
Never invent costs; mark guesses as [ESTIMATE - CONFIRM]. Check pricing and disclosure rules for my state with my accountant.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Finance & Accounting prompts
What to fill in
- PLUMBING / ELECTRICAL / HVAC / HANDYMAN
- HOURS, INCLUDING SETUP AND CLEANUP - or "estimate and mark"
- COSTS
- RENT, TRUCKS, INSURANCE, SOFTWARE, OFFICE STAFF, MARKETING
- e.g. "1,100 of 2,000 paid hours"
- WAGE, PAYROLL TAXES, BENEFITS, WORKERS' COMP
- e.g. 15%
- DETAILS
- ESTIMATE - CONFIRM
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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