MERCER LANE PRESS
Construction Job Profit Calculator
Check one job's revenue, costs and profit. Use final actual costs for a completed job, or your forecast final costs for work in progress. Blank inputs count as zero.
Check your job
All amounts are US dollars. Include only approved changes in revenue. Use the same cost and tax basis throughout. Values stay in this browser page and are not uploaded or stored.
What does your job profit mean?
Revised revenue is the original contract plus approved change orders. Direct job costs include materials, labour, subcontractors, equipment and other job expenses. Gross profit is revenue less those direct costs. If you enter company overhead, contribution after overhead shows what remains after that allocation.
A positive result gives a cost cushion before the job becomes loss-making. A negative result shows how far costs exceed revenue. Neither result tells you how much cash is in the bank: customer invoices, cash received and unpaid supplier bills are separate questions.
A worked construction example
A contractor quotes $40,000 and obtains approval for $1,500 of additional work. Final costs are $10,000 materials, $12,000 labour, $5,000 subcontractors, $1,000 equipment and $2,000 other costs. Revised revenue is $41,500 and direct cost is $30,000. Gross profit is $11,500 and gross margin is 27.71%.
With $3,000 allocated company overhead, total cost becomes $33,000, contribution is $8,500 and margin after overhead is 20.48%. Markup on total cost is 25.76%. These fictional figures demonstrate the method and are not recommended prices or rates.
Compare your estimate with actual costs
Switch on the comparison to enter your original assumptions alongside the job's actual or forecast result. A positive cost variance means costs increased; a negative cost variance means costs decreased. Profit variance works in the opposite direction: positive means more profit, negative means less.
For an active job, include both incurred costs and your expected remaining costs. Entering only today's spending can make an unfinished job look more profitable than it is. Check what changed in scope, quantities, prices and labour hours before adjusting future estimates.
Margin versus markup
Margin measures profit as a share of revenue. Markup measures profit as a share of cost. Cost of $100 and price of $125 produces $25 profit: 20% margin and 25% markup. Percentages are undefined when their denominator is zero, so the calculator shows an em dash.
Manage the whole job lifecycle
The calculator evaluates one job. Mercer Lane Construction Estimating & Job Costing Toolkit PRO helps you build estimates, create quotes, capture accepted baselines, track incurred costs and changes, forecast profit, compare estimate versus actual and review completed jobs across a portfolio.
Explore Toolkit PRO — US$19.99The complete v3.2 package includes separate Estimate & Quote Builder and Job Cost & Profit Control workbooks, worked demos, five bonus tools, forms and guides. One-time purchase: US$19.99 plus applicable tax. The toolkit runs in Excel desktop. It supports your estimating and job reviews; it does not replace your accounting system.
Frequently asked questions
Which costs should I include?
Include costs incurred for the job, including supplier and subcontractor invoices that have not yet been paid. Use an internal burdened labour cost rate if that is how you estimate. Include nonrecoverable purchase tax once; use a consistent revenue basis that excludes tax collected for remittance.
Can I use this while a job is in progress?
Yes. Enter your forecast final costs, including what you expect to spend to finish. This gives a forecast result rather than a completed actual result.
Do pending changes increase revenue?
Only enter approved change orders. Work delivered before pricing or approval can reduce profit even when you hope to bill it later.
Is gross profit the same as cash received?
No. Profit compares revenue with costs. Cash received is customer money collected. You can show profit and still be waiting for payment.
Is my information saved or uploaded?
No. The calculator processes job inputs in this page and requires no account. Job values are not sent to Mercer Lane Press or analytics. The website has optional analytics controlled by your cookie choice. Reloading or clearing the page removes your entries.