Material and Labour Cost Calculator

What does this tool calculate?

It collects the cost of a job under three headings: material, labour and equipment. It then adds the waste allowance, overhead, profit and VAT to arrive at the quote total. If you enter the production quantity it also gives the unit cost and the unit selling price. You can save the lines under a project name in this browser, download the result as CSV or print it.

Order of calculation

• Material = Σ quantity × unit price
• Waste = material × waste percentage
• Labour = Σ workers × hours × hourly rate
• Equipment = Σ units × days × daily rent
• Subtotal = material + waste + labour + equipment
• Overhead = subtotal × overhead percentage
• Cost = subtotal + overhead
• Profit = cost × profit percentage
• Total before VAT = cost + profit
• VAT = total before VAT × VAT rate
• Grand total = total before VAT + VAT

An example

120 kg of steel section at 38.50 per kilogram comes to 4620. With 5 percent waste the material is 4851. Two welders working 16 hours at an hourly rate of 250 cost 8000. The subtotal of these two lines is 12851, with 10 percent overhead the cost is 14136.10, and with 20 percent profit the quote before VAT is 16963.32.

Costing by weight

Steel is usually bought at a price per kilogram. On a material line, enter the total weight in kg as the quantity and the price per kilogram as the unit price. If you do not know the weight, work it out first with a section weight calculator.

Things to keep in mind

• Profit is added on top of cost. Adding 25 percent to the cost means a 20 percent margin within the selling price. The tool shows both.
• Waste applies to the material amount only, not to labour or equipment.
• The VAT rate depends on the country, the year and the type of work. The tool does not assume a rate, you enter it. If you leave it empty the total stays exclusive of VAT.
• Every amount is rounded to two decimals and totals are taken from the rounded amounts, so adding the lines by hand gives the same result.
• The result is a preliminary estimate. Ask your accountant about taxes, withholding, social security contributions and contract terms.