Markup vs margin
A 30% markup is not a 30% margin.
Markup is what you add to your costs. Margin is the share of the price you keep. Mix the two up and every quote quietly gives part of the profit away. Put a job's numbers in and see both.
The job
Your time at your day rate, not what you hope to make.
The difference, on one job
£600 of materials and £400 of labour is £1,000 of cost. Add 30% markup and the quote is £1,300 — £300 of profit. But £300 out of £1,300 is a 23.1% margin, not 30%. The markup is measured against your costs; the margin is measured against the price. Same job, two different numbers.
Why the gap bites when you discount
Knock 10% off that £1,300 quote to win the job and the price drops £130. Your costs don't drop with it — the whole £130 comes out of the £300 profit. Nearly half the profit gone, for a discount that sounded small. Knowing the margin tells you how much room a quote really has.
Which one should you use?
Quote with markup — it starts from costs you know. But judge the job by its margin, because the margin is what you live on. If you've got a margin in mind, the calculator shows the markup that actually gets you there — it's always a bigger number than the margin itself.
The margin you worked out here is a plan. grafter.ly tells you what actually happened: labour and materials split on the quote, receipts against the job, and what was left once it was paid. How the job figures work.
Keep the margin you meant to make.
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