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Small Business tool

Proposal Pricing Calculator

Build a service proposal price from internal delivery cost, expenses, contingency and target profit margin.

Price a service proposal

Estimate delivery cost first, then add contingency and solve for a target margin.

Base delivery cost—
Cost incl. contingency—
Target proposal price—
Target profit—

How the calculation works

Base delivery cost = estimated hours × loaded cost per hour + project expenses. Contingency increases that cost by the entered percentage. Target proposal price = cost including contingency ÷ (1 − target margin).

How to use the result

Use the output as a financial floor or reference before applying value-based pricing, strategic discounts, scope risk and commercial judgment. Explicit contingency can reduce the temptation to hide uncertainty inside an inflated hour estimate.

Assumptions and limitations

Estimate accuracy depends on scope quality and the internal cost rate. The model does not automatically include taxes, payment fees, sales commission, bad debt or change requests unless those are represented in the inputs.

Example

A 30% target margin requires a higher price than applying a 30% markup to cost because margin uses selling price as its denominator.

Frequently asked questions

Why is target margin different from markup?
Margin is profit divided by selling price, while markup is profit divided by cost. They produce different prices.
Should contingency be part of profit?
In this calculator contingency increases the modeled delivery cost before profit margin is added.
Can I use this for fixed-price proposals?
Yes. It is especially useful for testing whether a fixed price covers estimated delivery cost and target margin.
Does this tell me what clients will pay?
No. It is a cost-and-margin model; willingness to pay and value delivered require commercial judgment.