Job Estimate Template for Contractors
Four documents and three sheets, including a register that closes every estimate against what the job actually cost afterwards.
Free download · No account needed
Estimate Register
[Company] — close-out, quarter ending [date]
One row per bid. The left of the sheet is the estimate, which every contractor template has. The right of it is what the job actually cost, which none of them has, and the four columns in between are where the difference went.
| Job type | Est hrs | Act hrs | Markup | Margin implied | Margin returned | Qty variance | Rate variance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Book | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Quantity variance is hours nobody estimated, priced at the rate that was used. Rate variance is the hourly figure being wrong, applied to the hours really worked. They add to the labour miss exactly, and they have completely different fixes.
Lost bids get a row too, with the markup they carried. A register holding only won work cannot compute a win rate, which is why “should I put my prices up” usually gets answered by nerve.
Every job estimate template a contractor can download is a builder. Line items, labour hours, materials, markup, overhead, tax, terms, exclusions, an expiry date. The good ones ship several layouts by job shape, or a calculator with trade presets, or price on margin instead of markup and explain the difference. All of them are forward-only. The quote goes out and nothing ever comes back to it, so a business that is systematically light on hours stays light on hours for as long as it uses one.
Marlow Electric is an invented four-electrician shop in Ohio, and its estimates use $72.00 an hour. One electrician costs $133,777 a year once wages, the employer's 7.65 per cent share of Social Security and Medicare, federal unemployment tax, state unemployment on Ohio's $9,000 wage base, workers' compensation and the van are all counted. Spread over the 1,640 hours a year that can genuinely be billed, rather than the 1,960 that get paid for, that is $81.57. The estimates are $9.57 short on every hour.
Twenty-four jobs closed over two quarters were quoted at markups implying 24.1 per cent and returned 16.2. The $11,190 gap splits into causes with different fixes. Half of it, 51.0 per cent, is that hourly rate, which is one number and one afternoon. Another 27.3 per cent is hours nobody estimated, and that error is concentrated: 23.6 per cent over on service work against 2.5 on panel upgrades, so a blanket uplift is the wrong correction. Repriced honestly, $14,682 of margin was never charged for.
What's in the pack
Estimate Register sheet
Every bid, won or lost, with the markup it carried. The won rows carry actual hours, actual materials, actual cost, the margin returned against the margin the markup implied, and the variance split into four lines that reconcile. On a monthly retainer the same close-out runs against hours bought rather than against a bid.
Cost Build sheet
One field employee costed for a whole year, then divided by the hours that can actually be billed. Paid hours, payroll taxes, workers' compensation and the vehicle on one side; travel, training, warranty and shop time subtracted on the other. The payroll taxes in it have their own filing dates.
Margin Check sheet
Markup converted to margin at every band, then the margin each job type implied set against the margin it returned. Then the hours factor per type, with a job count beside it and a provisional flag where the count is thin.
Where the Estimates Went Wrong
The quarterly read. The four causes ranked by what each cost, why a blanket uplift is the wrong correction, and what the win rate by band does and does not prove. It ends on one paragraph naming what to change first.
Estimate Format
The layout, and the reason each field is on it. Two exist purely so the close-out works: the job type in the register's own words, and who estimated it. Neither is on a downloadable template, which is why neither gets recorded.
Assumptions and Exclusions
How a price stops being an opening position. Every assumption names a condition, a consequence with a figure, and who checks it on the day. They are written from the register's notes on jobs that already went wrong.
Terms Note and eight prompts
Validity, payment stages, change orders and warranty in plain language, plus the written method behind all of it. What the jobs actually earn by service line is the question after this one.
How it works
- 1
Take the files or install the pack
Four documents and three sheets as Word and CSV files with no account, or install the whole thing into a private Space with the agent already primed on the measurement method behind each sheet.
- 2
Send one employee's year and twenty finished jobs
Payroll, vehicle and insurance for one field employee, plus the timesheet split between billable and unbillable. Then finished jobs with the estimate as sent and the actual cost afterwards.
- 3
Get the hourly rate first, then the split
What one billable hour really costs against the rate on the estimates, per hour and per quarter. Then how much of the gap is that rate and how much is hours nobody estimated, ranked by what each cost.
- 4
Set a factor per job type and reprice the pipeline
One hours factor per type with its job count, then the live quotes rerun through the corrected cost base. A factor that never reaches a quote has changed nothing, so the difference gets reported in dollars.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. Four documents, three sheets and eight prompts with no signup and no card, and they are the same files the agent works in. Editing with AI is the optional path, where your own payroll and job history become the hourly rate and the register is built on them rather than on worked examples.
What format are the downloaded files?
CSV for the Cost Build, the Margin Check and the Estimate Register, and Word for the four documents, zipped together. Excel, Numbers, Sheets, Word and Pages open them directly with nothing to install and nothing to convert first.
I have never tracked what jobs actually cost. Can I still use it?
Yes, and the cost build is worth doing on its own. It needs one employee's payroll and a timesheet, not job costing, and on the worked example it is 51.0 per cent of the miss. Start closing jobs out from today, alongside the four numbers you already watch, and the rest follows in a quarter.
Why split the overrun instead of using one percentage?
Because the two halves have different fixes. The rate error is the same on every job and is corrected once in the pricebook. The hours error is concentrated: 23.6 per cent on service work against 2.5 on panel upgrades, so a single figure underprices one and prices you out of the other.
Does this tell me to raise my prices?
No, and it argues against doing it first. On a cost base that is wrong, a higher markup makes the accurate work uncompetitive without fixing the inaccurate work. Fix the rate and the factors, then read the win rate by band on a quarter of bids priced properly.
What is markup versus margin, in one line?
Markup is added to cost, margin is the share of the price left over. A 30 per cent markup is a 23.1 per cent margin, and keeping 30 needs a markup of 42.9. Every quote here states both, because reporting one as the other is the commonest arithmetic error in trade pricing.
Does this replace my estimating software?
No. It reads what the estimates and invoices already hold and adds the loop none of them close. What the returned paperwork does to the start date is a different question, and when the money actually lands is another. Whether the week has the hours at all is the capacity model.
Find out what an hour of your own labour actually costs
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open it in River, send one employee's year and twenty finished jobs, and get the rate and the split back first.
Edit with AI