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Flat-rate pricing examples

The fastest way to understand a flat-rate price book is to see one. This guide shows example entries for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical jobs, in the form they would take in a finished book.

Read this first: every price below is an example. These are not quotes for your shop, not prices from any real business, and not recommendations for what you should charge. They exist to show the shape of a good entry: a job name, one price, and a short note on what is included. Your prices depend on your labor rate, your part costs, your overhead, and your local market. Use the examples as a starting shape, then price each job from your own costs, using the steps in how to build a flat-rate price book.

How to read these examples

Each entry has three parts. The job name is what the tech searches for, written the way the crew says it. The price is one number for the standard case of that job. The note says what is included and what is not, in one or two plain sentences. If the note needs more than two sentences, the job is probably two jobs, and it should be two entries.

Notice what the entries do not do. They do not list part numbers. They do not show an hourly rate. They do not say the price depends. A flat-rate entry is a promise: this job, this price, this is what is included. When a job genuinely varies, for example by equipment size, keep a separate entry for each size instead of a range. The tech quotes the entry that matches the job in front of them.

HVAC examples

HVAC entries split into diagnostics, maintenance, repairs, and installs. A diagnostic is priced as a visit, because the customer is buying an answer, not a part. A repair is priced as a complete job, part and labor together. An install is priced as a complete job too, including standard parts and labor, with the exceptions written into the note.

These are examples, not quotes. A capacitor replacement in your shop might cost more or less than $245, depending on your part cost, your labor rate, and your overhead. The entry shape is what matters: job name, one price, what is included, what is not.

Plumbing examples

Plumbing entries work the same way. The diagnostic visit is priced as a visit. Repairs are priced as complete jobs. Fixture replacements include the fixture at a standard grade, with the note saying so, so the customer knows what the price covers and the tech knows when to quote an upgrade.

Notice the leak repair entry. It prices the standard case, one accessible leak, and says plainly what happens when the job is not standard. The tech quotes $195 for the job in front of them, and the customer is not surprised when a wall has to be opened, because the entry already said so.

Electrical examples

Electrical entries follow the same shape. Small jobs are priced as complete jobs, not by the hour, because the customer cannot see the clock and the shop should not be punished for a fast tech. Larger jobs like panel upgrades are priced as complete jobs with the exceptions written into the note.

The EV charger entry shows why the note matters. One shop includes the charger unit in the price, another does not, and the customer has no way to know which one they are buying unless the entry says so. Write what is included, in plain words, and the quote means the same thing to everyone who reads it.

How to turn examples into your prices

Take one example entry and rebuild it from your own numbers. Start with the part, at the price you actually pay. Add the labor, at your shop rate for the time the job usually takes, including the drive. Add overhead, your monthly overhead divided by the number of jobs you do in a month. Add margin, the profit that keeps the shop open. The total is your price. Round it to a clean number and write it in the book.

Do this for your 10 most common jobs first. Do not try to price the whole book in one sitting. Ten honest prices, used every day, are worth more than a hundred prices guessed in an afternoon. Add the rest over the following weeks, from real jobs, as they come up.

Then test the prices. If a job keeps taking longer than the book allows, the price is wrong or the job is wrong, and both are worth knowing. Raise the price, split the job into two entries, or stop doing it. A price book that never changes is a price book nobody is watching. Review the whole book every quarter and update the prices that have moved.

What to include in every entry

Every entry needs the same three things. A name your techs will recognize, written the way the crew says the job. A flat price, one number for the standard case. And a short note on what is included and what is not, in one or two plain sentences. If the note needs a paragraph, split the job into two entries.

That is the whole shape. The examples above follow it, and your entries should too. Start with the steps in how to build a flat-rate price book, use these examples as the shape, and build your book from your own costs.

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