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	Subject - Estimating Jorren Hello all, I am a master electrician with my contractors lic. in Michigan. I currently work full time doing utilty work (primarily substations, breaker maint and calibration, etc.) I plan on doing some part time contracting work. The residential-small commercial contractor I worked for years ago NEVER let us see his pricing for jobs. The jobs I do now at work full time really dont apply price wise for residential / small commercial (unless you know someone who wants a 25,000 kva 120 kv to 13.2 kv transformer installed in their garage!)Where are some good resources I can turn to to help price some of my jobs? My over head is not too much (work out of house, have my truck, licese(s), insurance, and the other usual stuff) I obviously want to make a profit (who doesn't--I need profit-not practice!) but dont want to overprice my stuff. I understand approximate times I need to do the various jobs, my problem is do I include my overhead and profit into one neat figure to add on each job (time to do job x labor rate + material + overhead (don't know how to calculate )+ profit (again, another unknown as to what is fair) Thanks for reading..... Jorren P.S. I'm in a small town in Michigan for reference.. John A. Peters The current wisdom is to do a "break even" calculation. Search a calculator program online, usually not a download, just fill in the blanks with a browser. I will do the same for my own knowledge. Any one else know a good break even calculator program? Shorter answer, Yes put all those things in to a single hourly rate, Plus double your pre-tax parts cost Now you can work T&M If customers think your rate is high then graduate to a single number per outlet, or task. One way is with a flat rate book. There is a thread here that will get you started down that road. Do not try to be the low price leader. That is for bids, not for service work and small jobs. Contracting is not a comedy unless there are detailed blueprints. If there are, stay away for now, unless you are the only bidder. I am going to put some break even calculators in a new thread. wandering sparky John, A funny thing happend while I was putting some numbers into an estimating progam I found for my palm pilot. To make a long story short, I wound up doing about the same thing you suggested. Thanks for all the input. I know we all appreciate it.