Guide · Pricing
Flat-rate pricing for plumbers and HVAC techs
One price per repair, worked out once, quoted the same way every time.
A flat rate is one price per repair, set before you arrive: (average hours for the task + travel time) × your hourly rate + parts at your markup, rounded. At $140 an hour and 100% markup on small parts, replacing a run capacitor (0.75 hours, $22 part) comes to about $185. Write the price down once, quote it the same way every time, and review it when your costs change.
Flat rate vs. time and materials
With time and materials, the customer pays for the hours you actually spend plus parts. With flat rate, they pay a set price for the repair no matter how long it takes. Customers like knowing the number before you start, and you stop getting paid less for being fast. The trade-off is that a job that goes long costs you, so the averages have to be honest.
The formula
- Hourly rate. What an hour has to bring in to cover your costs, your pay and profit, not what you'd like to earn per hour on the tools. Work it out in how to calculate your hourly rate.
- Average task time. How long the repair takes you on a normal day, including setup, cleanup and explaining the work. Use your own jobs, not the fastest time you've ever done it.
- Travel. Either add a fixed slice of time to every repair (the example below uses 15 minutes) or charge a separate trip fee. Pick one and stay consistent.
- Parts at markup. Your cost times your markup. Many techs mark small parts up more and big-ticket equipment less, so a water heater doesn't price itself out of the market. See markup vs. margin so you know what a markup actually earns.
- Round. To a clean number. $185 reads better than $184.
A worked price book
Assumptions for this example: $140 an hour, 15 minutes of travel on every repair, 100% markup on parts under $500 and 30% on parts over $500. Use your own numbers.
| Repair | Hours + travel | Labor | Parts cost | Parts price | Flat rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Replace run capacitor | 0.75 + 0.25 | $140.00 | $22.00 | $44.00 | $185 |
| Replace contactor | 0.75 + 0.25 | $140.00 | $28.00 | $56.00 | $195 |
| Reset toilet with new wax ring | 1.0 + 0.25 | $175.00 | $12.00 | $24.00 | $199 |
| Replace 50-gallon gas water heater | 4.0 + 0.25 | $595.00 | $1,050.00 | $1,365.00 | $1,960 |
Example numbers only, not market prices. The job price calculator does this math for any job.
Notice the water heater: at 100% markup the part alone would be $2,100 and the job would land around $2,700. Tiering the markup keeps big-ticket installs competitive while small repairs still carry your overhead.
What goes in each line
- A name the customer recognizes: "Replace run capacitor," not a part number.
- What's included: part, labor, disposal of the old part, testing.
- What isn't: "Does not include refrigerant" or "Does not include shutoff valve replacement if the old one fails." Exclusions are where flat-rate jobs lose money.
Keeping the book current
- When your supplier raises prices, update the parts lines that use those parts, not the whole book.
- Once or twice a year, check your hourly rate against your costs and adjust every line at once. See how to raise your prices.
- When a repair keeps running long, raise its average time. That's the line that's losing money.
Buying a price book vs. building your own
Subscription flat-rate price books are sold for plumbing, HVAC and electrical work, with thousands of tasks and suggested times. They're a fast start for a shop with several techs. A solo tech who does the same thirty repairs most weeks can usually build those thirty lines in an evening from their own invoices, and their own times are more accurate than a national average.
Flat rate in Settle
Settle doesn't ask you to type in a price book first. Every price you send on an estimate is remembered, so the next time you say "replace the run capacitor," the line comes back at your price. If Settle has to guess a price it hasn't seen from you, it marks the line with an orange dot so you check it before sending. Over a few weeks of normal estimates, your book builds itself.
Questions
Is flat-rate pricing better than hourly?
For repeatable repairs, usually yes: customers get a number up front and fast techs aren't penalized. For open-ended work like hunting a hidden leak, time and materials or a diagnostic fee followed by a flat-rate repair is fairer to both sides.
Should travel be in the flat rate or separate?
Either works. Folding it into every repair keeps the estimate simple; a separate trip or diagnostic fee is easier to explain when the customer declines the repair. See whether to charge for estimates.
How much should I mark up parts?
There's no single right number. Many techs use a higher markup on small parts and a lower one on large equipment. Whatever you pick, make sure the total covers your overhead; the markup vs. margin guide shows what each markup earns.
This guide is general information. The prices above are examples to show the math, not recommended prices for your market.
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