Why do my quotes lose money even when I win the job?

Because the quote was built on a feel for the price instead of true cost. The two costs most often missed are the fully loaded cost of labour (rate plus payroll taxes, CNESST, benefits and unbillable time) and overhead. If those aren't in the number, you eat them on every job, and winning at that price just means more unprofitable work.

What margin should I add to a quote?

There's no universal number, it depends on your trade, risk and overhead, but the principle is fixed: margin goes on top of fully loaded true cost, and you set a minimum you won't go below. The mistake isn't the percentage, it's treating margin as the thing you cut to win a job. Decide your floor and hold it.

How do I know if my pricing is actually working?

Compare quoted margin to actual margin after each job. If you never close that loop, the same estimating error repeats for years. Tracking it per job, per client type and per crew tells you which work makes money and makes every future quote more accurate. That feedback loop is what separates contractors who grow profit from those who just grow revenue.

ARCSET GUIDE

How to Quote a Job So It Doesn't Lose Money

Short answer: a quote loses money when it's built on a feel for the price instead of the real cost of the work. To quote so every job pays, you build it from the ground up: materials, labour including burden, equipment, overhead, then a target margin on top, not a discount to win it. A job you win at a loss is worse than a job you lose.

Last updated: 2026-07-07 · By Arcset · Québec, Canada

1. Start from true cost, not the last guy's price

The true cost of a job is everything it takes to deliver it: materials at today's price, labour hours, equipment and consumables, plus the cost of getting there and setting up. Pricing off what you charged last year, or what you think the client will accept, hides whichever of those costs went up. Materials and wages move every season. If your number doesn't move with them, your margin is quietly shrinking on every quote.

2. Put the real cost of labour in the quote

Labour is where most quotes bleed. The cost of an employee isn't their hourly rate, it's the rate plus payroll taxes, CNESST, vacation, benefits and the unbillable time between jobs. That burden can add 30 to 50% on top of the wage. If you quote at the bare hourly rate, you're eating that gap on every job. Use the fully loaded cost of an hour, and count the realistic hours, including setup, teardown and the part that always takes longer than planned.

3. Add margin on top, don't discount to win

Once you have true cost, margin is what you add on top to actually make money and absorb the jobs that go sideways. It is not the part you cut to win a price war. Dropping your margin to beat a competitor means you take on all the risk and effort of the job for almost nothing, and one bad job wipes out three good ones. Decide your minimum margin and hold it. The jobs you lose on price were rarely going to be profitable anyway.

4. Check the margin after the job, every time

A quote is a prediction. The only way it gets better is comparing what you quoted to what the job actually cost. Most owners never close that loop, so the same estimating mistake repeats on every similar job for years. When you track quoted margin against real margin per job, you find out which job types, which clients and which crews actually make money, and your next quote is sharper because of it.

The system does the math so you don't guess

Quoting on true cost and tracking margin per job is simple in theory and never happens in practice, because it's too much to hold in your head between sites. Arcset builds the system that prices from your real costs, tracks quoted margin against actual, and shows you which work makes money, so soumissionner stops being a gamble.

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