And they need clearly informed that if those big ticket items run into warranty issues your warranty only applies to potential installation errors and you have nothing to do with honoring any portion of factory warranties on those items, including any initial diagnosis that determines it is factory warranty issue.
On the flip side of that, my old employer's standard terms made clear that if the warranty issue was the product installed, the customer was not going to get the re-installation labor for free. Contractors certainly test the installed equipment after installation, but this only catch the DOA's, not the early mortality events.
I certainly hope if one isn't taking a markup they should be expected to do anything warranty related for free. If you sold it I can understand they may expect you to handle any warranty issues, with any compensation being between you and the manufacturer or supplier. But if you the customer buys it yourself don't expect me to do any warranty work at all for free, other than if it were installation issues that I would have been responsible for.
Pardon, I should have made clear that this was for any contractor supplied items. We'd handle the warranty issues with the manufacturer, but few if any manufacturers will compensate you for your labor. Hence, the company policy. Enforcement was...fungible. Long time customers, not so much. One time installs, much more so.
Beyond that, figure some percentage as a standard markup, probably on a sliding scale that goes down as the total amount of material goes up. Then add another line item to your pricing form for how much profit you want to make on a particular job. It is probably worth having a lower profit expectation on customers that give you a lot of repeat business than with those who are a one time shot.
That's probably the worst idea I've seen, if you mean adding a "profit" line to an invoice a customer sees.
multiplier, 1.2 x price paid.
I think some of you are overthinking. Most customers just do not care what you charge them for parts versus labor. They know there are a lot of silly games contractors play with that and really most focus on the total price.
I would try and move whatever overhead there is in selecting, receiving, and moving parts around into direct labor. That is where it is going to end up in reality. It seems silly to me to try and hide some direct labor in the form of a markup, especially when the only one who cares about it is the contractor.
I think you need to have some markup on material to accommodate some contingencies. You might miscount how many wire nuts or screws you need.
For service work, I would just have a fixed price for common items used that covers the cost of the material and some reasonable markup. The time spent chasing parts, writing up invoices, and refilling the bins ought to be direct labor though. But to simplify things, you could just charge $10 for a receptacle replacement for parts. That would cover the receptacle, cover, and wire nuts, and whatever overhead there is to getting replacements for the parts you used.
On service work, I've been marking up 100% on basic materials, and 30% on larger items or components.
If I'm doing a T&M job, I count every single item.
Yes it adds up, but at same seems a little overboard to me.
