Work out what you should actually charge — not what the last guy charged. Five tabs, live formulas, built for solo handymen and small crews.
Download the spreadsheet (.xlsx)Most handymen undercharge, and it usually isn't because they don't know their trade. It's because they price off what someone else charges instead of off what their own business costs to run.
The figure that does the most damage is billable hours. An eight-hour day is almost never eight billable hours. Drive time between jobs, supply runs, writing quotes, sending invoices, and chasing payment are all real hours you cannot put on a customer's bill. Most solo handymen bill five to six hours of an eight-hour day.
Price your work off eight and you will lose money quietly, all year, on jobs that felt profitable. This spreadsheet asks for billable hours specifically, and it will hand you an uncomfortable number the first time you fill it in honestly. That number is the point.
It also separates your wage from your profit. Paying yourself for your time is not the same as the business making money — a job at zero margin still covered your hourly rate; it just didn't fund your next truck, your slow months, or your growth.
1. Fill in the yellow cells on "Your Hourly Rate." Your take-home target, your annual overhead, and — honestly — how many hours a day you can actually bill. It returns your break-even rate and a recommended rate with margin on top.
2. Check "Job Price List." Ten common handyman jobs price themselves off your rate, each shown beside the typical US market range. If your numbers land far outside that range, go back and re-check your billable hours.
3. Build a real estimate. The "Estimate Builder" tab totals line items, materials markup, and tax.
4. Log what actually happened. "Job Profit Log" compares what you quoted against what the job really cost. After about ten jobs, sort by margin — the job types at the bottom are the ones to re-price or stop taking.
Yes. No email, no signup, no trial. Click the button and the Excel file downloads. We built it because handymen who price properly are exactly the people who end up needing quoting software — but the spreadsheet works fine on its own if you never touch WrenchBid.
A standard .xlsx workbook. It opens in Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, Google Sheets (File → Import), and LibreOffice. Every formula is live — change your overhead or billable hours and every price on the sheet updates.
Most US handymen charge $50–$100 per hour, but that range is a market check, not an answer. Your number depends on your overhead, how many hours you can actually bill, and the profit margin you want. The spreadsheet works it out from your own figures rather than an average.
Because they are not the same number, and confusing them is the most common handyman pricing mistake. An 8-hour day is rarely more than 5–6 billable hours once you subtract drive time, supply runs, quoting, invoicing, and chasing payment. Price off 8 and you quietly lose money on every job.
The rate calculator, estimate builder, and profit log work for any trade — only the job price list is handyman-specific. If you want a different trade, our free pricing calculators cover 33 of them.
Free, no email required. Then, when typing estimates in a truck gets old, WrenchBid builds the same quote by voice in about 30 seconds.
Download the spreadsheet (.xlsx) Or try WrenchBid free →