Markup, burden, recap, waste, and quantities — the math you punch while an estimate is open. These are planning tools. The detailed bid and the customer proposal stay in Rapid Estimator.
Numbers stay in your browser. Nothing is saved. Results are not a quote, not cost-book pricing, and not a substitute for a takeoff.
The money tools that belong next to every estimate.
Order quantities with waste — then price them in Rapid Estimator.
SF, squares, yards, acres — without hunting for a Construction Master.
Change orders, general conditions, good/better/best — coming next.
A 20% markup is only a 16.7% margin. Confusing the two is how profitable-looking bids lose money.
| Markup | Margin | Sell price |
|---|
Your carpenter’s wage is not the number that belongs on the bid. Taxes, comp, benefits, and paid time off sit on top of it.
Stack direct cost, overhead, profit, insurance, bond, and tax the way a recap sheet does.
Not a flat 10%. Trade and complexity change what you should order.
Slab, sidewalk, or pad. Yards, order rounding, and bags.
Footprint × pitch factor. Slope factor is √(1 + (rise/12)²).
Walls, optional ceiling, door and window deductions, then sheets, screws, mud, and tape.
Area units estimators actually use.
A conversation range — not a bid.
Labor, material, remobilization, and the 10-and-5 trap.
Dumpsters, toilets, fence, supervision weeks.
Three packages, one job, clear deltas.
Copy a clean scope paragraph into the proposal.
Drawings, bonding, soils, crew — walk away when you should.
Room sheet for the jobsite — later tied to Rapid Field.
Cost books, assemblies, markups by category, proposals, and change orders live in the Windows program. Use this page in the truck or at the desk — then build the estimate that goes to the customer.