Boparo Free — Pricing & Quote Builder
Calculate job costs, understand your margins, and create a professional customer-ready PDF quote—all in one free tool.
The calculator needs JavaScript. Here's how it prices a typical job:
| Break-even cost | $305.40 |
|---|---|
| Suggested price | $470.00 |
| Acceptable price | $410.00 |
| Floor price | $340.00 |
The method
Every price starts from what the job costs you. Here's a half-truck job using the starter assumptions (USD, miles). Change any of them in the calculator to match your business.
| Crew time: 2 people × 1.5 hours × $35.00 | $105.00 |
|---|---|
| Vehicle: 20 mi round trip × $1.37 | $27.40 |
| Dump or disposal fees | $85.00 |
| Share of monthly fixed costs (overhead) | $88.00 |
| Break-even cost | $305.40 |
Use what one worker costs you for an hour, including payroll costs, then multiply by crew size and hours on site. Two people for 1.5 hours is three worker-hours.
Dump and transfer-station fees depend on the site, the weight and the material, and some items carry their own fees. Enter what this load will cost to drop off, and add item fees as other job costs. See the fridge example.
Insurance, truck payments, phone, software and advertising are paid whether or not you work. Divide a month of fixed costs by the jobs you do in a month: $3,520.00 ÷ 40 jobs = $88.00 per job. This is an allocation, not a cost any single job causes.
A small job still needs a drive, the crew's time and its share of fixed costs. The floor price never drops below your minimum job charge, so check that the minimum covers break-even for your smallest common load.
With a 35% target margin, the suggested price is the cost divided by (1 − 35%): $305.40 ÷ 0.65 = $469.85. Rounded up to the nearest $5.00, that's $470.00, for a margin of 35.02% and a profit of $164.60.
The acceptable price uses your 25% fallback margin ($410.00). The floor uses your 10% floor margin and never goes below break-even or your $149.00 minimum job charge ($340.00).
Add the customer's details and create the PDF on your device. It shows the scope, price, any discount, taxes, total, validity date, your terms, what's not included and how to accept. It never shows your costs, margin, markup or floor price. Download it and attach it to an email, or share it straight from your phone.
These are example costs, not market prices. Your prices depend on your own costs.
| Load | Break-even cost | Suggested | Floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1/4 truck | $206.05 | $320.00 | $230.00 |
| 1/2 truck | $305.40 | $470.00 | $340.00 |
| Full truck | $457.25 | $705.00 | $510.00 |
| Single item | $168.55 | $260.00 | $190.00 |
Know the difference
Margin is profit divided by the price. Markup is profit divided by the cost. Mixing them up is one of the easiest ways to underprice a job: the same percentage gives a lower price when it's used as a markup.
| Profit margin you want | Markup on cost needed to get it | Margin you'd actually get if you added that % to cost |
|---|---|---|
| 20% | 25% | 16.67% |
| 25% | 33.33% | 20% |
| 30% | 42.86% | 23.08% |
| 35% | 53.85% | 25.93% |
| 40% | 66.67% | 28.57% |
| 50% | 100% | 33.33% |
Reading the 35% row: to keep 35% of the price as profit, add 53.85% to your costs. If you add only 35% to your costs, you keep 25.93% of the price.
Hypothetical examples
Situations junk-removal operators run into. These are hypothetical examples: every number is calculated with the starter assumptions above, and you can load any of them into the calculator to try it with your own settings.
A customer wants one refrigerator gone. The operator quotes their usual single-item price, but the drop-off site charges a separate appliance recycling fee.
The lesson: Item-specific disposal fees belong in the job cost before you quote. A usual price that ignores them quietly eats the margin.
A quarter-truck job is quoted at the minimum charge because it feels small.
The lesson: Crew time, travel, dump fees and each job's share of fixed costs still apply. Check the minimum charge against break-even for your smallest common load.
A half-truck job needs more than four times the usual round-trip drive, but the operator quotes their standard half-truck price.
The lesson: Travel is a real cost. Load-based pricing that ignores distance quietly shrinks the margin on far-away jobs.
A customer asks for 10% off a half-truck quote at the target price.
The lesson: A discount comes straight out of profit. A 10% price cut removes far more than 10% of the profit, so decide your walk-away price first.
An operator wants a 35% margin but sets their prices with a 35% markup on cost.
The lesson: Markup is profit divided by cost; margin is profit divided by price. A 35% markup gives only about a 26% margin.
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Yes. There's no sign-up, no trial and no limit on how many jobs you price or PDFs you create. The small “Prepared with Boparo” line on the PDF is optional; you can switch it off in your business settings.
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Margin is profit as a share of the price. Markup is profit as a share of the cost. The same percentage gives different prices: on a $65 cost, a 35% margin means a $100 price, while a 35% markup means $87.75, which is only about a 26% margin.
Add up the costs you pay every month whether or not you work: insurance, truck payments, phone, software, advertising. Divide by the number of jobs you do in a typical month. The calculator can do this for you.
The suggested price aims for your target margin or markup. The acceptable price is a fallback for when you need to be flexible. The floor is the lowest price your rules allow: the higher of your break-even cost, your minimum job charge and your floor margin or markup.
Prices are rounded up to the increment you choose, such as the nearest $5. Rounding up adds a little profit, so the margin you actually get is usually a fraction above your target.
No. They're editable example costs so the calculator works straight away. Replace them with your own crew cost, vehicle cost, overhead and pricing rules to get prices that fit your business.