What should I include in my actual job cost?

Everything the job cost you: materials, your labour and any subcontractors' time, plant or tool hire, fuel and travel, waste disposal, and parking. Most tradespeople who think a job was profitable are missing two or three of these.

Is my quote inaccurate if it was higher than the job cost?

No. Your price to the customer should be higher than your cost — that difference is your profit. This calculator compares what you expected the job to cost you with what it actually cost you, which tells you how good your cost estimating is, separately from your pricing.

How accurate should a job cost estimate be?

There is no universal threshold — a 10% variance on a £5,000 job matters far more than on a £200 one, and some trades carry more uncertainty than others. What matters is knowing your variance at all, and whether it is consistently in one direction. If your jobs regularly cost more than you estimated, your pricing is quietly eating your profit.

Free Tool for Tradespeople

Did you actually make what you expected on that job?

Compare what you expected the job to cost with what it really cost — in about 10 seconds. No account needed.

What did you expect the job to cost you?

Your estimate of materials, labour and other costs — not the price you charged.

What did the job actually cost you?

Include materials, labour and any other costs you incurred on the job.

Most quote problems aren't obvious until you track the actual labour, materials and other costs against the job. Nule does that automatically as you work.

See how job costing works in Nule →

What did you charge the customer? (optional)

Add this to see what the job did to your profit.

See how Nule tracks job costs →

Your last jobs

Job	Estimated	Actual	Variance

Why this isn't a quote accuracy score

If you quoted a customer £1,000 and the job cost you £650, your quote wasn't "35% wrong" — the £350 is the profit you priced in. That's why this calculator compares your estimated cost with your actual cost. That gap is the number that quietly decides whether a job made money, and it's the one most tradespeople never measure.

What to include in your actual job cost

Materials — everything you bought for the job, including the odd bits picked up mid-job at the merchant.
Labour — your hours at your day rate, plus anyone you paid to help.
The rest — plant and tool hire, fuel and travel, waste disposal, parking. These are the ones that disappear from memory first.

If you couldn't fill in the second box confidently, that's the real finding. Most jobs that lose money don't lose it in one big mistake — they lose it in costs nobody wrote down. Nule tracks labour, materials and other costs against each job as you work, so the actual number is just there.

What to do if your costs keep coming in high

One job over estimate is noise. A pattern is information. If your actual costs regularly beat your estimates, the fix usually isn't working faster — it's pricing from real numbers instead of remembered ones. We've written more about that in how to stop underquoting jobs.

Know what your jobs really make.

Nule tracks labour, materials and other costs against the figures you priced the job from — automatically, as you work.

Get Started See How It Works

7-day free trial, no credit card required. £35/mo + VAT. Cancel anytime. Founders pricing locked in for the first 1,000 sign-ups.