Start with a complete cost, not just the supplier bill
Enter the cost of delivering the work, including materials, loaded labor, equipment, delivery, other direct costs, and allocated overhead. Enter the customer selling price before sales tax. If you have not built that cost yet, the landscaping cost calculator adds the cost categories together first.
This tool answers a narrower question: does a known selling price deliver the profit share you intended? It can check a whole project or one service unit, provided cost and price use the same unit. For example, compare the cost per cubic yard of installed mulch with the selling price per cubic yard, rather than with a total-job quote.
Margin and markup use different denominators
- Profit = selling price − total cost.
- Margin percentage = profit ÷ selling price × 100.
- Markup percentage = profit ÷ total cost × 100.
- Required selling price = total cost ÷ (1 − target margin ÷ 100).
The required price rounds upward to a cent so rounding does not push it below the target. If revenue is zero, margin is undefined. If cost is zero, markup is undefined. The tool labels those cases instead of presenting a misleading percentage.
Worked example: $3,000 cost and a $4,500 price
Profit is $1,500. Dividing it by the $4,500 selling price gives a 33.33% margin. Dividing the same $1,500 by the $3,000 cost gives a 50.00% markup. Neither percentage changes the dollars earned; they describe those dollars against different bases.
To achieve a 35% margin, divide $3,000 by 0.65. The required price is $4,615.39 after rounding upward, or $115.39 above the current quote. Conversely, adding a 35% markup gives $4,050 and only 25.93% margin. This is why a markup percentage cannot be substituted directly for a margin target.
Use the result in your price book
A negative price change means your current quote is already above the entered target; it is not a recommendation to reduce your price. Consider site conditions, scope, warranty work, and capacity before changing a customer quote. The result measures the entered job costs, not company net profit after every possible business expense.
Record reviewed rates in your landscaping price list, and read the landscape pricing guide for overhead and minimum-job considerations. After delivery, replace predicted costs with real results in the estimate-versus-actual job cost calculator. Pro's Rate Health dashboard makes this review repeatable across saved services.