On a SmartBuild-priced estimate, markup sits at three levels — a single line, a whole section (materials, labour, services) and the project — each on top of the one below. The account decides what the project markup applies to, Everything or Building materials only, and any estimate can switch its own. The customer's page then builds every markup into the line prices, so the lines add up to the total to the cent and there is no markup line on their copy — unless you sell cost-plus and switch one on. A minimum markup that reps cannot go under counts every markup on the job. On an estimate you build in Leads 2 Build, every row of the cost grid takes its own percentage or dollar markup, with a whole-job markup under them. We don't build software for plumbers or remodelers — only for post-frame and barndominium builders — so markup works the way your jobs are put together: the kit, the crew, the concrete and the extras.
Also called: margin · add my percentage · profit on the job · mark it up · contractor markup · markup on labor · minimum markup · markup on materials only · hide markup from the customer · markup on one line · section markup · cost-plus pricing · built-in markup
The customer reads prices with the markup already in them
Every markup — on a line, a section or the whole job — is built into the prices on the customer's page. Materials, labour and each service carry their share, the lines add up to the total to the cent, and there is no line called markup. The same customer prices go into the price table of the contract and into an invoice built from the estimate.
A customer adds up the lines, finds them tens of thousands short of the total, and reads your margin straight off the gap.
Markup built into the prices means the customer never sees a line to argue with. People don't haggle over a price that adds up; they haggle over a number that looks like profit. The quote reads as fair, and the margin stays yours.
Markup on a line, a section or the whole job
Try itOn a SmartBuild-priced estimate, Section & line markups sit under the project markup: a section markup on Materials, Labor or Services & Add-Ons, and a line markup on any single line — 4″ Concrete Pad +10%, Services & Add-Ons +5%. Each level is worked out on top of the one below — line, then section, then project — and the panel totals every markup on the job: $36,666.34, 34.3% of cost.
One blanket percentage makes the easy jobs pay for the hard ones, and you never find out which is which.
Builders know where the risk is — the pour on a wet site, the long haul, the custom door. Putting margin exactly there feels right to the person pricing it, and it protects profit on the jobs that would otherwise eat it.
Everything, or the building only — your call
Markup applies to has two settings. Everything takes the project markup on materials, labour and services together, so the concrete, gutters and doors carry margin alongside the steel. Building materials only marks up the building and adds labour and services after it, at the price you set. The account sets the default, any estimate can switch its own, and the estimate says which it is following — account default or set on this estimate.
Hard-wired either way, markup is wrong for somebody: on everything it double-counts labour you already priced with margin; on the building alone, $20,000 of added work can carry nothing.
Some builders price labour to carry its own margin; others want one markup over the lot. Letting each builder — and each job — choose means nobody fights the software to get the number they meant, and an $11,000 pad never goes out carrying no margin by accident.
Where the markup lands for the customer
Try itIn the Markup manager, Spread markup across decides how a section or project markup reaches the customer's lines. Whole project raises every line by the same percent, so the relative prices stay exactly as you set them. Its own section keeps a section's markup inside that section's lines. You always see the markup on the summary, and any estimate can pick its own.
A markup on the services section lands on one line, and the customer asks why the concrete pad costs more than the steel.
Prices that rise evenly look natural; one line that jumps looks like padding. Choosing the spread keeps the quote reading the way a customer expects — so they compare your building, not your line items.
Your numbers, and theirs, on one card
Try itThe total card at the bottom of Summary has two views. Builder view shows your costs and every markup in dollars — the project markup, the section markup, the line markups — and all markup $36,666.34 · 34.3% of cost. Customer view shows the prices their page will print, rates included — 2,880 sq ft × $9.08/sq ft — adding up to the same $143,438.71.
A quote goes out without anyone seeing it the customer's way, and the first person to add up the lines is the customer.
Owners sleep better knowing exactly what they'll make and exactly what the customer will read. One flip shows both — so nothing on the page surprises you, and nothing on it gives your margin away.
Cost-plus, if that is how you sell
Try itSome builders show the margin on purpose. Tick Markup line under Your Investment in What They See and the customer's page prints the lines without the section and project markup, plus one Markup row — $34,866.34 — above the same total. Untick it and the markup goes back inside every line. The total doesn't move either way; only the layout does.
Hiding the markup row used to hide its dollars too, so the only way to keep the lines adding up was to show your margin to everyone.
Cost-plus buyers trust a builder who shows his number; most buyers trust one who doesn't make them think about it. One switch per estimate lets you sell to both without keeping two versions of the quote.
A floor your reps cannot go under
Try itSet a Minimum markup % in the Markup manager, and a rep who types less is stopped right there: The lowest markup allowed here is 25% of the job's cost, counting every markup on it. This estimate is at 21.9%. Set to 20.97% puts in the lowest project markup that clears it. The floor counts every markup on the job — line, section and project — so margin can move between levels but can't disappear. Admins and sales managers can go under it; they own the margin and they wrote the rule. Your usual numbers sit on preset buttons.
At the end of a long day, the fastest way to close a deal is to shave the margin — and nobody finds out until the job is built.
Nobody likes telling a customer no, so a rep under pressure gives away margin first. A floor that answers for him takes the guilt out of holding the price — and keeps every job above the number the business needs.
Every rule names itself and what it added
On an estimate you build in Leads 2 Build, the total is broken down under How this total is built. Framing at 10%, doors and windows at a flat $500, everything at 8% — each rule prints as its own line with the dollars it added, so you can see that markup put $9,083.22 on the job instead of trusting that a percentage somewhere did its work.
One blended number never tells you which part of the job is carrying the margin.
A percentage feels like a guess until you see the dollars it adds. Seeing each rule's own figure gives the owner confidence the margin is really there — and shows which part of the job is carrying it.
More margin on framing than on sheeting, on this job only
On an estimate you build in Leads 2 Build, every row of the cost grid — each material category, each service, each labour line — takes its own percentage or dollar markup in place, with a Whole job row underneath. A difficult site can carry a heavier number on the labour without changing what you charge for steel on every other quote.
One company-wide markup means the easy jobs subsidise the hard ones — and you never find out which is which.
The person who walked the site knows where this job is hard. Letting him put the margin there, on this job only, means the price reflects what he saw — and the company stops losing money on the hard jobs it used to average away.
Line markups stay off the supplier order
Try itOn a SmartBuild-priced estimate, a markup on a material section — Columns & Framing +$1,200, Roof Steel +8% — shows on the Materials tab under the supplier's own total, labelled Your line markup — not on the supplier order. The subtotal above it is exactly what the supplier order shows.
Somebody forwards the material list with your markup mixed in, and either your yard learns your margin or the order goes in against the wrong numbers.
Two people read material numbers: the supplier and the customer. Keeping your markup visibly apart from the supplier's total means nobody in the office confuses the two — and your margin never leaves on an order sheet.
See where every markup dollar lands
Under your numbers, Where your markup lands puts each section's cost beside what the customer pays for it and the percent it actually went up — Materials, Labor, Services & Add-Ons, tax and the whole quote. A line that reads differently from the markup you set is flagged, and short notes say why: the project markup built into every line by the same percentage, a section markup spread across the job or kept in its section, line markups kept in their own lines. Each level stacks on the one below, so a 10% Materials markup under a 30% project markup reads 43% on Materials and exactly 30% on Labor.
A 40% quote checked line by line came out at 31%, 41% and 45%, and nobody could explain the gap.
Nobody has to take the markup on faith. When your rep can check every line against what you set, they quote with confidence, and a number that looks wrong gets caught in the office instead of by the customer.
Sales tax is never marked up — shown, or built into every price
Try itSales tax comes from SmartBuild, or you add it here at a rate of what the customer pays for Materials or the Whole quote — then SmartBuild's tax is left out so it's never charged twice. Either way it is never marked up. The Sales tax line switch in What They See decides how the customer sees it: on its own line, or built into every price by the same percentage so every line — and every quantity × rate — adds up to exactly what they'll pay.
Markup was being worked out on the sales tax, so a 40% quote read 40.8% on every line, and a hidden tax sat lumped into Materials.
Some of your customers want to see the tax; others want the number they'll actually write the cheque for. Built for post-frame and barndominium builders, it lets you price the way your buyers think — and the math holds up when they check it.
- 1Set the project markup on the estimate's Summary, and choose what it applies to — Everything or Building materials only
- 2Add a section markup to Materials, Labor or Services & Add-Ons, and line markups to single lines — each stacks on the one below
- 3Choose where a section or project markup lands for the customer — across the whole project or inside its own section
- 4Flip the total card between Builder view (every markup in dollars) and Customer view (the prices their page will print)
- 5The customer's page prints every line with the markup built in, adding up to the total to the cent
- 6Selling cost-plus? Tick Markup line in What They See and the page shows the markup as one row of its own
- 7Set a Minimum markup % in the Markup manager — it counts every markup on the job, and only admins and sales managers can go under it
- 8Keep your usual markups as preset buttons
- 9On an estimate built in Leads 2 Build, each row of the cost grid takes its own % or $ markup, with a Whole job row beneath
A customer added up his quote line by line — materials, labour, services — and came up tens of thousands short of the total. He read the builder's markup straight off the gap. Hiding the markup line had hidden the line, and left its dollars out of every other one. So every markup now lives inside the prices the customer reads. The lines add up to the total, to the cent, and there is nothing labelled markup to argue with. A builder who sells cost-plus can still show it on its own row — as a choice, not as an accident of how the software prints. Markup is also the one number on an estimate that is pure judgement, so it needs rules around it. Framing on a hard site carries more risk than steel on an easy one, so markup can sit on a line, a section or the whole job. Some builders price labour to carry its own margin and want markup on the building alone; others want it on everything. And a rep under pressure discounts the margin first, so there is a floor — a percentage, because $6,000 is 30% of a $20,000 build and 6% of a $100,000 one.
- Customers reading the margin off the gap between the lines and the total
- Markup fixed to one scope, when some jobs want it on the building alone and others on everything
- No way to mark up a single line or one section on top of the job's markup
- Reps discounting margin below what the company will accept
- One blanket percentage that can't reflect where the risk actually is
Mark up individual material sections
A column you turn on when you want it. Each material section can carry its own percentage or flat amount, and it lands below the supplier's subtotal, labelled so nobody mistakes it for something the supplier charged. A builder who only uses one overall markup never sees the extra column.