Platform Features
From first call to final invoice — RevoField covers every step of the job lifecycle in one unified platform built for trade professionals.
Explore all featuresA 50% markup is only a 33.3% margin — and confusing the two quietly bleeds real money out of every job. Enter your cost, pick markup or margin, and this calculator shows the selling price, the profit, and both percentages side by side so you always know the difference.
Based on the markup you entered.
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The mistake that costs you money
Say your material bill is $1,000 and you add a 50% markup. Your price is $1,500 and your profit is $500. But that $500 is only 33.3% of the $1,500 price — so your margin is 33.3%, not 50%. Contractors who quote a "50% margin" when they really mean a 50% markup are giving up roughly a third of the profit they thought they were making. Set the number you actually need, and let the tool convert.
Both numbers describe the same profit — they just divide it by a different base. Markup compares profit to your cost. Margin compares profit to your selling price. Because the price is always bigger than the cost, the margin percentage is always smaller than the markup percentage for the same job.
The calculator above runs whichever pair applies the moment you type, then reports the selling price, the profit in dollars, and both percentages so nothing is ambiguous. Use it alongside the materials markup calculator when you're pricing parts, or the job profit calculator when you want the full labor-plus-materials picture. Once your rate is set, the hourly rate calculator makes sure your labor line carries its share of overhead too.
Prefer a spreadsheet you can keep on file? Grab the free profit margin calculator template, or browse every free tool on the RevoField tools hub.
Most small contractors run a 20%–35% markup, and materials are commonly marked up in that same 20%–35% band. Here's what those markups actually leave you as margin.
| Markup | Equivalent margin |
|---|---|
| 20% | 16.7% |
| 25% | 20.0% |
| 35% | 25.9% |
| 50% | 33.3% |
| 100% | 50.0% |
Rule of thumb: markup = margin / (1 − margin), and margin = markup / (1 + markup). Notice the gap widens as the numbers grow — which is exactly where the costly mix-ups happen.
Knowing the number is step one — hitting it on every job is the hard part. RevoField builds quotes and invoices with your markup and margin already set, so no tech ever underprices a job in the field again.
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