General contractor estimating software that wins more jobs

A general contractor's price comes together in five layers:

1. Your own crew's work: hours times your labor rate, plus materials.
2. Subcontractor quotes: each trade's price, checked against the scope.
3. Materials you supply: for your work and anything you buy for the subs.
4. General conditions: supervision, permits, dumpsters, protection, cleanup and temporary facilities.
5. Markup and contingency: your overhead, profit, and an allowance for what you can't see yet.

Price your own work line by line

These are the common lines for framing, the trade many small GCs keep in-house, and what each is measured in:

• By the square foot: floors and sheathing.
• By the linear foot: walls and runs.
• By the each: openings, headers and trusses.

The hours and prices are yours to set, and every line's hours are editable to match your crew.

Framing hours add up fast on an addition

Example: Here's how framing hours add up for the shell of a 12-by-16-foot single-story addition: three new 8-foot walls (40 linear feet), three windows, one door, trusses at 24 inches on center, and 250 square feet of roof sheathing. The hours below are example figures; say your own records show your crew needs:

Work	Your hours
Floor joists, 192 sq ft	7
Subfloor, 192 sq ft	4.5
Exterior walls, 40 linear ft	20
Wall sheathing, 320 sq ft	6.5
House wrap, 320 sq ft	2.5
Window openings, 3	6
Door opening, 1	1.5
Roof trusses, 9	9
Roof sheathing, 250 sq ft	6.5
Total	63.5

That's the framing alone. The foundation, roofing, windows, electrical, insulation, drywall and finishes come from your subs or your other estimates.

Your labor rate covers more than the wage

Your carpenter's wage is where your rate starts. On top of it, the rate has to carry:

• payroll taxes, plus workers' comp and liability premiums
• trucks, tools and equipment
• your time running the job: scheduling, meeting inspectors, managing subs
• the bids you write that don't turn into jobs

Wage, overhead, then markup

BuildWell builds the rate for each of your lines in three steps:

1. Wage: the median wage for the line's trade in your metro; framing is priced at the carpenter wage.
2. Overhead: your labor overhead, set at 100% to start, which doubles the wage.
3. Markup: your labor markup, 20% unless you change it.

Example: If your carpenters cost you $30 an hour (use your real number), the 63.5 framing hours on that addition come to:

• Wages: 63.5 × $30 = $1,905
• With 100% overhead: $3,810
• With 20% markup: $4,572 for the framing labor

Read every sub quote against your scope

Get written quotes, and read each one against your scope:

• what's included
• what's excluded
• who supplies the fixtures
• who patches
• who pulls the permit

Gaps between subs are where a GC's money disappears.

Add each sub's quote as its own line

Add each quote as a custom line item in BuildWell. Your labor markup applies to those lines, while your labor overhead doesn't, since the sub's price already covers their own crew.

Many GCs mark up sub work to cover coordination, supervision and the risk of the sub not finishing. If you want a different markup on a trade, build it into the number you enter.

Price materials, general conditions and contingency

• Materials: price lumber, sheathing, engineered lumber and hardware at this week's cost near the job, plus your markup. Material markup begins at 20% in BuildWell and can be changed on any estimate.
• General conditions: add the dumpster, temporary protection, the portable toilet, final cleaning and your supervision time as their own lines. They're real costs on every job.
• Permits: additions and structural changes usually need one. In BuildWell, a flat permit fee is added automatically when the estimate includes permits; change it per estimate for bigger jobs.
• Hidden conditions: for rot, undersized framing and old wiring you'll find when walls open, state what's included and how you'll price what you find. The client signs that method up front.

A GC earns margin, not a wage

Wages for the carpenters and laborers on your crew vary by metro area. But your income is the margin on your own work plus the markup on everything you coordinate.

Pricing your general conditions and markup honestly matters more than any wage table.

Self-employment tax is 15.3% of net earnings

As a sole proprietor or single-member LLC, you pay self-employment tax on your net earnings: 15.3% in total.

• Social Security, 12.4%: applies to net earnings up to the Social Security wage base, which is $184,500 for 2026.
• Medicare, 2.9%: applies to all of it.
• Deduction: you can deduct half of the self-employment tax on your income tax return.

You'll owe federal and state income tax as well, so set aside part of every draw you receive.

Pay quarterly estimated taxes

File estimated payments during the year with Form 1040-ES; they're usually due in mid-April, mid-June, mid-September and mid-January.

A large job's deposit and draws can make one quarter much bigger than the rest, so estimate from what actually came in.

Track these deductions

General contracting businesses commonly deduct:

• tools and equipment
• the business share of your trucks
• fuel
• insurance, bonds and license fees
• dumpsters and temporary facilities
• office costs, phone and software

Log mileage and keep receipts through the year.

Send subs a 1099-NEC at $2,000

This is where GCs carry the most paperwork. If you pay an unincorporated subcontractor for services, you'll generally need to send them a Form 1099-NEC.

For payments made in 2026 and later, that applies once you've paid them $2,000 or more in a year, up from $600 before 2026.

Before the first payment, collect a Form W-9 and a certificate of insurance from every sub. Keep a lien waiver with each payment.

Sales tax on materials depends on your state

States treat general contractors differently. Some have you pay sales tax when you buy materials. Others have you charge it to the client on materials, or on the whole job.

Check your state's revenue department. In BuildWell, sales tax applies to materials only, not labor, at the rate you set.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. A tax professional who works with contractors can tell you what applies to your state and business.