ElectricalBossPro Blog — Running an Electrical Business

Setting Service Prices for an Electrical Business Without Guessing

Plenty of electrical owners price by feel. They look at the job, think about the last one like it, and say a number. That works when one person quotes everything. It stops working the day someone else answers the phone and has to say a number too.

This isn't an article about what you should charge. Prices depend on your area, your costs, your crew and the work you want more of. It's about how to arrive at your own prices and keep them consistent.

Why Prices Need to Live Outside Your Head

In Hiring an Office Manager for an Electrical Company: The Role, the Logins and the First Month, one of the first things the new hire learns is the service list. That only works if there is a service list to learn.

When prices live in the owner's memory, three things happen. Similar jobs get different prices. Office staff can't answer basic questions. And the owner has no way to tell whether a price is making money, because there is no single number to look at.

Start With What You Actually Sell

Before setting a single price, write down the work you do most. Most residential electrical shops will end up with a list that looks something like this:

• Service call and troubleshooting
• Outlet and switch replacement, GFCI replacement
• Breaker replacement
• Ceiling fan and light fixture installs, recessed lighting
• Dedicated circuits
• Smoke detector and surge protector installs
• Safety inspection
• EV charger installs, panel upgrades, generator installs
• Generator maintenance

Your list will look different. The point is to name the work the way customers ask for it, so the office can match a phone call to a line item.

Build Each Price From Your Own Numbers

A price that holds up is built from things you can count, not from what you think the customer will pay. For each service, think through:

• Time on site. Not the best day, the normal day. Include setup and cleanup.
• Drive time. Every job carries some of it, and short jobs carry the most.
• Materials you usually use on that job.
• Your real cost per hour for a van and a tech: wages, the truck, fuel, tools, phones, software and the office behind them.
• Margin — what is left after all of that, for the business and for the bad days.

The cost per hour is where most owners undercount. They think about the tech's wage and forget the van, the office help and the hours nobody gets paid for. If you aren't sure of your own number, an accountant who works with trade businesses can help you work it out.

Decide How Each Service Is Priced

Not every service fits the same model. Some common ways electrical shops price their work:

• Fixed price per item. A $165 GFCI replacement or a $149 safety inspection. Easy to quote on the phone.
• A trip charge plus work. A $99 service call covers showing up and the first look, then repairs are added.
• Priced off measurements. A rewire priced per square foot, or lighting priced per fixture. ElectricalBossPro stores square feet, fixtures and circuits on each property, so services can be priced off them.
• Quoted per job. A $1,295 EV charger install or a panel upgrade that depends on the house.

The trip charge has its own article next: The Service Call Fee: How an Electrical Business Prices the Trip and the First Hour.

Put It in the Service List

Once you have your prices, put them where everyone uses them. In ElectricalBossPro, estimates and invoices are built from your own service list, so a GFCI replacement costs the same whether the owner, the office manager or a tech adds it. Estimate templates hold common bundles, like a standard EV charger install, so nobody rebuilds them from memory.

When you change a price, you change it once and every new estimate and invoice picks it up.

It also helps the techs. When a customer asks on site what it would cost to add a ceiling fan in the bedroom while the electrician is there, the answer should come from the same list the office uses. A tech who has to call the owner for every add-on price will stop offering add-ons. A tech who knows the number can say it, note it on the job and let the office add the line item.

Review Prices on a Schedule

Prices drift out of date quietly. Materials go up, wages go up, the van gets older. Pick a time each year — the slow season is a good one — to go through the list. Look at the jobs that felt rushed or always ran long. Those are usually the prices that need fixing.

For the other decisions that shape the money side of the shop, go back to the electrical business software overview.