Rex says
Money math without the spreadsheet headache. Plug in your numbers and I'll show you exactly where the dollars land.
Try a scenario
Click to load — tweak from there.Inputs
Result
Margin per labor hour
$39.40
Total dollar margin
$197.00
Margin percent
56.3%
Labor cost for package
$110.00
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How to use this
- 1Enter package price ($).
- 2Enter product/consumables cost ($).
- 3Enter labor hours to complete (hrs).
- 4Enter loaded detailer pay rate ($/hr).
- 5Enter bay/equipment overhead allocation ($).
- 6Read your margin per labor hour on the right — it updates as you type.
- 7Hit Share to keep the scenario or send it to someone.
About this calculator
Detailing pricing often gets set by copying a competitor's menu instead of costing out the actual labor hours and product consumption per package. A basic wash-and-vacuum might take 45 minutes and $3 in product, while a full paint correction and ceramic package can run 8+ hours and $60+ in pads, compound, and coating — treating them with the same margin assumption produces wildly different real profitability per hour of bay/bay-tech time. This calculator takes package price, product cost, labor hours at a loaded rate, and equipment/consumable overhead to compute dollar margin and, critically, margin per labor hour, which is the number that actually tells you whether a package is worth the calendar slot compared to booking two smaller jobs in the same time.
Worked example
Using the values the calculator loads with:
Inputs
- Package price: 350 $
- Product/consumables cost: 28 $
- Labor hours to complete: 5 hrs
- Loaded detailer pay rate: 22 $/hr
- Bay/equipment overhead allocation: 15 $
Results
- Margin per labor hour: $39.40
- Total dollar margin: $197.00
- Margin percent: 56.3%
- Labor cost for package: $110.00
What each field means
Inputs
- Package price ($)
- The package price used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 350 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Product/consumables cost ($)
- The product/consumables cost used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 28 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Labor hours to complete (hrs)
- The labor hours to complete used in the calculation, measured in hrs. Starts at 5 hrs so you have a working example on load.
- Loaded detailer pay rate ($/hr)
- The loaded detailer pay rate used in the calculation, measured in $/hr. Starts at 22 $/hr so you have a working example on load.
- Bay/equipment overhead allocation ($)
- The bay/equipment overhead allocation used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 15 $ so you have a working example on load.
Results
- Margin per labor hour
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars and shown as the headline result. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Total dollar margin
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Margin percent
- Returned as a percentage. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Labor cost for package
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
FAQ
Why does margin per hour matter more than margin percent?
A package with 70% margin but 8 hours of labor might net less per calendar hour than a 50%-margin package that takes 90 minutes. Since your calendar is the real constraint, not your product cost, margin per hour tells you which packages to push and which to reprice or drop.
What margin per hour should I target?
Most profitable detail operations target $35-$60+ margin per labor hour after paying the detailer, which typically means retail pricing needs to be 2.5-3.5x the loaded labor cost once product and overhead are included.
How should ceramic coating packages be priced differently?
Coating has high product cost (structural cost, not just consumable) and requires controlled environment/cure time that ties up a bay longer than the active labor hours suggest — model bay-occupancy hours separately from labor hours for coating jobs specifically.
Should mobile detailing use the same overhead number?
No — replace bay overhead with vehicle operating cost per job (fuel, water/power generator run time, travel time) which is usually higher per job than a fixed-location bay's allocated overhead.
Accuracy and limitations
- Results are estimates before tax, fees, and inflation unless an input explicitly covers them.
- Rates are treated as fixed for the whole period — variable-rate products will drift from this projection.
- This is educational maths, not financial advice. Check anything contractual with the lender or your accountant.
Related tools
Cite this calculator
Writing about this topic? Grab a citation — every link helps keep these tools free.
RevenueLab. (2026). Detailing Package Margin Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/detailing-package-margin
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/detailing-package-margin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Detailing Package Margin Calculator — RevenueLab</a> (2026).</p>
Source: [Detailing Package Margin Calculator — RevenueLab](https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/detailing-package-margin) (2026).