Fixed Price vs. Time and Materials
A fixed price is one total for the whole job, agreed before work starts. Time and materials bills the actual hours and materials used. The wrong choice either eats your margin or gives the client an open-ended bill.
What it means
Your choice decides who carries the risk if the job runs long. A fixed price is one number for the whole job. If it takes longer than planned, that cost is yours. If it goes faster, the gain is yours. Time and materials bills for what happened, every hour and every part. A surprise inside a wall becomes a bigger invoice, not a loss you absorb.
Fixed price suits work you can scope accurately up front. Examples are a repaint, a standard installation, or anything with known materials and predictable hours. Time and materials suits work where you cannot know the scope until you are inside it. Old wiring is one example. So is a repair where the extent of the damage is a guess until something is opened up.
You quote a kitchen repaint at a fixed $1,200. It runs two hours over because of uneven walls. That cost is yours. Billed time and materials at $45 an hour plus paint, the same job would cost the client more. They would pay for those two hours.
Quoting a fixed price on a job you have not seen. A number given over the phone with the scope unknown often proves too low. Price it time and materials, or visit first.
See also
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