How long will a job take — work out the parts, then correct the total
Most quotes get the rate right and the hours wrong. A job has parts that are not the work itself: travel, setup, materials, clean-up, and waiting. This guide breaks the job into those parts. Then it shows how to correct the total with your own overrun history, not a feeling.
A job’s hours go wrong more often than its rate. Break the job into parts you have done before. Estimate each part, not the whole job. Correct the total with your own overrun factor: actual hours divided by quoted hours, from your last five jobs. Add contingency for what you cannot see. Then give the client a date, not a duration.
A price that is a few dollars out is a rounding error. A price built on the wrong number of hours is out by far more. Every hour missing from the quote is an hour you work for free. See how to price a job so the number holds up for the rate side of the sum. This guide covers the other side: the hours you multiply it by.
Why the hours are the number that goes wrong
Owners check their rate often. They rarely check their hours. A rate is one number, set once and revisited every few months. Hours get guessed fresh on every job, under time pressure, often standing in front of the client. That guess is where the money leaks out. Not because the rate is too low, but because the job runs longer than the number it was priced against.
A job that runs over does not lose money on the parts you saw coming. It loses money on the parts nobody wrote down: the extra trip, the wait for a delivery, the packing-up time. None of that ever made it onto the quote. Fix the hours, and the rate from how to price a job finally lands on a true number.
The five parts of a job that are not the work
Before you estimate the work, name what sits around it. None of these five parts is the job itself. All five take real time. A quote written in a hurry forgets every one of them:
- Travel, there and back. Count it once per visit, not once per job — a job with two visits pays for travel twice.
- Setup and pack-down. Unloading, laying out dust sheets, packing the van — real time, on every visit.
- Collecting materials. The supplier run between quoting the job and starting it, or partway through it.
- Clean-up and the waste run. Sweeping, bagging offcuts, and the trip to the tip — the last hour a quote often forgets. The waste and disposal guide prices it.
- Waiting. For access, for another trade to finish, or for a delivery. Waiting is not working, but it still holds the day.
The free job time check adds these five to your bare work hours automatically. They stop living only in your head.
Break the work into steps you have done before
Do not estimate "the job." Estimate its steps. Most jobs are built from pieces you have done before — dig, set, fix, wire, finish. That is true even when the whole job feels new. Put a number on each step from memory of the last time you did it. Then add the steps up. A total built this way is far steadier than one guess for the whole job. A guess on a small step is easy to check against what actually happened. A guess on the whole job is not.
The overrun factor — a measurement, not a feeling
Even a careful, step-by-step estimate runs long. Every job has something you did not plan for. The fix is not to guess harder. It is to measure your own record, and correct for it.
Take your last five similar jobs. For each one, divide the actual hours by the hours you quoted. Average the five results — that average is your overrun factor. Multiply your next estimate by it before you quote. If you quote 6 hours and the job takes 7.2, your overrun factor is 1.2. Every future estimate for that kind of job needs the same correction, not a fresh guess.
An overrun factor belongs to a kind of job, not your whole business. A familiar rewire and an unfamiliar renovation will not share one number. Keep a factor for each kind of job you do often. Use 1.0 only while you have no history for that kind of job yet.
Contingency, decided before the job, not during it
On top of the overrun factor, decide your contingency in advance. Split it by what you actually know about the job:
- A familiar job you have done many times before. A small contingency — the overrun factor already carries most of the correction.
- An unfamiliar job. A larger contingency, because you have no track record of your own to correct against yet.
- A job you cannot see all of — old wiring behind a wall, ground you have not opened up. The largest contingency of the three, because part of the estimate is a guess about what you will find.
Decide this before you quote, and the number stays honest. Decide it mid-job, once you are already behind, and it is not contingency any more — it is damage control. That usually ends in running late and telling the client after the fact, instead of before it.
Found a problem you could not see? Read found a hidden problem mid-job.
What to tell the client: a date, not a duration
A client does not need your hour count. They need to know when the job is done, and what could move that date. Give a date. Then name the one or two things it depends on: a delivery arriving, another trade finishing first, access being available. That is a promise you can keep. Or one you can update honestly, the moment one of those things changes.
Write down what the job actually took
Every estimate above is only as good as the record it is checked against. On the day, write down what the job actually took — the work, and the five parts around it. That one habit turns next month's estimate into a measurement, not another guess.
A fence replacement: dig and set eight posts (2 hours), fit the rails and panels (2 hours). Then finish and check the line (1 hour). That is 5 bare work hours, over two visits. Add travel (0.5 hours per visit) and setup and pack-down (0.5 hours per visit): 2 extra hours. Add one materials run (1 hour) and a clean-up (0.5 hours): 1.5 more hours. That is 8.5 hours before any correction. The last five fence jobs averaged an overrun factor of 1.2. The realistic total is (5 hours × 1.2) + 3.5 hours = 9.5 hours. That is almost double the 5-hour guess a rushed quote would use. At a $45 hourly rate, the missing 4.5 hours are $202.50 that quote would give away.
Price the job on the rate from how to price a job, and the hours you worked out here. Then the number on the quote finally matches the day the job actually takes.
Want last job's hours on hand for the next one?
BizBinder does not time a job or estimate it for you — that call stays yours. It keeps the hours you record against each job. A similar job next month gets a real number to check against, not a memory.
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- guide How to price a job so the number holds up The quote works only if its number works. Start with the price, then write it up.
- tool Free Quote & Estimate Generator Fill in your business and client details. Add line items, mark any as optional, and set a deposit. A clean quote builds as you type. Turn it into an invoice with one click.
- tool Quote & invoice terms builder Tick the clauses that fit the job and fill in your numbers once. You get a plain-English terms block. Copy it, print it, or send it into the quote generator.