Now in beta · built by a shop owner
Costright works out your real cost per hour, the salary you want to pay yourself, and exactly what to charge to get there. Pricing built for owner-operator trades shops.
The truth nobody told you
Most small trades shops leave thousands on the table every year because nobody taught them the math. Real cost per hour. Overhead. The salary you actually need. It’s not in the apprentice program. It’s not on the truck. By the time you figure it out, you’ve already worked years for too little.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re solo with one truck or running a crew of five — if you’re not pricing with your real numbers, you’re losing money on every quote. Costright is the math you wish you’d learned five years ago.
How it works
Truck, tools, insurance, your time off, the unbillable hours. Costright pulls it all in and tells you what an hour of work in your shop actually costs — before you even think about labor and parts. That’s the floor every quote has to clear.
Don’t work backward from what you think you can get away with. Work backward from the salary you actually want to take home. Tell Costright what you need to pay yourself, and it tells you exactly what to charge per hour to get there. Your pay stops being whatever’s left over.
While you’re doing the billable work, your pay comes out of your own hours. The day you step back to run the office, that changes — your salary moves into overhead, and the crew’s billable hours have to cover it. Costright flips that math with a toggle, so you can see whether the numbers still work before you make the leap, not after.
Set the profit you want on top of cost, and every estimate carries it automatically.
See which work comes in below your true cost — before you take it, not after.
Why this exists
“I ran a heating and air shop for years before I realized I’d been charging like an apprentice.”
The work was good. The customers were happy. But at the end of every year the books said I’d worked sixty hours a week for not much more than my best tech made on payroll. Nobody taught me the math — how to pay myself a real wage, what to charge to hit it, or what would happen to those numbers the day I stepped back to run the shop.
I built Costright so other owners don’t have to learn it the hard way. One truck or five, on the tools or off — the math is the same, and most shops are getting it wrong.
Built by a shop owner · 14 years in the tradesFrom a beta shop
“It was eye-opening to see what it really costs me to operate and pay a salary to myself as a one-man show. I never knew my numbers and thought I was making more money than I truly was. This has helped my business not only in the short term but long term, as I plan to grow and expand.”
— Will, HVAC · North Carolina · Costright beta
Stop guessing. Start pricing like you know your numbers — because now you do.
Free during beta · No card required.