chargeing for materials

[mike802]

mike do you give the customer a estimate and then the final invoiced bill when your done?
me I have to give them the final price to start, so lik ekody i just have a general price for everything. fabric and foam or stainless parts  and number of sippers or amount of vinyl sheets. for the material cost plus X for insedentals. then add my time i figure for the job and there the contract price . bor a cover say Ive coem to know if its say 10 yards i can multiple 10 yards times X amount of dollarsa to get a quick figure.

When a customer absolutely has to know the final price, I call that a bid, not an estimate.  When I make a bid on a project I work myself up an estimate, pretty much the same for a customer, but if I am bidding I take that estimate and add 20% or 30% depending on the type of project to protect myself. 

If someone is OK with just an estimate, like a sofa for instance, I already have a labor charge for the type and style of sofa they may have, so all I have to do is estimate the amount of supplies I will need.  I call this estimation a shop charge, I have an average price I use for this, but during the job I keep close track of actual materials used and charge accordingly, I do this because Quick Books automatically adjusts my inventory. 

[kodydog]

Yeh, gets confusing sometimes,   ??? you lot talk about welting ! I am still not sure if thats piping or binding  ;D

Suzi

Talk about confusing, Piping, cording and welting are all the same.

[chrisktrue]

I am planning to start my own business and was very confused about  how to charge for upholstery.Thanks to all of you for the info.I would also like to know if you include vinyl costs and and shipping?

carpet cleaning sydney

[lc]

I'm in trouble !?   

I have been in business a few years now... I haven't been doing anything with inventory.
I order the foam felt supplies ..pay for it / order more ..same with fabric .
I got a bookkeeper as I was not good with the books , I am  better at the craft...so why hasn't she asked or told me I should itemize everything ?
What about fabric orders ...I ordered 12 yds last week to do a job for a family memeber  ummm errrrr(under the table) I have been paying my suppliers for it all thinking that was good enough .
I am not in the  states but now I am getting panicky here.
How do I start now ?? If I get audited am I in big trouble ???!!
Uggh !! I am so bad at business sense
Should my bookkeeper be guiding me in this ??or am I supposed to know whet the heck I am doing??! ..she knows that was why I got her being as I know so little .

[kodydog]

My wife is a book keeper. A friend asked her to add up all his expenses for his construction business. He was deducting things like a big screen TV. Is it her responsibility to tell him he can't do that? She did and he told her to add it in.

A book keeper gets the books ready for the accountant to do taxes. All the book keeper go's by is what the customer gives them. If your looking for business advice, I think that would be more of an accountants job.

Don't panic. There is tons of info out there. Your a smart girl. Read. You can figure it out.

Here we have an organization called SCORE. Retired business people helping entrepreneurs. I'll bet they have the same or something smiler where you are. Check them out. They can be a great help.

As far as not reporting cash deals. I would never advise doing that. But as long as there is no paper trail, it will not show up in an audit. :) I always pay taxes on my cash deals. Did you hear that IRS, always.

[lc]

I'll look into that score idea thank you...it sure would be nice to have some guidence.
I am very above board in so many ways., I am always paranoid of using reciepts that don't pertain to the business , too afraid of the consequences I guess.

I had a load of gravel dropped off at one time and he only took cash ., it raised a flag with me ...couldn't someone report him ? I can't see him always putting it in the books ., what if he dumps a load with an authority of government heh heh / he would be nailed  ! ... I 'm sure I'm not the only one thinking that way with him delivering only wanting cash no cheques.
I get all messed up on the cash deal thing..I have found since the HST so many people asking me if I would do cash ...do you find that your asked more now than before the HST came in  to affect ?  I get nervous when asked to do cash ..its nice for small stuff but I need the funds in the business account to pay suppliers

[sofadoc]

Any of you guys who don't like cash customers, send 'em to me . I'll take 'em!
I don't have to worry that 10 days later, I'll find out that their check didn't clear.
And I don't have to wait 2-3 days for a credit/debit card transaction to post.
And more importantly, I don't have to give 2 or 3% to my credit card processing service.
As long as I report it (cash sales) on my end, I don't care what they do on theirs.
The Post Office is a block away from my shop. When I take in a large amount of cash, I go there and buy money orders to mail to my suppliers.

[Ihavenoname]

Simply as follows.
Labor cost ...
Supplies  = about %10 of labor cost  ( I do this rather then figure each item. For me it's just supplies)
foam cost ...
Fabric cost...

Sub total ...

Example

Sofa Upholstery
Labor $1200
Supplies $100 (new item)
Seat foam $250
Fabric $400

Total ...

In reality this has meant to me a prices increase of about 10%. This is do to the fact I was not charging for general supplies. I just figured it into labor. And best of all it is real profit and no one has complained. They just seem to except it, and it's been 2 years now.

Give it a try.  You can be looking at perhaps at least a few thousand dollars more in profit a year.