Ask any successful contractor what keeps their business thriving and they will point to one metric: the charge out rate. It is the bridge between what your crew costs you and what you invoice your clients. Nail it and you safeguard margins. Miss it and every project slowly drains cash. At CountBricks, we help residential builders lock in profitable charge out rates with AI-driven speed and forensic accuracy.
The charge out rate is the fully burdened hourly or unit price you quote for labour, materials or equipment. It covers three cost layers:
• Direct costs – wages, super, site consumables, plant hire
• Overheads – office rent, software subscriptions, vehicles, insurances
• Profit & risk margin – the buffer that funds growth and protects you from the unexpected
• Undercharging erodes cash flow, forcing you to borrow to finish jobs
• Overcharging prices you out of competitive tenders
• Inconsistent markups create confusion when variations arise
CountBricks eliminates the guesswork by feeding real-time supply pricing, historic crew productivity and current overhead figures straight into every estimate.
On site, simply speak the room sizes, fixture counts or framing details into your phone. CountBricks transcribes and structures the data instantly.
CountBricks links to live supplier feeds, so the cost of studs, sheathing or drywall you see today is the same cost reflected in your charge out calculation.
Our AI benchmarks how long your crew actually takes to frame a wall or set tiles, not what a textbook says. The result: realistic hours and realistic charge out figures.
Just enter your annual overhead number once in your CountBricks company profile. The platform automatically spreads that cost across active projects, ensuring every job pays its fair share.
Choose a flat markup or tiered profit strategy. CountBricks shows you the break-even rate first, then the final charge out rate so you know exactly how much profit sits in every line item.
• Mistake: Applying the same charge out rate to apprentices and senior carpenters. Solution: Set role-based rates in CountBricks to reflect true cost differences.
• Mistake: Forgetting to revise rates when fuel or timber spikes. Solution: CountBricks sends alerts when supplier increases push your break-even threshold higher.
• Mistake: Ignoring idle time and travel. Solution: The scheduler inside CountBricks tracks non-billable blocks and folds them into future rate calculations.
1. Open a new project and start a voice session to describe rooms, finishes and deadlines
2. Confirm the automatically imported materials list and swap products if required
3. Review labour allocations generated from your historic productivity averages
4. Slide the overhead dial until projected annual overhead equals your latest accounting figures
5. Select the desired profit percentage and click “Generate Estimate”
6. Instantly produce a branded quote PDF or send a digital proposal with e-signature
• Revisit overhead inputs quarterly to keep pace with business growth
• Create separate rate presets for renovation, new build and insurance work
• Use CountBricks job costing reports to compare estimated versus actual cost and refine future rates
• Offer clients phased invoicing; CountBricks calculates progress claims automatically
• Archive every project; the AI learns which trades consistently beat or miss their charge out targets
Traditional spreadsheets can’t keep up with volatile material pricing or shifting labour availability. CountBricks merges:
• Voice-first data capture
• Supplier price feeds updated hourly
• Machine learning productivity models
• One-click quote and invoice generation
That combination delivers charge out rates that defend your margins without scaring away clients. Explore more at CountBricks.com/services.
Whether you’re framing custom homes or managing multi-unit renovations, accurate charge out rates are your first line of defence. Book a live demo at CountBricks.com/consultation and see how fast your next estimate can be.
Willow Street Homes, a boutique builder specialising in architect-designed infills, relied on a flat $85 labour charge out rate for years. Material volatility and rising insurance costs squeezed profits to single digits. After onboarding with CountBricks, the company ran three months of historic projects through the platform. The AI uncovered that:
• Senior carpenters were effectively costing $94 per hour after travel and downtime
• Apprentice hours were over-quoted, inflating client pricing unnecessarily
• Overhead recovery covered only 72 % of true expenses
1. Role-based labour rates replaced the blanket figure, showing clients transparent skill-level pricing
2. Automated supplier feeds revealed a 6 % timber increase, instantly updated in all live quotes
3. Overhead allocation sliders were adjusted to achieve 100 % recovery across twelve concurrent projects
• Average accepted quote increased 3.2 % with zero pushback from clients
• Actual job profitability improved from 9 % to 21 % in the first quarter
• The team shaved two hours off every estimate, redirecting time to site coordination
Willow Street Homes now reviews charge out settings monthly inside CountBricks and exports real-time job cost reports to their accountant—no more end-of-year surprises.
If you suspect your current charge out rate is built on outdated assumptions, let CountBricks do the heavy lifting. Book a 20-minute discovery call at CountBricks.com/consultation and see how quickly accurate rates translate into stronger cash flow.
