Service pricing calculator: build a quote from your costs
Enter your own time, job costs, quote-based fees, and target margin. The result is a cost-based quote for the scope you entered.
Dog sitting pricing calculator
How much to charge for dog sitting?
A live-in stay and a short drop-in visit occupy different amounts of your schedule; the example counts active work only, so add any committed availability to your own scope and pay target.
Two overnight stays with active care time and separate visits. Describe whether the sitter remains on site.
- Editable example assumptions
- Cost-based, not a market rate
- Before tax
Your assumptions
Editable example inputs. Replace them with your own numbers.
Work and time
Overnight stays
Extra care visits
Owner delivery time: 7.50 h
Job costs
Pet supplies
Goal, fees, and billing
Your quote result
Based on the assumptions you entered, before tax.
Exact minimum target price$330
Suggested rounded quote$330
Operating profit at suggested quote$82.50
Based on your inputs, not a market rate or after-tax take-home pay.
Cost breakdown
- Owner labor
- $212.50
- Other labor
- $0
- Direct job costs
- $10
- Travel, equipment, overhead & other fixed costs
- $25
- Total fixed cost
- $247.50
Show calculation and assumptions
(7.50 delivery + 1 other hours) × $25/h + $0 other labor + $10 direct costs + $25 other fixed costs = $247.50. $247.50 ÷ (1 − 0% fees − 25% margin) = $330 after rounding up to the cent.
Cost coverage: $247.50 ÷ (1 − 0% fees) = $247.50.
Owner pay is included as labor cost. Quote-based percentage fees are subtracted in the denominator.
Suggested equivalent: $165.00 per night across 2 nights. Total quote comes first.
Review your assumptions
Compare your own scenarios
Enter and confirm your low and high total owner hours and material costs. These are planning assumptions, not market ranges.
Low scope
Add both values to compare.
Expected: current inputs
$330 exact · $330 suggested
High scope
Add both values to compare.
$
Enter a positive quote to see its profit and margin.
How to scope this dog sitting quote
Start with the actual deliverable and billing unit: 2 nights in the editable example. If the customer’s scope differs, change task quantities, hours per item, and billable unit count before relying on the result.
Costs to check
- Overnight stays: estimate the quantity and the time each one takes.
- Extra care visits: estimate the quantity and the time each one takes.
- Pet supplies: enter the amount you expect to pay for this job.
- Include your owner pay, travel, equipment use, overhead, and any helper or subcontractor costs that actually apply.
Worked example
Illustrative inputs, not observed local prices.
7.50 delivery hours + 1 other hours at $25/hour = $212.50 owner labor. $10 direct job costs, plus $25 other fixed costs, gives $247.50 fixed cost.
With a 25% target margin and 0% quote-based fees: $247.50 ÷ 0.75 = $330 exact minimum target price.
Where this estimate can change
Medication, extra pets, and emergency availability need their own scope and time assumptions.
The result covers only entered costs and the owner pay target. It is a before-tax operating estimate; it does not establish a local market rate or legal requirements.
Before quoting
Confirm the scope
Is the booking live-in, overnight, or a set of drop-in visits, and what pet-care duties are included?
When work changes
Revise the estimate
Add medication, extra walks, or required on-site availability to the time and scope before quoting the stay.
Billing unit
Price the full task first
The example covers 2 nights. Divide the full quote by this count only when it matches what the customer will actually buy.
Source and method
This page uses the QuoteForProfit cost-based formula and explicitly labeled, editable example assumptions. It does not use an external market price table. Method updated 2026-11-06.
Related guides
Billable hours and nonbillable time in service pricing
The hour a customer sees is often only part of the time a job occupies. Count work that enables the deliverable.
How to quote a job when hours are uncertain
Use separate, explicit scope scenarios when the time required is uncertain. Treat them as your planning assumptions.
Margin vs markup for service pricing
Margin measures profit as a share of the selling price. Markup measures profit as a share of cost.
Related service tools
Dog walking →
Three thirty-minute walks plus example handling time for an additional dog.
House sitting →
Three nights with defined property checks and plant care, rather than an undefined all-day obligation.