Trim & Finish Carpentry Pricing Calculator — Excel Bid

Finish carpenters get paid by the unit — per foot of base, per door hung, per window cased. Most price it off gut feel and find out at the end whether the job made money.

This price book turns your real labor and material cost into a per-unit price, builds the bid room by room, checks your margin live, and hands the client a professional proposal.

Built for a two-truck shop and not a production builder.

Who it's for

You run 2 to 10 finish carpenters and you bid trim work by the room or by the house.

Not for you if you're framing or running a GC business. This prices finish work specifically.

What it does

• Calculates a suggested price for every trim task from labor time + material cost + your target margin
• Lets you override any price with your own number, any time
• Builds the bid room by room — pick an item, type a quantity, done
• Shows your live cost, profit, and margin with a green ON TARGET / red BELOW TARGET flag so you never send a thin bid
• Adds your trip fee and enforces a minimum job charge automatically
• Generates a clean, branded client proposal — itemized or summary, your choice
• Rolls up an auto material takeoff (shopping list) adding waste to what you cut and ordering whole items exactly as bid

What's included — 6 tabs

• Start Here — quick orientation and the color key
• Rate Setup — set your labor rate, margin, waste %, minimum charge, trip fee and company info once; everything flows from here
• Price Book — 42 preloaded finish-carpentry items with suggested prices, in a book that holds 150; edit labor, materials, or override any price
• Bid Builder — build each estimate with live cost, price, and margin tracking
• Proposal — a client-ready quote that fills itself from the bid, with an itemized/summary toggle
• Material Takeoff — an automatic shopping list, every material rolled up with waste

Plus a step-by-step User Guide (PDF), a one-page Google Sheets Quick-Start, and a filled example — a four-room trim package priced end to end, $5,879 to the client at a 37.4% margin, so you can see every formula working before you touch your own numbers.

The catalog covers baseboard, casing, crown, chair rail and panel molding; interior, barn, pocket, bifold and French doors and hardware; window casing, stool & apron and sills; closets & shelving; stair treads, handrail, balusters, newels and skirt board; wainscoting, board & batten, shiplap, beadboard and coffered ceilings; mantels, built-in bookcases, window seats and floating shelves; plus prep and demo. Add your own items too.

• How it works — The gold cells are the ones you type in. Everything else calculates. Change one number and every price, total, and your margin update instantly.
• Who it's for — Framers, finish and trim carpenters, and finish-out crews who bid labor by the foot, the door, the window, or the room.
• Delivery — Instant digital download. Works in Microsoft Excel; a simple guide is included for using it in Google Sheets. Nothing is shipped.
• This tool is for estimating and planning. It provides general guidance, not tax, legal, or accounting advice. The proposal's terms are starting language, not a lawyer-drafted contract — have binding agreements reviewed by an attorney in your state.