Auto locksmiths: quote car key jobs so the blank, the programming, and the drive all get paid. Free, no signup.
Defaults are editable starting points, not industry rates.
Your programmer and software cost money whether the van moves or not. We spread it across your monthly job count.
Auto locksmiths get squeezed by flat phone quotes. An $80 programming price sounds fine until the key blank, the programming tokens, the drive, and the monthly software subscription land on the job. Start with your bar (85), profit margin percent (20), minimum service fee ($125), and daily take-home goal ($500). Pick a job preset: Transponder dup, Smart fob, All-keys-lost, or Lockout, each filling blank cost, cutting minutes, programming minutes, and token or license or code fee as editable starting points. Tick the second-key box and it counts half programming time plus one more blank. The after-hours toggle adds a 25 percent quote premium. Getting there takes drive minutes, miles, and vehicle cost per mile. The tooling card is the line everyone forgets: your programming software and subscriptions, divided by your key jobs per month, so the fixed cost sits on every job whether the van moves or not. Results show the breakdown, the recommended quote, the effective hourly rate, the verdict, the gut check, and the day planner.
Example only, not typical pricing. Transponder duplicate defaults at an $85 bar with 20 percent margin: $18 blank, 10 cutting minutes, 25 programming minutes, 40 minute drive, 30 miles. Committed time is 75 minutes = 1.25 hours. Labor value is 1.25 x 85 = $106.25; vehicle is 30 x $0.67 = $20.10; tooling is $100 / 40 = $2.50. True cost = $146.85. Recommended quote = max(125, ceil(146.85 x 1.20 / 25) x 25) = $200. Effective rate = (200 - 18 - 20.10 - 2.50) / 1.25 = $127.52 per hour, above the bar, so the verdict is PRICED RIGHT. The drive note fires: 40 minutes of driving is over half the committed time. A $150 gut quote pays $87.52 per hour and leaves $50 on the table. The day planner turns a $500 goal into 9.4 jobs at $53.15 profit each, 11.8 hours, and flags it: over 10 hours of key work in a day, so raise the quote instead of adding jobs.
Why does the tooling card matter?
Because programmer subscriptions cost money every month whether you roll a job or not. Dividing the monthly subscription by your monthly job count puts a real dollar line on each quote, usually a few dollars, so it never silently vanishes.
How does the after-hours toggle work?
It multiplies the recommended quote by 1.25 after the margin and minimum-fee logic, then rounds up to $25. Emergency calls carry a premium; the tool prices it before you quote the price off the top of your head.
What does the second-key checkbox change?
It doubles the blank cost and adds half the programming minutes, because cutting and programming a second key at the same visit is faster than a separate call. It is how you price "while you are here" without giving it away.
When does the hardware warning fire?
When key blanks and fobs reach 35 percent of the quote. One wrong blank order kills the margin on that job, so the tool calls it out before you send the number.
What does the effective rate strip out?
Blanks, tokens, vehicle cost, and the tooling share. It measures what the quoted dollars pay you per committed hour, and the verdict grades it against your bar.