Solo flea operators: quote the whole job, not just the first visit. A flea job is two or three trips, a free callback or two, and a customer who has to vacuum and treat the pet. Price all of it. Free, no signup. All defaults are editable starting points, not market rates.
Prep time is the texts and calls telling the customer to vacuum daily, clear the floors, wash bedding, and get the pet treated. Skip it and the callbacks climb. It is still your time, so it is in the price.
Flea quotes die when the follow-up visit, the free retreats, and the prep coaching stay invisible. Start with Your numbers: your target pay per hour, safety margin percent, minimum job price, and a daily profit goal for the planner. In The home, pick a preset: Apartment, Single-family, or Large and heavy. Each fills treating minutes per visit and product plus IGR cost per visit, all editable. In The leaks, set planned visits in the price, the percent of jobs needing a free retreat, minutes per retreat visit, and prep hand-holding minutes per job for the vacuum and pet instructions. Set drive minutes and round-trip miles per visit, plus vehicle cost per mile. The breakdown shows scheduled labor, expected retreat labor, prep labor, product across every application, vehicle, and true job cost. The big number is the recommended quote: true cost plus margin, rounded to twenty-five dollars, never below your minimum. Verdicts are PRICED RIGHT, CLOSE BUT LEAKING, WORKING TOO CHEAP, or LOSING MONEY. The gut check prices your usual flat price, and the day planner counts jobs to your goal. Free, no signup, runs on your phone.
Example only, not typical pricing. The single-family defaults: $65 target pay, 20 percent safety margin, $150 minimum job price, 75 treating minutes and $28 of product plus IGR per visit, 2 planned visits, a 25 percent free-retreat rate at 40 minutes per retreat, 10 prep minutes per job, 35 drive minutes and 22 round-trip miles per visit at $0.67 per mile. Scheduled labor is $238.33, expected retreat labor is $20.31, prep labor is $10.83, product across 2.25 applications is $63.00, and the vehicle over 49.5 miles is $33.16, giving a true job cost of $365.64. The recommended quote is $450, which is $225.00 per scheduled visit and $85.35 per hour across 4.1 hours, so the verdict is PRICED RIGHT. The callback math inside that quote is $31.00 of expected free-retreat cost, at $123.99 per retreat. A $200 gut price pays $25.05 per hour, lands $165.64 short of true cost, and leaves $250 on the table. The day planner says a $500 profit goal takes 6 jobs and 24.9 hours, with the not-a-day flag.
Why does the quote count 2.25 applications on a 2-visit job?
A 25 percent retreat rate means one job in four comes back for free. Spread across every job, that is a quarter of an extra visit: $31.00 of expected retreat cost inside each quote here.
Why is prep time in the price?
The vacuum and pet instructions are your minutes: 10 minutes here is $10.83 of labor. Skipping the coaching pushes the callback rate up, and one retreat costs $123.99.
Why quote per job instead of per visit?
Per-visit pricing leaves the follow-up and the retreats unbilled. The tool shows $225.00 per scheduled visit inside the $450 job quote, so the whole job is priced before the first trip.
When does the drive become the problem?
When drive minutes rival treating minutes on every trip. The leak note fires on exactly that and names the fix: cluster flea jobs by neighborhood and quote the far ones higher.
Is this business or financial advice?
No. Planning-only arithmetic on your own numbers. Product labels and state rules govern what you can apply; the tool only prices your inputs. Defaults are editable starting points, not market rates.