Price mailbox installs so the small jobs pay. Free, no signup. All defaults are editable starting points.
Mailbox installers lose money on the flat 'set one post' price. One number sounds fine until the old concrete footing, the USPS height and setback check, and a second trip for concrete all take longer than the install itself. Start with your bar (60), profit margin percent (20), minimum trip fee ($100), and daily take-home goal ($400). Pick a job preset: New post + box, Post only, Box only, or Brick repair, each filling mailbox cost, post and lumber cost, concrete bags, and install minutes. The leaks card prices what small-job quotes forget: old-post removal minutes behind a checkbox, the USPS/HOA compliance check at a flat 15 minutes, a second-trip toggle that doubles drive and miles, drive minutes, miles, vehicle cost per mile (0.67). Results show your time, materials, vehicle, true cost, and the recommended quote rounded up to $25 and never below your minimum trip fee, with your effective rate against your bar. Verdicts run PRICED RIGHT, CLOSE, BUT LEAKING, WORKING TOO CHEAP, or LOSING MONEY. The gut check grades your instinct quote; the day planner turns your goal into jobs with an over-10-hour flag. No signup; runs on your phone.
Example only, not typical pricing. New post + box defaults at a $60 bar with 20 percent margin: materials are a $65 box plus a $30 post plus 2 bags of concrete at $6, which is $107. Site minutes are 75 install plus 40 removal plus 15 compliance, or 130, with 40 drive minutes for 170 total, or 2.83 hours at $60, which is $170 of labor. Vehicle is 30 miles at $0.67, which is $20.10. True cost is $297.10. Recommended quote is max($100, ceil(297.10 times 1.20 divided by 25) times 25), which equals $375. Effective rate is 375 divided by 2.83, which is $132.35 per hour, clearing the bar, so the verdict is PRICED RIGHT. The removal-leak note fires because old-post removal passes 30 minutes. A $150 gut quote would pay $52.94 per hour, grade CLOSE, BUT LEAKING, and leave $225 on the table. The day planner turns the $400 goal into 1.1 jobs and 3.0 hours.
Why does the removal note fire past 30 minutes?
Old footings hide concrete and rebar. The tool flags removal minutes over 30 because that is the line where digging eats the job's profit instead of riding along for free.
What does the compliance checkbox price?
A flat 15 minutes for the USPS height and setback check. Uncheck it and the tool warns that a free redo is coming when the box sits too high or too far from the road.
Why does the second-trip toggle double the drive?
Forgotten concrete or parts means driving the route twice. The toggle doubles drive minutes and miles so the quote carries both trips, not the one you planned.
What does CLOSE, BUT LEAKING mean?
Your effective rate lands between 85 percent of your bar and your bar. Removal time, drive, or materials are usually the leak.
Why does the planner flag over 10 hours?
Past 10 hours the day needs fewer, better jobs. The note says trim the drive before adding jobs, because more trips at a leaking price just scale the leak.