Downsizing organizers: quote flat or by the day without scope creep eating you.
Helpers are assumed to work your full hours on site. Change the hours if your crew works partial days. Mileage is priced at $0.67 per mile.
Flat-fee downsizing quotes die when the extra sorting days, the helper pay, the haul-away runs, and the drive stay invisible. Start with Your numbers: your target rate, margin percent, minimum project fee, and monthly take-home goal. In The project card, pick a preset: Studio, 1-bed, 2-bed, 3-bed, or Packed house. Each fills sorting days, sale days, helpers, haul-away runs, and drive, all editable. In The leaks card, set haul-away runs times dump fee, drive minutes and miles per day, supplies, and helper count with helper pay per hour; helpers are assumed to work your full site hours. The breakdown shows your on-site hours, helper cost, haul-away, drive, supplies, and true project cost. The big number is the recommended flat fee: true cost plus margin, rounded to fifty dollars, never below your minimum, with a per-day rate beside it. Verdicts are PRICED RIGHT, THIN AND SCOPE CREEP KILLS YOU, or UNDER WATER. The scope-creep line prices one extra sorting day at your rate, the gut check prices your old fee, and the month planner counts projects to your goal. Free, no signup, runs on your phone.
Example only, not typical pricing. A 2-bed preset at the defaults: $50 bar, 20 percent margin, 4 sorting days at 8 hours, 2 sale days at 10 hours, 1 helper at $25 per hour, 2 haul-away runs at $45 dump fee, 45 drive minutes and 20 miles per day, $60 supplies. Owner labor is $2,600.00 for 52 hours, helpers are $1,300.00, haul-away is $90.00, drive is $80.40 for 4.5 hours, and supplies are $60.00, giving a true project cost of $4,130.40. The recommended flat fee is $5,000, or about $835 per day over 6 days. A $3,200 quote earns $32.11 per hour, lands $930.40 below true cost, and leaves $1,800 on the table. The scope-creep line shows one extra sorting day costs $650.90. The month planner says fix the quote first: this project loses money, so more of them loses more.
Why does one extra sorting day matter so much?
A flat quote assumes fixed days. The tool prices one extra sorting day at your bar, helpers, and drive so you can see the day of scope creep before you agree to it.
Why do helpers cost more than my own hours?
Helpers work your full site hours at their pay rate. One helper at $25 per hour across 52 hours is $1,300, which is half of the $2,600 owner labor line in the example.
What is the per-day rate for?
It divides the recommended flat fee by total project days so you can defend the number as a day rate in client conversations. Flat fees only feel abstract until the math shows them per day.
Why is haul-away a separate leak?
Dump fees, donation runs, and trash loads are rarely free. Two runs at $45 each are $90 against the quote; left at zero they come out of your pocket silently.
Is this business or financial advice?
No. Planning-only arithmetic on your own numbers. Contract terms and pricing decisions are up to you.