What these calculators won't tell you

Before you bid a job off a MarginWorkshop number, read this. It's a short list of the gaps a spreadsheet-shaped tool can't close, written directly rather than buried in legalese.

It can't see your crew, your customer, or your market

A result is arithmetic on whatever you typed in, nothing more. It has no idea what your actual crew gets done in a day versus a textbook rate, what a specific customer will tolerate on price, or what labor and materials cost in your zip code this month. Where an engine flags one of these gaps directly on its own page, that's a real limitation to weigh, not filler text.

HVAC and trade-specific engines still need field judgment

The HVAC dispatch, maintenance-agreement, and seasonal-capacity engines price against the inputs and industry-pattern defaults you're given, they don't know your call volume this week, your technicians' actual close rate, or a specific customer's contract history. Treat their output the same as any other engine here: a number to sanity-check, not a quote to send unmodified.

Every default is a starting point, dated to when it was written

Ranges like typical labor burden or healthy margin bands reflect general industry patterns at the time they were put into the tool, not a live feed of your state, trade, or the current month. Swap in your own known costs the moment you have them; every engine that shows a default also lets you override it.

Money math only, nothing regulated

There's no tax, entity-structure, licensing, bonding, or insurance modeling anywhere on this site. If a decision touches any of those, that's a conversation with your accountant, your broker, or a lawyer, not a calculator.

Questions about a specific engine? Emailhelp@marginworkshop.com.