Margin and markup are not the same number
A surprising number of underpriced quotes come from one confusion: treating a margin percentage and a markup percentage as interchangeable. A 30% markup adds 30% of cost on top of cost; a 30% margin means 30% of the final price is profit, which requires adding more than 30% on top of cost to reach it. The gap between the two grows as the percentage rises, and it is easy to quote a markup number while thinking in margin terms, quietly shrinking your actual profit. This planner forces you to pick one mode explicitly and labels the result accordingly.
How the quote is built
The cost estimate is inflated by your failure allowance first, since a percentage of jobs not succeeding is a real cost of doing business, not something to absorb silently. Finishing labor, sanding, assembly, packaging, is added next as its own visible line, since it is easy to forget once a part leaves the printer. Margin or markup is then applied to that subtotal, and a flat delivery or other charge is added last. Every stage stays visible in the result rather than folding straight to a single price.
Worked example
An $8.33 cost estimate with a 10% failure allowance becomes a $9.16 risk-adjusted cost. No finishing labor and a 30% margin target bring the price to about $13.09 ($9.16 / 0.70), with $3.93 shown explicitly as margin dollars rather than hidden inside the total. The same subtotal priced as a 30% markup instead would land at about $11.91, a meaningfully lower price for the same nominal percentage.
Limitations
This planner turns your inputs into a structured, internally consistent price; it does not know your local market rate, what a competitor charges, or what a specific customer will actually pay. Sales tax and payment-processing fees are not included unless folded into the delivery/other line. Use it to keep your own numbers consistent between jobs, not as a market-pricing study.