The prompt
Score 10 of 10, Excellent
Use it when You need to price a job from your own material list, labor hours and rates, with the cost build-up shown so the quote covers everything.
- {{job_description}}
- {{materials}}
- {{labor}}
- {{other_costs}}
- {{pricing_rules}}
Full prompt and why it works
Prompt
Build a cost estimate for the job below, for me to check before I send a quote to the customer. I want every cost counted once, my markup applied the way I set it, and the arithmetic shown so I can check it line by line. The job (what the customer asked for, the site, any special conditions): """ {{job_description}} """ Materials, with quantities and my unit costs: """ {{materials}} """ Labor (tasks, people, hours and my hourly cost per person): {{labor}} Other costs (equipment hire, permits, disposal, travel, subcontractors): {{other_costs}} How I price (markup or margin on materials and labor, waste allowance, contingency, minimum charge, how I lay out a quote): {{pricing_rules}} Produce: 1. Cost build-up: a table with the columns Item, Quantity, Unit cost, Cost, Markup, Price, grouped into materials, labor and other costs. Add a waste allowance to materials only if my rules include one. 2. Totals: cost, price before tax, and the profit and margin on the job, with the calculation, for example "Price 8,400 - cost 6,300 = 2,100 profit; 2,100 / 8,400 = 25% margin". 3. Markup and margin: if my rules use a markup, show the margin it produces too, because a 25% markup is only a 20% margin. If my rules give a percentage without saying which it is, treat it as markup and say so. 4. Not included: things the job description implies that my lists do not cover, as questions, for example "Disposal of the old fixtures: include or exclude?" 5. Customer summary: 3 to 6 lines grouping the price into materials, labor and other work (or the quote layout in my pricing rules), without my costs or markup, ending with a line on what the price does not include. Rules: - Use only my quantities, costs and rates. Do not look up or estimate material prices, labor times or permit fees. - Do not add sales tax unless I give the rate and say it applies. - Keep my costs and markup out of the customer summary. - Make sure the group totals add up to the overall cost and price before you finish. Keep the text outside the tables under 200 words. If a quantity is missing, or my labor list seems to leave out a task in the job description, list it under Not included rather than filling it in.
Variables
- {{job_description}}
- What the customer wants done, where, and anything unusual about the site.
- {{materials}}
- Each material with quantity and your cost per unit.
- {{labor}}
- Each task with who does it, hours, and your hourly cost per person.
- {{other_costs}}
- Equipment hire, permits, disposal, travel, subcontractor quotes, or "none".
- {{pricing_rules}}
- How you price and quote, for example "30% markup on materials and labor, 10% waste on tile, minimum charge 250; quotes show one total per room".
Why it works
- What good looks like. Markup and margin are both shown, because confusing them is one of the most common ways small jobs end up priced below what the owner intended.
- What to avoid. No looked-up prices or labor times: every figure is yours, so the quote reflects your real costs.
- If unsure. Work the job implies but your lists miss, such as disposal, becomes a question and a line on the customer summary, instead of an unpaid surprise afterwards.