One option in the plumbing industry for pricing your services is to go with flat rate prices. This is where you charge a fixed price for each service you provide, regardless of the time and materials it takes. It’s a simple and easy to understand pricing method that lets you give customers upfront pricing that helps them budget for a project. It also makes calculating totals for invoices straightforward, which means you can create and send invoices out faster.
This second point is important because, according to our research, the sweet spot after a job is completed is to send an invoice within 10 days to get paid faster. If you send one within 11-20 days, you’ll wait an average of 5 more days for the customer to pay, and if you wait more than 20 days, you could be waiting almost an entire extra month to get your money.
This plumbing flat rate pricing guide will go over other reasons why using the flat rate model in plumbing can be advantageous, and provide examples and tools you can use to implement flat rate pricing effectively, but we’ll also explain some downsides to flat rate pricing and the advantages of using alternative methods.
To start, we’ll explain what flat rate pricing is and discuss its pros and cons.
Plumbing flat rate pricing models categorize services into common tasks and assign a fixed price for each of them. This indicates the base price the customer will pay for the service regardless of how much time a plumber takes to complete the work, or how many materials they use.
Since these models don’t take work time or materials into account, you have to develop them by calculating the average amount of time it takes your plumbers to finish each task, as well as the average cost of materials for each task. You must also consider other factors such as overhead costs, how much you need to charge to turn a profit, and other unforeseen issues that can come up during work.
Advantages of flat rate pricing and how it helps plumbers
Flat rate pricing for plumbers can be beneficial for a number of reasons, mainly because it’s easy to understand for both you and your customers. This can give you advantages like these:
Disadvantages of flat rate pricing for plumbers and where it falls short
On the other hand, flat rate plumbing pricing keeps prices relatively static and doesn’t account for things like how every work site is different or how costs can change over time. So it can fall short for reasons like these:
If flat rate pricing isn’t cutting it for your plumbing company for any of the reasons listed above, we have the solution. BuildOps’ commercial plumbing contractor software helps you more accurately price what your services are worth, and process payments up to 90% faster. With automated scheduling and project management built in, your productivity could jump by up to 40%!
If flat rate pricing doesn’t seem like the right model for your company or you’re already using it and it isn’t working well, there are plenty of other pricing systems you can use. Here are some of the most popular ones in field service industries:
For plumbers, flat rate pricing means customers pay a fixed price for your plumbing services, regardless of other factors. However, these fixed rates must at least cover your business expenses. Here are some common plumbing business costs that need to be considered when setting your flat rate pricing:
Using a plumbing pricing software program can help you factor in these costs without you wasting time and risking mistakes doing the math by hand.
It’s tough to give examples of flat rate pricing for plumbing because, as we just explained, there are many behind-the-scenes considerations that go into setting field service prices. So you’ll have to build your own price book – but that doesn’t mean you have to manually create one from scratch. Here are some templates and tools that give you an idea of what you need to include.
1. Best field service software with built-in pricing templates: BuildOps
BuildOps was made with field service contractors – including plumbers – who handle intricate commercial projects squarely in mind. That’s why it does far more than just plumbing pricing and invoicing – it seamlessly connects your whole plumbing job cycle, from customer acquisition and quoting through to providing services and getting paid. This helps you speed up your operations while more accurately documenting details and avoiding errors.
Specifically, BuildOps allows for customizing invoice templates to fit industries and pricing models – including plumbing with flat rates. You can also break down costs for added transparency, and integrate your invoices with several common accounting programs so your bookkeeping stays accurate. And you can do all of this from virtually anywhere with Buildops’ cloud-based platform.
To see how to save time when quoting customers and send invoices out automatically after field work is completed, check out how it works in BuildOps Invoicing.
2. Best free downloadable plumbing invoice template: QuickBooks
As a well-known accounting software brand, QuickBooks offers features to assist with creating invoices – including ones specific to plumbing jobs! But for plumbers who don’t want to invest in QuickBooks yet still have professional-looking invoices, this free downloadable template fits the bill (no pun intended). It comes in various file formats and has pre-set formulas for calculating totals and taxes, but it’s still fully customizable, and you can print or email it anywhere you want. The one drawback is that you have to create a copy and enter data manually for every job unless you have QuickBooks, which offers full automation.
Give this free QuickBooks plumbing invoice template a try and see if it fits your needs.
3. Best spreadsheet & doc template: Legal Templates
This is a simple plumbing invoice template designed for legal compliance. You can download it as a Word or Excel file and edit it yourself, or let Legal Templates walk you through filling out each of the different sections. When you’re done with the walkthrough, you can save it as a Word or PDF document, print it out, or even add the ability to electronically sign it! It helpfully lets you itemize costs, and you can add additional information (like terms of payment).
Download this free plumbing invoice template from Legal Templates as an Excel or Word file and fill it in yourself, or try letting Legal Templates walk you through completing it as a PDF!
4. Best online plumbing template library: InvoiceOwl
InvoiceOwl has multiple ready-made variations of plumbing templates, though you can customize them to match your company’s color scheme and branding. Each one is available as a Word, Excel, Google Doc, or PDF file. They provide space for entering your company information, client details, administrative information (i.e. ID number, date issued, and date due), an itemized list of costs, a space for notes, and a box for the total price.
Pick a color variant of this free plumbing invoice template from InvoiceOwl, pick a file format, and get started!
You can read our article on plumbing invoice templates for a larger list of examples to look at or use.
An even better way to manage flat rate pricing for plumbing is to use plumbing field service software. This not only helps you more accurately calculate your costs and profit margins, but also affords you greater control over your field service company’s other functions: scheduling, dispatching, field reporting, invoicing, and more. Here are five tools we’d recommend.
1. Best plumbing software with estimating included: BuildOps
BuildOps is field service management software that’s designed to help commercial plumbers tackle large-scale projects. It keeps a history of all service calls, dates of last visit, service agreements, and other notes so you have all the information you need to get your flat rate pricing right. Plus, it has a built-in equipment catalog that can insert prices for parts needed for a job right into a quote. You can even use it to include photos and videos in a quote, which can help it get approved faster.
How It Helps with Flat Rate Pricing: Create customer-facing quotes right in the field by using AI to translate techs’ notes into an itemized estimate.
To learn how to seamlessly integrate your flat rate pricing models directly into your quoting, field reporting, and customer invoicing, check out how BuildOps Quoting works.
2. Best flat rate plumbing price book: FieldEdge
FieldEdge provides easy-to-use field management software that works well for helping plumbers build flat rate price books. You can access many of its pricing-related functions right on the mobile app: looking up parts, calculating & sending estimates in real time, and generating & tracking invoices. While FieldEdge is great for teams that need a simple system they can use on the go, it’s not as well-suited for bigger commercial projects that may need detailed job costing or other custom features.
How It Helps with Flat Rate Pricing: Has features for intuitive and accurate estimating, quoting, and proposal-building that helps teams balance staying agile with getting pricing right.
If you want a solid yet user-friendly system for managing flat-rate pricing for your plumbing business, give FieldEdge’s flat-rate pricing software a look.
3. Best for residential plumbing: Housecall Pro
Housecall Pro is an ideal tool for residential plumbers with small teams who want to use flat-rate pricing. Like FieldEdge, it’s mobile-first software that allows for reviewing price books, generating quotes, scheduling jobs, and collecting payments directly in the field. That makes it great for shops that want to quickly move from job to job, but it’s not as effective for managing large teams or complicated multi-step projects.
How It Helps with Flat Rate Pricing: The mobile-first design makes it easy to pull up pricing, calculate an estimate, book an appointment, and collect payment all without needing desktop computers or help from the back office.
Check out Housecall Pro’s plumbing flat rate pricing software and app if your team wants to keep things simple and move quickly from job to job by using flat rates.
4. Best for small plumbing teams: Jobber
Jobber is another great option if you’re a solo flat rate plumber or a small-team plumbing shop. It offers basic quoting, scheduling, and payment functions in user-friendly software that’s simple enough to use on mobile devices. If you’re a larger shop that needs more advanced functionality for handling multiple teams or complicated commercial-scale jobs, though, Jobber may not be the best choice for you.
How It Helps with Flat Rate Pricing: It’s quick to set up and learn, making it easy to price and book everyday residential plumbing calls.
If you want lightweight field service pricing software that’s a great fit for small-team or even solo plumbers, see if Jobber’s plumbing business software has what you need.
5. Best for general contractors: Aptora
Aptora is advanced plumbing contractor software built for contractors who manage multiple trades (including plumbing). In terms of pricing, it doesn’t just support flat-rate plumbing pricing – it also allows for making custom price books that can feature tiered service packages or ones that include both labor and materials. It’s also designed to be usable on desktop or in the cloud. That makes it better for general contractors and larger teams that need to manage both one-off services and bigger projects across several trades. In contrast, it’s maybe not ideal for smaller contractors looking for mobile-based management to stay agile.
How It Helps with Flat Rate Pricing: It allows for deeper customization and control over pricing models, which is great for shops that manage multiple trades or that want extra insight into their finances.
General contractors, multi-trade shops, and larger plumbing companies should look into Aptora’s Flat Rate Plus Online software to see if it has what they are looking for in a field service pricing program.
For other notable options, see our articles on the best plumbing flat rate pricing software for contractors and the top flat rate pricing plumbing apps.
One other shortcoming of flat rate pricing for plumbers is that manually putting together a price book for it is time-consuming and inefficient. Not only will external conditions change that could affect your pricing, but you may also start offering new products and services or discontinuing older ones. And you don’t want to have to completely rewrite your pricing book every time one of those things happens.
Save yourself the hassle by using field service management software like BuildOps that has pricing functions built into it. Here are six reasons why you should.
1. Automate price adjustments
Forget having to rewrite or re-enter the price of a service or product manually every time you need to change it. Instead, program your software to respond to changes in certain variables – market conditions, competitor actions, material costs, and so on – and you can quickly update any of your prices at any time!
2. Use historical price data to inform future project pricing
With software, you can easily store and organize records of what past projects were priced at and how different costs were considered in pricing them. Then, when a similar project comes up in the future, you have a convenient reference point you can use to give a more accurate estimate.
3. Conduct price-revenue analysis
Software also lets you visualize how price changes have affected your revenue and the number of jobs you’ve gotten over time. This allows you to analyze the effects of not only the prices themselves, but also the pricing strategies you use to set them. You may even be able to use this data to simulate what could happen if you change your prices or switch pricing models.
4. Monitor market conditions and competitor pricing
What’s the level of demand for your services in your area? How much do necessary materials and equipment cost? How many other companies are you competing against? What are your competitors pricing their services at, and what might the pricing system they’re using be? Software can track things like this for you so you can make informed decisions on when – and how – to update your prices.
5. Look for opportunities to upsell and cross-sell
Using software, you can analyze how often customers choose to request more than one of your services at once, or how often they opt for higher-quality but more expensive parts and materials. This helps you identify situations where your plumbers could cross-sell or upsell. This is also helpful if you’re looking to create or enhance a tiered service level pricing model. Consider using field sales software to help with these processes.
6. Harness advanced selling techniques
Flat rate pricing is simple to understand, but pricing plumbing services isn’t always a one-size-fits-all process. Fortunately, software can help you record and analyze data on customer identity details and feedback, the types of services you book most often, your competitors’ pricing moves and strategies, and local plumbing market conditions.
Using this data, you can shift to a value-based pricing model where you charge what you think your services are worth to specific customers. Or you could use pricing segmentation to adjust your pricing for different demographics, increasing prices for customers who are able to pay more and decreasing them for customers who might not otherwise be able to afford your services.
Whether you want to use flat rate pricing or some other pricing system, BuildOps is ready to help you manage your commercial plumbing business. Go beyond managing your prices and get greater control over your whole operation. AI and other automations help you see the relationships between customers and properties, search easier, and send out dispatch requests as soon as they’re ready. Your techs can also use our mobile app to get all the information they need and even perform functions straight from the field, like writing reports and instantly turning them into invoices.
BuildOps runs free live demos every Thursday, so you can drop in and see for yourself what our platform can do for you – without the pushy sales pitch, we promise. You can also request a demo from our sales team at a time that’s convenient for you to get a more hands-on look at how our software can help you manage your plumbing company – pricing included.
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