Labor guide and maintenance proposals (mechanics)
Price every job as book hours times your labor rate plus parts, and send good, better and best maintenance proposals for cars and boats in a few taps.
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Step 1: Set your labor rate
Open Settings → Price Book Setup. Mobile mechanics and marine mechanics start with a labor guide already loaded. Type your labor rate (per hour) and save. Every job prices as book hours × your labor rate, plus each part at your cost with its markup.
Step 2: Work out your labor rate with the builder
Not sure what to charge? On the ③ Flat-Rate Book tab, open 🧮 Build your labor rate and job prices. Enter what one tech’s day costs: truck, fuel, insurance and tools, your monthly overhead, their pay with payroll taxes, paid hours, and the hours they actually spend working on cars. Add the profit you want. It shows your cost per working hour and the labor rate to charge. For example, a $490 day over 5 working hours is $98 an hour, or about $131 an hour at 25% profit. Click Use this as my labor rate, and every job in your guide re-prices. Enter a job’s book hours and parts to see its price, then Save as a task.
Step 3: Make the hours yours
The starting hours are typical for a common car, or per engine for boats. They’re a starting point, not a licensed labor guide, so change any job to match how long it takes you, change a part’s cost or markup, or add your own jobs.
Step 4: Send a maintenance proposal
Open New Quote, pick the customer and their vehicle or boat, then Choose a job type. Cars: Oil change visit, 30,000-, 60,000- and 90,000-mile service, Front brake service. Boats: Annual / 100-hour outboard service (two sizes), Winterization (outboard and inboard / sterndrive), Spring commissioning. Each fills three options, Essential, Recommended and Complete, priced from your labor guide. Send it, and your customer picks one, signs on the phone and can pay a deposit.
Step 5: Twin engines
Marine prices are per engine. For a boat with twins, set the quantity to 2 on each line.
Step 6: Boats and their engines
On the customer page tap ＋ Add a boat and its engines. Add the boat name, year, make, model, length, hull type and the 12-character hull ID (HIN) from the transom, plus where it’s kept: marina, dock, slip and the gate code. Then add each engine (port, starboard, center or kicker, outboard, inboard or sterndrive) with its make, model, horsepower, serial and hours. Twin outboards fills in two at once.
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Your ticks are saved in this browser only. Updated October 2026.
Questions about this
Is this the same as a paid labor guide like MOTOR or Mitchell?
No. It’s a starting book of typical hours you can change. Licensed labor guides are paid products we don’t include.
Do card fees get added to my prices?
They’re built in, not added. A 3.9% card fee is part of your labor guide and parts prices from the start, so you keep every dollar when a customer pays by card. Nothing is added at checkout. To turn it off, pick Off under Build card fees into your prices?
Can I keep my own price for a job?
Yes. Type a fixed price on any job and that price is used on every quote.