ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion T&M job bid

Hey Bert, you need the job?


If you don't need it, don't do it...

But if you need the work, don't shy away just yet.

Alot of variables to through into the equation here, do you know the guy?
Is his money good?

Maybe you could bid it as a "T&M" on a "not to exceed basis".

T&M with a cap is simply saying to the EC:

"As long as you lose money on this, I'll be happy..."

Do one better than run.

Start the job, and about halfway through (when you have already reached the "cap"), bail on him because now it is becoming apparent that you're going to lose money.

Let's see how well his little plan works when he has to pay another EC prime rate to finish, which will require a few days just figuring out what was installed, where it went, etc.

That'll learn 'em.

Boy, I'm a mean old fart...

Don't forget the material handeling cost. Where is this customer going to store this material?
Make the customer do all the running for material that they forgot. And do not forget to markup your time for making up the material list for your customer.

Fill out a time card every day with time you go to work till you are off. My starts when I arrive at office in morning then return to office at end of work day.
Make sure that your proposal states this clearly. Be sure to let them know that time spent on something else will not be charged for and document every thing.
I do not do T&M with a not to exceed. It leads to too many arguements.
If they want to supply material add 10-15% to your labor rate. Also be sure that they understand that 2 men @ 40 hours per week = 80 man hours charged for each week. Also overtime and weekend work are charged for at premium rate.

To summarize: Don't do it! I have a headache just thinking about the headaches I would get from this job.

To all those who mark up material,do you then have to do sales tax? My accountant thinks I do if I am reselling material at a higher cost then I paid for it.

How big of a job is it? I say price the job like you would any other job, then detuct 65% of the material cost you figured. And go with that #. Explain that when the proper material is not on site when the job is underway, you will bill additional waiting time.

[This message has been edited by Joey D (edited 02-27-2005).]

This is probably a state by state issue. In my state if you break out materials and labor and charge more than you paid for the material, you should collect the additional sales tax for the state. They don't enforce this with small service companies, however we avoid this by selling the job as a fixed price for materials and labor. We mark up the materials when estimating, we just don't list it out that way.

I do the same, the mark up gets listed as labor in the end to avoid problems.