Stop pricing off a spreadsheet that fights you.
A generic SaaS estimating tool charges you every month and still doesn’t know your trade. An in-house spreadsheet is free until a broken formula costs you a bid. JVI Design builds the rate structure and the workbook once — back-office evaluations, burdened labor rates, and certified payroll setup, plus a custom Excel system you own outright. Job costing is also available on request, built from your own labor burden and unit pricing.
Standard takeoffs deliver measured quantities only — SF, LF, EA by area and material — with no unit pricing applied. Unit pricing and job costing are consulting-side deliverables, billed separately at $225/hr.
Advised by a Construction Management degree, 35+ years in the trades, and two decades running a contracting business — not a spreadsheet consultant who has never priced a job.
01 · Back-office & pricing structure evaluation · Sheet 01 of 06
| 01 | Review of current P&L, overhead allocation and how labor is currently burdened into bids |
| 02 | Identification of where pricing structure is under- or over-recovering true cost |
| 03 | Recommendations on margin strategy and a rebuilt rate structure to price with confidence |
Delivered as a standalone engagement, or as Package A / Package B on our pricing page.
02 · Why a custom-built rate system
| Feature | In-house Excel | Generic SaaS estimating tool | JVI Design system |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade customization | Flexible, but formulas break over time | Rigid — built for general contractors, not your trade | Built around your assemblies |
| Ongoing fees | None | Monthly, per user | One-time — you own the file |
| Labor burden consistency | Depends on who last touched it | Generic default, rarely matches your real cost | One rate structure, applied consistently |
| Data control | Unlocked, easy to break | Cloud-hosted, subscription-dependent | Local file, locked formulas |
03 · Certified payroll setup
| 01 | Wage determination pulled for the project’s county and craft (federal Davis-Bacon or CA DIR, confirmed current at the time of bid) and every task mapped to its correct classification line |
| 02 | Certified payroll report structure built before payroll runs — WH-347 (federal) or A-1-131 (CA), with fringe, apprentice/journeyworker and eCPR fields set up correctly from week one |
| 03 | DAS 140/142 filing and journeyman-to-apprentice ratio check for CA public works above the statutory threshold, with DIR registration status confirmed before bid |
| 04 | Coordination with your office on submittal schedule and compliance documentation |
04 · Custom trade workbooks
Beyond a business-wide evaluation, we also build standalone Excel workbooks scoped to a single trade — tile pattern & waste logic, flooring transition & moisture factors, painting coverage-by-substrate — priced separately as a flat fee on Pricing and shown alongside our other deliverables on Toolbox.
05 · Rate
Business consulting
$225/hr
Applies to back-office evaluations, certified payroll setup, and any consulting work outside a package engagement. Packages are a one-time setup priced by field headcount; annual refreshes ($850/$1,550), triggered rebuilds and second-opinion reviews are listed on Pricing.
06 · Payment terms
Payment is due upon receipt. Required retainers and project deposits must be paid before work begins. Consulting services — back-office evaluations, certified payroll setup, and related advisory work — are billed at $225.00 per hour in 15-minute increments, separate from the $125.00/hr estimating rate; billed time includes substantive project-related calls, emails, meetings, document review, revisions, and coordination. Estimates and financial models are opinions based on the documents and data provided and do not guarantee actual cost, profitability, or contract award. By approving this transaction or authorizing work, the Client accepts the JVI Design Client Services Agreement & Terms and Conditions. Ask and we’ll email you the detailed intake questionnaire and Mutual NDA before any engagement begins — see our Confidentiality & Data Protection Policy.
Get the intake packet & NDA by email
We’ll send the technical & financial intake questionnaire and a Mutual NDA, ready to sign before we start.
Ready to talk pricing structure?
Tell us what you’re working through — back-office pricing, certified payroll, or both — and we’ll scope the engagement.