How to Price a Fabrication Job (So You Stop Losing Money)

Most workshops in Ghana do not lose money on the jobs they lose. They lose it on the jobs they win at the wrong price — quoted from memory, standing at the customer's gate, in under a minute.

Pricing is not a talent. It is a short calculation you do the same way every time.

The formula

Price = Materials + Waste + Consumables + Labour + Transport + Overhead share + Margin

Skip any line and you are donating it. Most workshops skip three: consumables, overhead and margin.

1. Materials, measured — not remembered

List every item the job eats: square pipe, sheet, angle iron, rod, hinges, rollers, locks, motor. Quantity × today's price. Not last month's price — today's, from the supplier you will actually buy from.

2. Waste — add 10–15%

Nobody uses 100% of a length of pipe. Off-cuts, a bad cut, a piece that warps. Ten percent on straightforward work, fifteen on complex designs. This single line rescues more quotes than any other.

3. Consumables — the invisible bill

Electrodes, cutting and grinding discs, gas, primer, paint, thinner, drill bits, wire brushes, and the electricity to run all of it. Either list them properly or add a flat 8–12% of the material cost. Both work. Forgetting them does not.

4. Labour — count the hours honestly

Work out your workshop day rate — what one worker really costs you per day, including the days there is no work — then estimate days honestly:

• Fabrication days × day rate × number of workers
• Finishing: grinding, priming, painting — usually underestimated by half
• Installation day on site, travelling included

The estimate that hurts is the one that counts the welding and forgets the two days of grinding and painting.

5. Transport

Materials to the workshop, the finished item to site, the return trip for the touch-up. Fuel and vehicle, or the hire. Price the real trips — including the one you always end up making again.

6. Overhead share

Rent, machine maintenance, tools that wear out, phone credit, the apprentice you keep on through a slow month. Total it monthly, divide by the number of jobs a normal month carries, and put that figure in every quote. A workshop that never bills overheads is paying them out of the owner's pocket.

7. Margin — last, and non-negotiable

Everything above is cost. Margin is what pays you, absorbs mistakes, and buys the next machine. 15–30% is normal for fabrication; complex or rushed work sits higher. A quote with no margin is a job you do for free with extra steps.

A worked example: a 4m sliding gate

Now look at what happens if you quote "GH₵ 11,000, because that is what I charged last time": five days of work, costs covered, nothing earned. That is the quiet way workshops stay busy and stay broke.

Five rules that protect the number

• Never quote on the spot. "I will send you a written quotation this evening" costs nothing and earns you the difference between a guess and a price.
• Put a validity period on it. "Valid for 14 days" — steel prices and the cedi do as they please.
• Take a deposit that covers materials. 50% is standard for custom fabrication. Never buy a client's steel with your own money.
• Price variations in writing. The client who says "just add a small flower design" is asking for a new quote, not a favour.
• Review finished jobs. Compare quoted against actual on one job a month. Three of those reviews teach you more than three years of guessing.

Make the calculation take two minutes

Workshops quote from memory because doing it properly with a pen takes twenty minutes. It should take two. In Fabri Manager a quotation is built from itemised lines, becomes a job when it is accepted, and becomes an invoice without retyping — so the price you calculated is the price you invoice, with the deposit and balance tracked against it.

Related reading: metal gate prices in Ghana · how to write an invoice in Ghana