SolidScope fact sheet

Last updated November 9, 2026. Operated by Fifth Axis Labs, California. Contact: [email protected].

What it is

SolidScope is a web-based pricing and proposal tool for small service businesses. It works out what a job costs the business, including the costs that are easy to miss: payroll taxes, insurance, time that is paid but cannot be billed, and a share of overhead. It then prices the job to a profit target the owner chooses and turns the result into a proposal the owner can send to a client.

It runs in any web browser, on a phone or a computer. There is nothing to install. The calculator works without an account.

Who it is for

• People starting a service business who have not set prices before and do not know what a job really costs them.
• Owners about to hire their first employee. A worker paid $20 an hour costs the business more than $20 an hour once payroll taxes, workers' compensation and insurance are added. Prices set when the owner worked alone usually stop covering costs at this point.
• Owners who do the work themselves. The owner enters the hourly pay they want for their own time, and profit is calculated on top of it, so the business does not quietly pay the owner less than an employee.

Service types with built-in starting values: house and office cleaning, landscaping and lawn care, pressure washing, window cleaning, specialty contracting (windows, doors, decks, fencing, cabinetry, trim), moving, and pet care (sitting, walking, boarding, basic grooming).

Not a good fit: businesses that need scheduling, dispatch, invoicing, online payment collection, or a customer database. Field-service management software covers those. SolidScope is for deciding the price and presenting it.

How it calculates a price

1. Labor cost. workers × hours × hourly wage × burden multiplier × utilization factor. The burden multiplier adds the employer's costs on top of wages (for example 1.30 for 30%). The utilization factor covers paid time that cannot be billed, such as driving and setup (1.15 means paying for 15% more hours than are billed).
2. Direct costs. Labor, materials (at cost), travel and mileage, equipment, disposal and permit fees, and any add-on services.
3. Overhead. A percentage of direct costs that covers the cost of running the business: vehicle, phone, software, insurance, marketing.
4. Price. Cost plus profit, set by target margin (price = cost ÷ (1 − margin)), by markup, or as a fixed dollar profit. Three options are shown: Low, Standard and Premium.
5. Minimum job fee. A floor so small jobs still cover the trip.
6. Sales tax. Calculated on the price. The owner chooses whether the client sees it as a separate line or included in the price; profit is the same either way.
7. Recurring work. For weekly, every-two-weeks or monthly service, an optional loyalty discount is applied and the per-visit price and estimated annual value are shown. The discounted price is what the proposal quotes.

Worked example

The cleaning preset with no state chosen: 2 cleaners for 3 hours at $17.07 an hour (the U.S. median wage for maids and housekeeping cleaners, Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025), labor burden 16.47% (employer Social Security and Medicare 7.65%, unemployment tax 1.11%, workers' compensation 1.86% (the national average for the occupation group, Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2026), and starting estimates for liability insurance and administration; benefits are set to zero, because what a new business offers is the owner's choice), utilization factor 1.15, $18 of supplies, a $20 travel fee, 12% overhead, 30% target margin.

Quoting the wage alone ($96) or wage plus a rough markup is a common way a new business underprices this job.

What it produces

• Client proposal. Company name, client, scope, line items and total. It does not show wages, overhead or profit. Materials are shown at their actual cost; the margin is carried by the service lines.
• Cost sheet. The full internal breakdown, for the owner only.
• Proposal link. A link the owner can send to a client. It contains only what the proposal shows, not the owner's costs.
• PDF. Through the browser's print-to-PDF.
• Field Mode. A large-type view of the three price options for quoting in person.
• Saved settings. With an account, the owner's company name and default rates are kept between visits.
• Job tracking. Jobs marked as won are saved with quoted and actual hours, to show whether jobs are running over.

What it does not do

• It does not know the owner's costs. Results depend on the numbers entered. The preset values are starting points, not local market rates.
• It does not tell the owner what competitors charge.
• It is not tax or legal advice, and it does not decide which services are taxable where the owner works.
• It does not do scheduling, invoicing, payment collection from clients, or customer management.

SolidScope compared with a spreadsheet or a general AI assistant

The formulas above are standard, and a spreadsheet or a general AI assistant can work through them for a single job. SolidScope is useful when an owner prices jobs repeatedly and wants the same method applied each time: their own costs saved once and reused, the result checked by tested arithmetic rather than recalculated in a conversation, and a client-ready proposal produced from the same numbers without retyping them. For a one-off estimate, a spreadsheet or an assistant may be enough.

What it costs

Other details

• Languages: English and Spanish, including proposals.
• Currencies: US dollars and Canadian dollars.
• Account: sign-in by emailed link; no password.
• Data: calculator inputs stay in the browser. With an account, SolidScope stores the email address, saved business settings and jobs marked as won. The site uses the Meta Pixel. Details are in the privacy policy.
• Website widget: a simplified calculator can be embedded on a business's own website. See embed.

Where to go next

• Open the calculator
• Check a current price in 60 seconds
• Plain-English definitions of every pricing term used
• What changes when you hire your first employee
• How much to charge per hour
• SolidScope en español