Pricing plumbing is two calculations and a decision. The first calculation is the loaded hourly rate: what an hour of a technician's time has to bring in to cover the wage, the truck, the insurance, the office and the hours that cannot be billed. The second is the task price: the hours the task takes at that rate plus the parts and their markup. The decision is whether the customer sees the hours or the task. The flat rate pricing tool on this site does the second calculation from your own figures, with no account.
The loaded rate
The wage is the smallest part. The truck, the fuel, the insurance, the license, the tools, the office and the software are spread over the hours a technician actually bills, which are fewer than the hours worked, because drive time, quoting and the merchant counter bill nothing. Dividing the year's cost by the year's billable hours is the rate; guessing it is the reason shops are busy and broke.
The task price
Each flat-rate task takes a known number of hours at the loaded rate and a known list of parts at cost plus markup. The flat rate pricing tool on this site builds that price per task; the price book template holds the result. A task priced once and used on every estimate is a task that is never under-quoted at the kitchen table.
Flat rate or hourly to the customer
Flat rate for the tasks the price book holds: the customer gets a price before the work and the technician's speed is the shop's margin. Hourly for diagnosis and the jobs nobody can scope. Showing both on one invoice is fine when the estimate showed both.
What the market charges
The vendors' prices below are for the software, not the plumbing; what other shops charge for a task is not published anywhere reliable, and a shop that prices from a competitor's guess inherits the competitor's mistakes. Price from your own costs; the BLS wage data cited below is where the wage part of the loaded rate can be checked.
Questions people ask about pricing plumbing
Should I mark up parts?
Yes, because sourcing, stocking and warranting them costs time. The markup is set once in the price book.
How often should prices change?
When costs change: a wage rise, an insurance renewal, a merchant price list. The price book is revised, and every estimate after it uses the new figure.
Is the tool free?
Yes: the flat rate pricing tool and the price book template work without an account.