Hire, prelims, and overheads — the template model
Hire, prelims, and overheads follow a template model. You set up reusable items in your pricing profile, and when you build a quote you pull the right ones in with a single tap. No retyping line items on every job.
Hire
Equipment you hire in — scaffolding, scissor lifts, cherry pickers, pressure washers. Each template has a name, a cost in $ per day or week, and a margin. When you add it to a quote, you just set the duration.
Prelims
Setup and logistics that aren't labour or materials — drop sheets, masking, floor protection, wash-down costs beyond the auto-generated wash line. Each template can be priced per area, per day, or as a fixed amount.
Overheads
Your fixed business costs — office rent, insurance, vehicles, phone, software, admin time. Expressed as a percentage applied to the total of every quote (default 25%). Adjust the number until your annual overheads are covered by the margin you collect across the year's jobs.
How they apply to a quote
In the quote builder, each bucket has its own section. You pick the relevant templates for this job, set quantities, and Surfacely rolls them into the totals with the right margin applied to each.
Why it matters: painters who forget to add prelim and overhead costs are effectively donating margin to the client. By having them in a template, you stop under-quoting because you can't forget something that's already in the checklist.
Tip: overheads percentage is the easiest number to get wrong. Add up your total annual fixed costs (everything you pay regardless of whether you're on site), divide by your expected annual revenue, multiply by 100. That's your true overhead rate. Most painters run higher than they think.