MARKUP ON COST, COST BASED PRICING

Walker Construction acts as the general contractor on building projects ranging from $500,000 to $5 million. Each job requires a bid that includes Walker’s direct costs and subcontractor costs as well as an amount referred to as “overhead and profit.” Walker’s bidding policy is to estimate the direct materials cost, direct labor cost, and subcontractors’ costs. These are totaled, and a markup is applied to cover overhead and profit. In the coming year, the company believes it will be the successful bidder on 10 jobs with the following total revenues and costs:

Revenue

 

$23,580,000

Direct materials

$6,500,000

 

Direct labor

4,316,000

 

Subcontractors

8,834,000

19,650,000

Overhead and profit

 

$ 3,930,000

Required:

1. Given the preceding information, what is the markup percentage on total direct costs?

2. Suppose Walker is asked to bid on a job with estimated direct costs of $980,000. What is the bid? If the customer complains that the profit seems pretty high, how might Walker counter that accusation?