Rush-Job Pricing: Cost the Work You Would Have to Displace
Cost a rush job by adding its delivery costs, the extra costs caused by urgency and the contribution you would lose from displaced work. Distinguish work that is truly lost from work that can be rescheduled. Use that comparison to decide whether there is a workable price and timetable before agreeing to the request.
What you’ll get from this guide: Prepare a capacity comparison and a scope checklist for an urgent request.
- Use lost contribution rather than the full revenue of displaced work.
- Include only costs and losses actually caused by the rush decision.
- Confirm the capacity and customer agreements before promising a deadline.
This guide is for a small service business with a calendar that is already filling up. The aim is to decide whether an urgent request fits, not to pick a universal rush percentage. It avoids employment-rate assumptions: use the actual verified staffing cost for your situation.
Map the capacity before opening the quote
Suppose Wednesday has four hours of booked maintenance that would contribute $280 after avoidable delivery costs. Thursday has three flexible hours. A new urgent job needs four hours on Wednesday, with $220 of normal delivery costs and $80 of additional urgent freight and administration.
Assumptions: Fictional Australian-dollar management-costing example. Amounts exclude GST that is assumed recoverable; any non-recoverable tax is already included in costs. These assumptions do not establish your GST entitlement. Contribution is before unallocated overheads and income tax.
| Time slot | Current plan | If maintenance can move | If maintenance cannot move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday: four hours | Maintenance; $280 contribution | Urgent work replaces the slot | Urgent work replaces the slot |
| Thursday: three free hours | Available for other work | Insufficient alone for four-hour maintenance | No rescheduled maintenance |
| Extra hour required | None | Find and confirm one more hour | Maintenance contribution is lost |
Original ASBG worked example. All businesses, amounts and scenarios are fictional. The table contains the same figures as the visual.
The maintenance still needs four hours, and Thursday currently has only three. Confirm another available hour, a genuinely shorter scope or an agreed different date before using the rescheduling scenario.
Compare accept, move and decline
Assume the owner wants an extra $200 contribution for accepting the urgent job. This is a chosen target, not a market rate.
Assumptions: Fictional Australian-dollar management-costing example. Amounts exclude GST that is assumed recoverable; any non-recoverable tax is already included in costs. These assumptions do not establish your GST entitlement. Contribution is before unallocated overheads and income tax.
| Option | Normal urgent-job cost | Urgency or reschedule cost | Lost contribution to recover | Extra target | Urgent-job revenue required |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decline; keep maintenance | Not incurred | Not incurred | $0 | $0 | No urgent quote |
| Accept; maintenance is lost | $220 | $80 | $280 | $200 | $780 |
| Accept; maintenance moves successfully | $220 | $80 + $60 | $0 | $200 | $560 |
Original ASBG worked example. All businesses, amounts and scenarios are fictional. The table contains the same figures as the visual.
For the lost-work option, $780 − $220 − $80 = $480 contribution from the urgent job. Compared with the $280 maintenance contribution you gave up, that is $200 extra.
For the rescheduled option, $560 − $220 − $80 − $60 = $200 extra, while the maintenance contribution is preserved. The $60 is the fictional extra coordination and travel cost caused by the move. If moving the job merely delays revenue, keep that timing effect in a cash schedule instead of calling the whole revenue amount a permanent loss.
Avoid two common counting errors
Don't add the entire displaced invoice to the urgent quote. If a $500 cancelled job would have needed $220 of costs that you no longer incur, the contribution at stake is $280. Conversely, if those costs are already committed and cannot be avoided, the decision needs a different cost comparison.
Don't automatically count a salaried person's cost twice, once in annual overhead and again as a new cash cost. Show the incremental cash effect and the capacity used as separate views. If the new job creates genuine overtime, outsourcing or additional employment costs, verify and include those actual costs.
Confirm the promise before sending a price
Write the task, deadline, access requirements, customer inputs, exclusions and what happens if a required part doesn't arrive. Check whether the urgent freight service actually meets the delivery window. Tell affected customers about any proposed timetable change and obtain agreement where needed.
Business.gov.au's quote guide is useful for the written scope. Get the actual contract checked where rescheduling or an urgent fee changes agreed terms. The calculations here don't authorise a unilateral change to an existing customer's job.
After delivery, compare the assumed urgent costs with actual receipts and time, following the budget-versus-actual approach. Keep what you learn for the next request.
Where to get help
Use a job profitability review after completion and a contingency register where uncertainty is the main issue. The hourly-rate guide and pricing and profit hub provide the foundations.
Where to go from here
Job Profitability Review: Compare Your Quote with Actual Costs
Find the estimating assumption to change after a job.
3 min readQuote Contingency: Cost the Uncertainty and Explain the Scope
Record the uncertainty behind a quote allowance.
3 min readRetainer Profitability: Measure the Work Behind the Monthly Fee
Continue the “cost a job” reading sequence.
3 min read
General information only. This guide doesn't take your personal or business circumstances into account and isn't financial, legal or tax advice. Rates and thresholds change — check the official sources linked in this guide and get qualified advice where your circumstances require it.