StashGrade for painting
Margin per square foot. Prep cost by job type. See which work the business keeps.
Interior, exterior, commercial, cabinet refinishing. The revenue per square foot looks similar across segments. The cost structure does not. StashGrade pulls the margin apart by job type from your QuickBooks.
Where painting companys leak money
Prep work estimated flat, performed at cost
Standard bids include a flat prep allowance. When the customer's walls have water damage, texture, or prior bad work, prep runs 30-40% over estimate. The crew fixes it, the invoice doesn't change, and the margin on that job is quietly 10-15% below what the bid projected.
Trim priced at wall rates
Trim takes two to three times the labor per square foot compared to open walls. If the bid applies the same per-SF rate to trim as to walls, the trim footage is being done at break-even or worse. The books show total labor on the job; segment-level analysis shows where the margin went.
Color changes mid-job absorbed as goodwill
A customer changes their mind on a color after the first coat goes up. Two extra coats, another primer, more material. Change order? Usually not issued. The cost goes into the job; the revenue stays at the original bid. On a 5-room interior job, an uncompensated color change costs $300-500 in margin.
Commercial after-hours work billed at residential rates
Commercial paint work requires off-hours access: nights, weekends, around tenant schedules. That work carries a real labor premium. If commercial jobs don't carry an after-hours rate, the actual cost of those jobs runs 20-30% higher than residential while the revenue per foot stays the same.
What the readout looks like
Margin by job type on a sample painting company P&L:
| Segment | Gross margin | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Cabinet refinishing | 58% | skill-based, material-light |
| Exterior residential | 49% | |
| Interior residential | 44% | |
| Commercial (retail/office) | 38% | after-hours labor compresses margin |
| New construction | 29% | competitive bid work, lowest margin |
Sample data from a seeded demo company.