What it's for
This electrical estimate template prices a job the way an electrician counts it: circuits to pull, devices to set, fixtures to hang, a panel to change. You list each item once with its quantity, what one costs you and the hours one takes, and the file multiplies and totals the rest.
The bid chain keeps cost and price apart, as our guide on how to build a construction estimate lays it out: overhead and margin go on only once the job cost is known. For work that isn't a count of items, the construction estimate template prices line items instead. Plumbers and HVAC contractors get this takeoff with their own categories in the plumbing and HVAC versions.
What's inside
Takeoff opens with the ELECTRICAL ESTIMATE letterhead and a project block: PROJECT, CLIENT, ESTIMATE NO., DATE and PREPARED BY. Its 20 lines each take an ITEM, a CATEGORY picked from Service and panel, Circuits and wiring, Devices, Lighting or Other, then QTY, UNIT, MATERIAL EACH and LABOR HOURS EACH. MATERIAL and LABOR HOURS are the quantity times each. TOTALS BY CATEGORY breaks the materials and hours out by those five, adds a "Not in a category above" row and closes on Takeoff total.
Labor and job prices those hours. Labor hours plus Additional hours, times Rate per hour, is the Labor total. The takeoff's materials, the labor, Equipment rental and Disposal make the Direct cost. Sales tax on materials, Permits and fees, bonds and contingency lift that to the Job cost, overhead to the Total cost, and the Bid price is "Total cost ÷ (1 − margin)".
Quote is the client's page, titled ELECTRIC QUOTE under your letterhead: QUOTE NO., DATE and VALID UNTIL, the CLIENT, PROJECT and ADDRESS, six SCOPE OF WORK lines, the Price, and signature lines for contractor and client.
About this template. Three steps, a note on the example figures, the version (v2, 2026-09-24), the license and links.
Every sheet prints on one page and is protected with no password. You type in the pale yellow cells; the rest is locked.
How to fill it in
- On Takeoff, overwrite or clear the three "Example:" lines. A line starts counting when it has an item or any figure. A category or a unit by itself doesn't.
- Decide how you count a circuit. The example prices each new circuit as one line, 3 ea at $85.00 and 3.50 hours each, so whatever one circuit takes goes into its cost each and hours each. To price wire by the foot instead, give the run a line of its own: its length in QTY, "ft" in UNIT, your cost per foot in MATERIAL EACH and your hours per foot in LABOR HOURS EACH. UNIT is free text and QTY takes decimals. Pick one way for each run, or the wire is counted twice.
- Type any waste into the quantity, because the sheet adds none. Each line's MATERIAL rounds to the cent and its LABOR HOURS to the hundredth, so a per-foot rate with more decimals keeps them until the line total.
- Panel and service work goes under Service and panel, runs under Circuits and wiring, receptacles and switches under Devices, fixtures under Lighting. A line with no category still counts in the Takeoff total, under "Not in a category above".
- On Labor and job, Additional hours holds time no line does, such as troubleshooting or travel; blank means 0. Then set your Rate per hour over the example's $95.00.
- A lift goes in Equipment rental. The permit fee goes in Permits and fees, where the example has $125.00. It sits in the job cost, so overhead and margin apply to it, but contingency, a percent of the direct cost, does not. Type the tax, contingency and overhead rates with the percent sign. Tax is figured on the takeoff's materials only, and the file doesn't decide what your state taxes.
- Keep the Target margin (% of the bid price) under 100%, and put your own overhead and margin in place of the example's 12% and 15%.
- On the Quote, fill in your letterhead and the client's details, which don't carry over from Takeoff. The Price is locked to the bid price, so change it on Labor and job. Send the Quote on its own, printed or as a PDF; the rest of the workbook shows your costs and margin.
The worked example
Each example line reads "Example:" at the start. The About tab calls its quantities, costs and hours, the $95.00 rate and the $125.00 permit fee illustrative, not recommendations, norms or typical prices, and the 12% overhead and 15% margin the bid price calculator's worked example.
| Item | Category | Qty | Material each | Material | Hours each | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example: new 20 A circuit | Circuits and wiring | 3 ea | $85.00 | $255.00 | 3.50 | 10.50 |
| Example: receptacle | Devices | 8 ea | $12.00 | $96.00 | 0.50 | 4.00 |
| Example: recessed light | Lighting | 6 ea | $38.00 | $228.00 | 0.75 | 4.50 |
Each line fills one category, and Service and panel and Other stay at zero. Together they come to $579.00 in materials and 19.00 hours.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Labor total, 19.00 hours at $95.00 | $1,805.00 |
| Direct cost | $2,384.00 |
| Permits and fees | $125.00 |
| Job cost | $2,509.00 |
| Overhead, 12% of job cost | $301.08 |
| Total cost | $2,810.08 |
| Bid price, 15% margin | $3,305.98 |
| Profit | $495.90 |
| Markup on total cost for this margin | 17.65% |
| Price marked up by the margin % instead | $3,231.59 |
| Left on the table by marking up | $74.39 |
With equipment rental, disposal, tax, bonds and contingency blank, the direct cost is materials plus labor, and the permit fee is all that separates it from the job cost. The Quote's Price shows $3,305.98. The last three lines set a margin against a markup of the same percent, which our guide to markup vs. margin explains.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work in Google Sheets or Numbers?
Both open .xlsx files. This one has no macros, and its formulas use only IF, AND, ROUND, SUM and SUMIF.
Can I add more than 20 takeoff lines?
Yes. Unprotect the sheet (there's no password), insert rows between two lines so the totals take them in, and copy the two calculated cells and the category choice into each new row.
Does it size wire or run a load calculation?
No. It prices the items you list from your own quantities, costs and hours, and it checks nothing against a code.
Can the client see a price for each line?
Not on the Quote. It carries one Price and the six scope lines you type. The line-by-line figures stay on Takeoff, in the workbook you keep.
Can I put my logo on it?
Yes, on the Quote: insert it where the sheet says YOUR LOGO. That row is 36 pt (half an inch) tall, so a logo sized to it fits without dragging the row taller. To remove the YOUR LOGO text, choose Review > Unprotect Sheet (there is no password), then protect the sheet again.
Is the Quote a contract?
No. It's a quote: a scope, a price and an acceptance block with signature lines. It has no contract terms, and the file doesn't decide yours.