Step 1: list your common repairs
Don’t try to price everything. Start with the 20–30 repairs that come back every week: screen and battery replacements for popular models, charging ports, back glass; for computers — SSD/RAM upgrades, OS installs, cleanups and diagnostics. Those cover most of your revenue; everything else gets quoted individually anyway.
Step 2: the formula
Repair price = part cost + labor + margin. A common starting point: part cost times 1.5 to 2, plus a labor rate for the actual time. A repair with a cheap part and long labor (microsoldering, board work) is priced on labor; a repair with an expensive part and quick labor lets the part margin do the work.
Record the part cost in the price book too, not just the customer price — that way every row shows its margin, and you know exactly what to update when a supplier raises prices.
Step 3: quality tiers — several prices for one repair
An iPhone screen replacement isn’t one product: there are original panels, OEM, and aftermarket at several quality levels. Instead of debating at the counter, the price book gets a row per tier: "iPhone 13 screen — aftermarket: $75 · OEM: $110." It’s transparent for the customer, and it prevents the awkward conversation when someone discovers they paid original prices for an aftermarket panel.
Step 4: keeping the team consistent
- The price book is visible to everyone at the counter — not stored in the owner’s head.
- Attach an internal staff note to a service where useful: "confirm part availability before promising," "warranty excludes new drops."
- Deviating from the price is allowed — deliberately and on the record, not by guessing. A discount for a regular is fine; a tech who doesn’t know the price is not.
- The price that was agreed gets saved on the ticket itself, so a future price-book update never changes deals already made.
When to update
Two triggers: a supplier cost change (update that row the same day), and a short quarterly review — which repairs became common and are missing, and which dead rows can go. A maintained price book is a tool; a price book from 2023 is just a file.
