Setting a minimum service call fee

A minimum service call fee covers the part of a visit that happens whether or not a repair goes ahead: dispatch, travel, diagnosis and paperwork. Calculate those costs, add overhead and profit, then explain what the fee includes and whether it is credited toward an approved repair.

Price the visit before you price the work

This illustrative stop uses assumed labor, distance and overhead figures. They are not measurements from a real shop or suggested market rates. Replace them with your own records.

Tech time     1.67 hrs × $45     = $75   drive 40-70 min, diagnosis 20-45
Office time   0.25 hr  × $30     =  $8   booking, confirming, write-up
Vehicle       25 mi    × $0.76   = $19
Direct cost                       = $102
+ overhead (rent, insurance, phones, software), 20–35%  = $122–$138
+ profit, 10–20%                                        = $134–$166

The example suggests a floor of roughly $135 to $165 a stop. Not the price of the repair — the price of the truck being in the driveway.

Three inputs need your own numbers. Loaded labor cost is wage plus payroll taxes, workers' compensation and benefits. Use payroll and insurance records rather than a standard multiplier.

The vehicle rate of $0.76 in this example matches the IRS business mileage rate for July–December 2026. The first-half rate was 72.5 cents. These are deduction rates for eligible use, not measurements of your van's cost or customer charges. Use your own operating and replacement costs for pricing when available.

Overhead here is marked up from direct cost. Many shops budget it as a share of revenue instead, which gives a bigger number: 25% of revenue is a 1.33x markup, not 1.25x. Ask your bookkeeper which your books use.

Compare complete local visit prices

Compare what nearby businesses include in the visit: travel radius, diagnostic time, minimum hours and any repair credit. An advertised fee without those details is not a like-for-like comparison. Your own dispatch cost determines what the fee must recover.

If your floor is difficult to sell, examine your radius, scheduling and costs before reducing the fee. Nights, weekends and holidays need a separate after-hours pricing policy.

What you do with the fee after the diagnosis

Four ways to handle it. Which one you pick matters more than the number.

Flat diagnostic fee, kept. "$129 to diagnose, and you get a written estimate before we touch anything." The fee remains due for the diagnosis even if the customer declines the repair; state that at booking.

Credited toward the repair. Collect the $99 visit fee, then subtract that payment from the stated repair total if the customer approves. Explain the remaining balance and ensure the full repair price recovers the visit cost.

Waived on approval. Do not collect the visit fee when the customer approves the repair; charge the repair price instead. With the same full repair price, this can have the same financial result as a credit, but the collection steps differ.

One-hour minimum. "The first hour is $145, ten minutes or sixty." Easy where hourly billing is normal, weak when the drive is long and the fix short.

Test the structure using your own booking, approval and collected-payment records. Compare gross profit as well as the number of bookings.

Decide separately whether a site visit is a sales estimate or paid diagnostic work. A replacement estimate may be a marketing cost; a diagnostic visit delivers an assessment the customer can use even without a repair. Explain the charge and deliverable before the visit.

"You want how much just to come out?"

You will hear it. The instinct is to explain your truck payment — the one thing the caller does not care about. Answer with what they get.

• "The $119 covers the visit and a full diagnosis. You get a written price before we do any work."
• "It comes off the repair if you go ahead."
• "That's a trained tech on site, not a guess over the phone."

Describe only the license or certification you actually hold and the work it covers. EPA refrigerant certification and a state contractor license serve different purposes; do not present one as the other.

State the amount during booking and repeat it in the confirmation. If you offer an exception, calculate its effect and record it before dispatch so the written price matches what the customer accepted.

Three rules to check before you print the number

Upfront fee disclosure. California's appliance-repair regulator explains the service-call and diagnostic-fee disclosure rules for registered repair dealers. Check the requirements for your state and trade, and state the amount before dispatch.

Cancellation rights. The FTC requested-repair exception concerns buyer-initiated home visits specifically to repair or maintain the buyer’s personal property. Additional goods or services, other than replacement parts necessarily used in that work, fall outside this exception. State law may add cancellation rights. Do not assume every booked visit or replacement sale is exempt.

Sales tax on the fee. Classify the property and service before choosing tax treatment. Texas guidance, for example, distinguishes residential real-property repair from nonresidential repair; movable appliances can instead fall under tangible-personal-property rules. A residential address alone does not establish that a diagnostic charge is exempt. Ask the revenue department about the actual service and item.

Save and check the service-call line in DoneQuote

Save the fee as a DoneQuote catalog service with a description such as "Diagnostic visit, credited to approved repair." Add it to the applicable estimate and review the amount, credit conditions and tax before sending. A saved service is reusable; it is not automatically inserted into every quote.

The short version

• Cost the whole visit — booking, drive, diagnosis, paperwork, vehicle — then add overhead and profit.
• Compare local fees with the same travel, diagnostic time and credit conditions.
• Calculate the margin effect of keeping, crediting or waiving the fee.
• Say the number before the visit. Never negotiate it on the phone.
• Check upfront disclosure, cancellation rights and sales tax for your state and trade.