Your surety
Current assets minus current liabilities, from your latest financial statement. The limits below are built on it.
Largest single bonded job. 10 is a common rule of thumb; use your surety's figure.
All uncompleted bonded work together. 20 is a common rule of thumb.
Plus or minus on the schedule: a preferred risk might be -20, a stretched one +50.
Some sureties charge at least this per bond. Zero means none.
Used to choose which bids to submit. Zero means the set must fit even if you win every bid.
Bond rate schedule
Dollars of premium per $1,000 of contract price, charged slice by slice. The values below are placeholders, not your surety's rates: replace them with the schedule on your quote.
Current bonded job 1
Full contract price including approved changes.
Work finished so far. The rest is your uncompleted backlog.
Used to free up capacity over time, in a straight line.
Current bonded job 2
Full contract price including approved changes.
Work finished so far. The rest is your uncompleted backlog.
Used to free up capacity over time, in a straight line.
Current bonded job 3
Full contract price including approved changes.
Work finished so far. The rest is your uncompleted backlog.
Used to free up capacity over time, in a straight line.
Current bonded job 4
Full contract price including approved changes.
Work finished so far. The rest is your uncompleted backlog.
Used to free up capacity over time, in a straight line.
Current bonded job 5
Full contract price including approved changes.
Work finished so far. The rest is your uncompleted backlog.
Used to free up capacity over time, in a straight line.
Bid 1
Your estimate: labor, materials, subs and overhead you must cover.
Profit as a share of the price you bid, after paying the bond.
Your honest estimate from past bids at this size.
A job with no bond uses none of your capacity and pays no premium.
Bid 2
Your estimate: labor, materials, subs and overhead you must cover.
Profit as a share of the price you bid, after paying the bond.
Your honest estimate from past bids at this size.
A job with no bond uses none of your capacity and pays no premium.
Bid 3
Your estimate: labor, materials, subs and overhead you must cover.
Profit as a share of the price you bid, after paying the bond.
Your honest estimate from past bids at this size.
A job with no bond uses none of your capacity and pays no premium.
Bid 4
Your estimate: labor, materials, subs and overhead you must cover.
Profit as a share of the price you bid, after paying the bond.
Your honest estimate from past bids at this size.
A job with no bond uses none of your capacity and pays no premium.
Bid 5
Your estimate: labor, materials, subs and overhead you must cover.
Profit as a share of the price you bid, after paying the bond.
Your honest estimate from past bids at this size.
A job with no bond uses none of your capacity and pays no premium.
Bid 6
Your estimate: labor, materials, subs and overhead you must cover.
Profit as a share of the price you bid, after paying the bond.
Your honest estimate from past bids at this size.
A job with no bond uses none of your capacity and pays no premium.
Needs working capital and at least one bid with a direct cost. Leave a job or bid blank to leave it out.
Result
Questions contractors ask
How is a performance and payment bond priced?
Sureties charge a rate per $1,000 of contract price that falls as the contract grows: for example $25 per $1,000 on the first $100,000, $15 on the next $400,000, $12 on the next $2,000,000, $10 on the next $2,500,000 and $7.50 above $5,000,000. Your own rate depends on your credit, financial statements and experience, so type the schedule your agent quotes. The tool charges each slice of the price at its own rate.
Why price the bond into the bid instead of adding it afterwards?
The premium is a share of the contract price, and the price includes the premium. Adding a flat percentage to your cost undercounts it. The tool finds the price at which, after paying the bond, you keep exactly the margin you asked for on the final price.
What do the single-job and aggregate limits mean?
A surety caps the largest single bonded job and the total of all uncompleted bonded work, often as a multiple of your working capital. Multiples such as 10 times for a single job and 20 times for the aggregate are widely quoted rules of thumb, not anyone's actual limits. Enter the multiples your surety gives you.
Which bids should I submit when I cannot afford to win them all?
The tool tries every combination of your bids. For each it adds up the expected profit (win chance times profit) and the chance that the jobs you win would together push your uncompleted work past the aggregate limit. It shows the best combination that can never overcommit, and the best one within the risk you accept.
When will a job that does not fit today fit?
Your current jobs burn down as they are built. The tool assumes each is finished in a straight line over the months you give and shows the first month a bid fits if you win nothing else. A bid larger than the single-job limit never fits until your working capital grows.
Is this bonding or financial advice?
No. It is arithmetic on figures you type. Sureties decide on credit, character, capacity and the job itself, and may use limits and rates that look nothing like these. Ask a surety agent for a real quote and a real limit.
Not decided
Whether a surety will approve you at all, your actual rates and limits, collateral or indemnity terms, bid bonds and their conditions, retainage and cash flow on the job, how fast each job really finishes, and whether to bid. Capacity is modelled as a multiple of working capital and a straight-line burn-down of current jobs; real underwriting looks at much more.
Related tools: the contractor WIP schedule.