Priced the way Window Tinting work is billed
A two front windows — matched to the factory rears and a full vehicle tint — suv / truck, ceramic film don't get quoted the same way, so why would every trade? SideWRK prices Window Tinting the way the work is really billed: flat per vehicle, set by the film tier (full sedan: carbon $250–$450, ceramic $400–$800; two fronts $80–$150), removal per window, flat glass per sq ft. Tap the work, put in the numbers, and the line prices itself — no napkin math, no undercharging a job because you rushed the quote.
What Window Tinting jobs actually run
These are the starting numbers SideWRK loads for common Window Tinting work — researched to be realistic, so you can send an estimate that isn't a guess. Adjust any of them to your market in a tap.
Typical starting prices in the app — your area, your materials, and your reputation move them. You set your own; these just keep you from undercharging on the first quote.
Full vehicle tint — SUV / truck, ceramic film, priced out
Numbers only mean something on a real job, so here's how SideWRK builds the ticket on a common one:
SideWRK puts the parts on at what you actually paid — so the $440 of labor is what you clear, not a marked-up parts total dressed up as profit.
What moves a Window Tinting price
Two Window Tinting jobs that look the same on paper can be a hundred dollars apart once you're on site. Here's what actually changes the number — the things to size up before you quote:
- The film tier is the ticket — the labor on a sedan is the same afternoon whether the film cost $40 or $140, so dyed, carbon, and ceramic have to live at different prices, and ceramic's heat rejection is what you sell up to.
- Glass area, not vehicle price — an SUV or three-row runs 30–60% over a sedan because there's simply more film and more edges, and a steep rear windshield with defroster lines is the slowest glass on the car.
- Removal is its own money — baked adhesive means heat, scrape, and clean before new film goes on, $25–$60 per window, and folding it in silently is how a retint job goes underwater.
What a Window Tinting job puts on the record
Every trade documents something different, and Window Tinting is no exception. SideWRK captures year/make/model and what's on the glass now — bare factory, factory privacy rears, or old film that has to come off and the rest of what your work needs on the record — the details that protect you and make the invoice stand up:
- year/make/model and what's on the glass now — bare factory, factory privacy rears, or old film that has to come off
- the film tier and VLT sold, and the net VLT through film and glass — the number a traffic stop actually measures
- the windshield-placement note: strip above the AS-1 line, or clear high-VLT film where the state allows it
- a medical-exemption certificate when the customer presents one — theirs to carry, yours to document
- pre-work photos of scratched glass, failing defroster grids, and prior installer damage
Example note on a job: "35% ceramic on the fronts over factory glass — net VLT documented above. Customer advised of their state front-window minimum before install."
How to price a Window Tinting job in SideWRK
- 1
Start the job and add your work
Open a Window Tinting job and tap a suggestion like "Two front windows — matched to the factory rears" or "Full vehicle tint — sedan, carbon film" — the common work is already loaded, so you tap instead of type.
- 2
Price it flat per vehicle
Enter the numbers and the line prices itself, flat per vehicle, set by the film tier (full sedan: carbon $250–$450, ceramic $400–$800; two fronts $80–$150), removal per window, flat glass per sq ft. Put parts on at your cost so what you clear is real profit, not just the Window Tinting ticket total.
- 3
Note the details
Add a plain-English note — for example, "35% ceramic on the fronts over factory glass — net VLT documented above. Customer advised of their state front-window minimum before install." — and a photo of the work.
- 4
Log what the job needs
Capture the Window Tinting-specific records: year/make/model and what's on the glass now — bare factory, factory privacy rears, or old film that has to come off, and the film tier and VLT sold, and the net VLT through film and glass — the number a traffic stop actually measures.
- 5
Send it and get paid
Send the Window Tinting estimate for approval. Your customer approves from their phone, the invoice goes out, and you get paid — card or Apple Pay, on the spot.
Staying on the right side of the rules
SideWRK documents your Window Tinting work — it doesn't make you licensed, and it says so plainly. What to know: every state sets its own minimum VLT per window and measures film and glass combined; windshield film below the AS-1 line is illegal in most states; some states require film-certification stickers and manufacturer certification, and medical exemptions exist in some states but belong to the customer.
Window Tinting pricing — common questions
How do I price a Window Tinting job in SideWRK?
You bill flat per vehicle, set by the film tier (full sedan: carbon $250–$450, ceramic $400–$800; two fronts $80–$150), removal per window, flat glass per sq ft. Add the work — Two front windows — matched to the factory rears, Full vehicle tint — sedan, carbon film, Full vehicle tint — sedan, ceramic film — enter the numbers, and each line prices itself. Parts go on at your cost, so you see real profit and not just the total.
What does a typical Window Tinting job cost?
It depends on the work, but as a realistic starting point a common job like full vehicle tint — suv / truck, ceramic film runs about $550 in the app — roughly $440 of that is your labor and about $110 is parts at your cost. Common Window Tinting work ranges from about $75 to $550. Those are defaults you can change — you always set your own prices.
What does SideWRK document on a Window Tinting job?
The records Window Tinting work actually needs: year/make/model and what's on the glass now — bare factory, factory privacy rears, or old film that has to come off; the film tier and VLT sold, and the net VLT through film and glass — the number a traffic stop actually measures; the windshield-placement note: strip above the AS-1 line, or clear high-VLT film where the state allows it. They stay on the job as you work, so the paper trail is built instead of reconstructed later, and the disclosures this trade needs print on the estimate and invoice themselves.
Do I need a license to do Window Tinting work?
That depends on your state and the job, but here's the shape of it: every state sets its own minimum VLT per window and measures film and glass combined; windshield film below the AS-1 line is illegal in most states; some states require film-certification stickers and manufacturer certification, and medical exemptions exist in some states but belong to the customer. SideWRK documents the work; it doesn't certify you.
Does SideWRK work for trades other than Window Tinting?
Yes — it runs all 42 trades, each priced and documented its own way. If you run more than one, the Multi-Trade plan unlocks them all and switches between them in a tap.
Your first jobs
The sheet above answers what to charge. Whether the number was right gets decided at the car, before the first door panel comes off:
- Quote off a sheet, not off the car. Two numbers decide a tint ticket — the film tier and the window count — so set your packages once, carbon and ceramic, sedan and SUV, and every driveway quote becomes reading instead of guessing. Pricing Window Tint by Film Tier, Not the Vehicle is this trade's pricing deep-dive: it builds the whole rate sheet, works a peeling-purple retint quote to the dollar, and makes the argument for taking dyed film off your menu entirely. Read it before you print a price list.
- Walk the glass before you promise anything. Factory privacy rears mean the fronts get matched while the rears get nothing — that's the $120 two-fronts package earning its slot. Old aftermarket film is the other surprise, and a failing defroster grid is the kind of thing you photograph before you touch it, not explain after.
- Removal is a line, never a favor. On the app's menu it bills at $40 a window, on its own line. The pricing guide above works that line into a real retint quote and says why it never gets folded into the install price.
Repeat business
Tint demand is a wave, so repeat money in this trade is mostly a matter of working the wave on purpose:
- Book the season, not the day. Booking Out Window Tinting's Summer Rush is the seasonal deep-dive, and August is exactly when it applies — the rush is still on, and next year's plan writes itself from what this one is teaching you. It prices a fully booked two-a-day week at $5,610, then works through what deposits, honest per-tier lead times and a peak-week premium each do to that number — plus the review ask that only lands while the car's still in the driveway, and the fall upgrade you quote back in June.
- Your own price list, one tap deep. Tick Save as one of my services when you price a line and it comes back as a ★ button at the top of the next estimate form — your wording, your number, still editable. Those sit above the nine-package menu below, so the sheet you actually sell off of is the first thing you see.
How tint work bills
Flat per vehicle, set by the film tier — a menu, not a meter. Open a window tinting estimate in SideWRK and the form deals this nine-line menu: tap one, the line fills in, the price stays editable. Three lines live only here rather than in the starting numbers above — the carbon SUV package, the clear-ceramic windshield, and flat glass — and the $160 removal above is the four-window strip-out priced as one job; down here it bills the way you actually charge it, $40 a window.
Straight off the app's estimate form, every number editable to your market. The tier does the heavy lifting: carbon to ceramic is $150 more on a sedan, $170 on an SUV.
Three taps off the menu. The strip-out rides as its own line, so the customer sees what each dollar bought and your install price stays clean for the next quote.
The ninth line is a second market inside the same skill set. Home and office flat glass bills per square foot — 80 sq ft of west-facing office glass at $12 is a $960 ticket — and it doesn't care what month it is, which matters when the driveways go quiet.
Multiplying jobs
The install is four hours of your hands. What multiplies the season is the follow-through you'd never get to mid-peel — and the app runs most of it for you:
- A deposit turns a promise into a booking. The customer approves the estimate from their phone, signs by typed name, and can pay a deposit by card right there. You control it per estimate — on, off, or the percentage — with a shop default so peak season doesn't depend on remembering.
- Strike while it's on their screen. The moment a customer opens the estimate, you get a push and an email — that's the call-them-now moment. If it goes quiet anyway, a friendly nudge follows at 3 and 7 days, and an unpaid invoice gets a reminder at 3, 7, and 14 with a pay link. All email, each one a toggle you own — and every one of them is one message, to one person, about their own job. When you want to reach back out yourself, that's one text from your own phone. Never a blast.
- Strike while it's on their screen. The moment a customer opens the estimate, you get a push — or an email if push isn't set up on your phone — and that's the call-them-now moment. If it goes quiet anyway, a friendly nudge follows at 3 and 7 days, and an unpaid invoice gets a reminder at 3, 7, and 14 with a pay link. All email, each one a toggle you own.
- The review asks itself. A finished job emails the customer a one-tap review request that lands on your rating and your Google link — timed for when the tint is still the newest thing in their driveway.
- Glass photographs like nothing else you could advertise. Pair the glare shot with the finished side into the gallery on your public page, straight from the job's own photos. The before and after is the sales pitch.
- Detailing shares the keys. The customer who just watched their glass turn ceramic is the easiest detail booking there is — same driveway, same trust. The Multi-Trade plan runs detailing alongside tint for $15/mo over Single Trade, one customer list across both, and a single full-sedan ceramic covers the difference for the year.
Watch the deposit and the gallery run on a seeded tint business in the live window tinting demo — free, no signup.
Price it now
Pick the vehicle, set the tier, put your own numbers in — the same free calculator the window tinting page runs, right here:
Want it full-screen, or a link to text a customer? The standalone window tinting cost calculator is the same tool with room to breathe.
The paper worth keeping
The records list above says what the app captures on a tint job. This is what each record is for — mostly, answering a question months after the squeegee's dry:
- The vehicle, on the record. Year, make, model, body style, what was on the glass when you got there — bare factory, privacy rears, or old film — plus the VIN if you scan it and a notes line for the tier and VLT the customer wanted. When "do the wife's car too" comes in October, the quote is a read, not a revisit.
- The VLT number, written down. Every state sets its own minimum visible light transmission per window, and enforcement measures film and glass combined — a 35% film over factory glass reads darker than 35% at the meter. The estimate carries the film VLT and the net VLT, and the limit that matters is the one in the state where the vehicle is registered. States move these numbers; look yours up fresh, never off a chart from memory. The pricing guide works through what that written-down number protects you from.
- Placement and film papers. Windshield film below the AS-1 line is illegal in most states, so the record shows what you actually did: a strip above the line, or clear high-VLT film where the state allows it. Some states also want a certification sticker on the glass and the film brand documented — where that's the rule, the job record is where it lives.
- The exemption belongs to the customer. Some states allow darker film with a medical exemption. The certificate is theirs — generally carried in the vehicle — and when they present one, it goes on the job record as documented. You're the installer, not the issuer.
- April, already sorted. Numbered invoices, payments, film and blade receipts — it rolls into the year-end wrap-up: rows, category totals, CSVs, and a printable summary your preparer can use without a phone call.
SideWRK is a documentation tool, not legal advice — it doesn't determine or guarantee that any film, VLT, or placement is legal in any state. What it does is make sure the answer you gave is the answer on file.