Calculate a Rush Project Premium

A rush premium should reflect what an accelerated schedule changes. It may require extra coordination, subcontracting, overtime capacity, or postponement of other work. The premium is not automatically justified by a universal percentage. Start with the standard-schedule quote, identify the incremental resources needed to meet the requested date, and check that the work can actually be delivered at the required quality before solving for a price.

Build an incremental scenario

A hypothetical project has a standard fee of $4,000 and modeled delivery cost of $2,600, leaving $1,400. Meeting a shorter deadline requires $450 of additional subcontractor cost and $150 of extra coordination cost. The rush schedule also displaces another confirmed job with $300 contribution that cannot be recovered later. The total modeled economic burden of acceleration is $900, but only $600 is an additional cost recorded on the rush project itself.

Preserve the original economic result

A rush fee of $4,900 covers the original $2,600 project cost and the $600 added delivery cost, leaving $1,700 project contribution. After subtracting the separate $300 displaced contribution in the decision analysis, the business retains the original $1,400 economic contribution. This explicitly distinguishes a project cost from a forgone result elsewhere in the schedule. The required premium is $900, or 22.5% of the standard $4,000 fee. Keep project accounting and opportunity cost in separate rows.

Use a margin target only when that is the objective

If instead the goal is to preserve the original 35% project margin, apply it to the new $3,200 project cost. Price becomes $3,200 divided by 0.65, or $4,923.0769, before quote rounding. This target preserves the project margin but does not automatically reimburse the separate displaced opportunity. A margin objective and an economic dollar objective answer different questions; choose deliberately instead of stacking every premium formula together.

Test whether the date is feasible

Map the critical tasks, approvals, dependencies, and the capacity of anyone supplying work. A higher price cannot compress an unavoidable review period or create unavailable specialist time. Specify which client inputs must arrive and when. If the accelerated plan increases rework risk, use a supported range for the extra effort and describe it as uncertainty. Do not invent a failure probability just to generate a larger premium.

Review the result after delivery

Record the actual additional costs, disruption, and whether the displaced work was truly lost or merely rescheduled. Remove opportunity cost from future estimates when the alternative sale was speculative. Explain the premium through the changed schedule and resources in the offer, with scope and acceptance checkpoints. All prices here are hypothetical. A rush project may remain operationally unsuitable at any practical fee, and the calculation does not guarantee that added urgency produces higher profit.

Method references: OpenStax: break-even and contribution analysis; Acquisition.gov: firm-fixed-price description. Accessed October 22, 2026. All dollar figures are hypothetical worked examples.