Locksmith Master Key Quote: Scope and Price the System

A key is not the scope. A locksmith master key quote must cover the controlled openings, access groups, hardware, key quantities, records and labour behind that key.

Price the system. Not the piece of metal handed over at the end.

Confirm authority before you inspect the site

Record the customer’s legal contracting entity, trading name where used, service address, billing contact and ABN where supplied. Mark the parts of the property included in the job.

Name the person who can approve the access hierarchy. Then name the people who can approve the door schedule, choose whether each opening is rekeyed, replaced or investigated, and accept a variation. They may not be the same person.

The building manager might arrange your site walk. That does not mean they can decide who gets access to a restricted store or approve replacement hardware.

Ask for written authority before collecting sensitive access information. Record:

• The customer entity buying the work.
• The person arranging site access.
• The person approving access groups.
• The person approving each rekey, replacement or investigation decision.
• The person accepting the quote and later variations.
• The contact authorised to request keys after handover.

On a strata site, separate common-property openings from private or occupied areas. Name the owners corporation or body corporate where it controls the common property, the person approving work in private areas and the entity paying the bill. Do not assume the strata manager, building manager or occupier can approve every part of the system.

For property-management work, use the same authority split described in the guide to taking on locksmith strata work. It helps keep the site contact, paying customer and approving entity separate.

For a NSW job, check the current guidance from the NSW Police Security Licensing and Enforcement Directorate (opens in a new tab) to identify the licence class and business requirements that cover the work. For another jurisdiction, check the official state or territory licensing regulator responsible for locksmith or security-industry licensing at the job address.

Turn the access request into an approved hierarchy

Start with roles. Do not start with cylinders.

Ask the customer which people need access and what each role must open. Use their role names. Plain labels make the system easier to approve and hand over.

For each role, record:

• The openings it may access.
• The openings it must not access.
• The type of key required.
• The initial key quantity.
• Any controlled spare quantity.
• The person allowed to approve later keys.

Build an access matrix. Put opening identifiers down the side and access groups across the top. Mark permitted access, then check the restricted openings again.

Separate change keys, master keys and any higher access levels. Keyed-alike locks do not create separate permissions for different roles. They only allow the same key to operate the locks in that keyed-alike group.

Ask about planned expansion before preparing hardware. A future tenancy, department or group of doors may affect the hierarchy. Write the requested expansion into the design brief. Do not promise open-ended capacity.

Get the hierarchy approved before pinning cylinders, preparing cores or cutting keys. Hardware prepared against an unapproved hierarchy can become unusable stock.

Build the locksmith door schedule from a site walk

Walk every included area. Give each opening a stable identifier that the customer and your tradies can find again.

Room names are not enough. A customer may use the same name for separate openings, or a room may have more than one entry. Pair the identifier with a clear location and photo reference.

Use a separate row for every opening in the locksmith door schedule. Where an opening has multiple cylinders, cores or keyed locking points, record the component quantity in that row. Record:

• Opening identifier and location.
• Door and frame condition.
• Lock type and function.
• Cylinder, core or lockset format.
• Quantity of keyed components at the opening.
• Dimensions and component fit where confirmed.
• Cam or tailpiece details where needed.
• Finish and handing where they affect supply.
• Existing keyway where it can be identified.
• Existing access group.
• Proposed access group.
• Hardware condition.
• Whether operation was tested and the result.
• What could not be tested and why.
• Fire-rating markings.
• Electrified-hardware interface.
• Proposed rekey, replacement or investigation decision.
• Photos, notes and investigation required.

Reconcile the customer’s list against what you find. A supplied door count can miss an external gate, a shared storeroom or separate openings carrying the same room name. Stop and settle the difference before costing the work.

Mark damaged, unidentified, electrified and fire-rated hardware for a separate decision. Keep affected hardware under investigation until you have confirmed system compatibility, who must approve the fire-door or electrical work and whether another licensed trade must complete part of the work.

Define the boundary between your work and any door repair, wiring, access-control or other licensed work. Do not assign a rekey or replacement treatment until the testing and investigation fields support that decision.

Return to the access matrix after the walk. Replace temporary room names with the stable opening identifiers. Get the final hierarchy and schedule approved together.

Choose a treatment for every opening

Assign a treatment to each schedule row. That turns the site survey into counted work.

Do not promise reuse from an external inspection alone. A cylinder can look serviceable until it is removed and found to be incompatible with the proposed system.

Use an allowance only when you can state what it covers. Use an option when the customer may choose to add the work. Use an exclusion when you have not priced it.

Keep unresolved hardware outside a firm base line item. The uncertainty does not disappear because it has been buried in a total.

State dependencies. If a door repair, access-control change or electrical disconnection must happen first, name the work by others and the point at which your tradies can proceed.

Write the locksmith key control plan

The locksmith key control plan governs what happens to keys and system records after handover. Write it before pricing the key quantities.

Name who may authorise initial, additional and replacement keys. Record how your business will identify that person when a request arrives later.

Separate the key quantities into clear buckets:

• Keys issued at handover.
• Controlled spare keys.
• Optional additional keys.
• Replacement keys not included in the base scope.
• Future keys not included in the current quote.

Set out how keys will be labelled, issued, returned and reported lost. Do not expose sensitive coding in customer-facing line items or public documents.

Name the records being handed over. These may include the accepted hierarchy, door schedule, key issue register, authorised-contact record and customer copy of system records.

Record who may approve a response to a lost high-level key. The plan should identify the decision-maker without promising that every lost key requires the same response.

Commercial locksmith clients often have separate purchasing, building-management and key-authorisation contacts. Put each contact against their actual decision. Do not send sensitive records to everyone copied into the purchase order.

Build master key system pricing from counted work

Price from the accepted hierarchy and locksmith door schedule. If those documents are still changing, your internal estimate is still changing.

Build each material line from your own figures. Multiply the scheduled component quantity by your current unit cost, then add freight or job-specific consumables where your costing method treats them separately. Add the material lines to get total material cost.

Count the materials first:

• Cylinders and removable cores.
• Complete locksets.
• Pins and system components.
• Compatible cams, tailpieces and fittings.
• Initial keys and controlled spares.
• Labels and record materials.
• Job-specific consumables.

Build labour cost task by task. Multiply the time estimated for each task by your internal labour cost for the tradie doing it. Use labour cost, not the customer charge-out price.

Include the survey, hierarchy design, schedule preparation, hardware investigation, workshop preparation, key production, labelling, travel, installation, testing, administration and handover. Add those task costs to get total labour cost.

Allocate overhead using the method already used in your business records. Apply it consistently to this job and show the amount as overhead allocation in the estimate.

Add material cost, labour cost and overhead allocation to get estimated job cost. Multiply that cost by your chosen markup to calculate markup dollars. Add the markup dollars to estimated job cost to reach the customer sell price.

Material quantity × your unit cost = Material line cost
All material line costs = Total material cost

Task time × your internal labour cost = Labour task cost
All labour task costs = Total labour cost

Total material cost
+ Total labour cost
+ Overhead allocation
= Estimated job cost

Estimated job cost × Markup = Markup dollars
Estimated job cost + Markup dollars = Customer sell price

Keep those workings inside the job estimate. The customer quote can group sell prices under design, hardware, keys, installation, testing and records.

Markup and margin are different. Markup is added to cost. Margin is profit measured as a share of the selling price.

Worked example: markup and margin

The Oak Street bathroom is the house electrical example used to show the maths. R. Chen’s quote Q-1847 was 1,105. The job cost measured against that original quote was 850, leaving profit of 255.

The margin was 255 ÷ 1,105, or about 23%. The markup was 255 ÷ 850, or 30%. These are sample currency units, not locksmith rates or a rate card.

Use your own material costs, labour costs and overhead records for master key system pricing. If you need to check the calculation, put your figures into the profit margin calculator.

Write the locksmith master key quote against named records

The locksmith master key quote should state exactly which hierarchy and door schedule support the price. Give each record a version and date.

Separate the customer-facing lines so they can see what is being supplied without seeing your internal costs. Use lines for system design, hardware, keys, installation, testing and handover records where those items form part of the job.

State the assumptions. Cover site access, occupied areas, approved working times, clear access to openings, known hardware and customer approval dates.

State the exclusions. Name door repairs, frame repairs, wiring, access-control work, concealed conditions, unidentified hardware and openings outside the accepted schedule where you have not priced them.

Keep optional openings, spare keys and unresolved treatments outside the accepted base total. Show what each option adds and whether accepting it changes the installation sequence.

Check the current GST guidance from the Australian Taxation Office (opens in a new tab) before setting the tax treatment on the document. Do not guess from another business’s quote.

Use the quote template for standard scope, price and acceptance fields. Add only the master-key records below.

Master-key fields to add to the quote

Access hierarchy: [Reference, version and approval date]
Door schedule: [Reference, version and date]
Key control plan: [Reference, version and date]
Included opening references: [Opening identifiers]
Openings under investigation: [Opening identifiers]
Authorised key contact: [Name, role and contact details]

Control every variation before preparing changed hardware

A new opening, access group, key quantity or hardware treatment changes the accepted scope. Write a variation and get approval before doing the changed work.

The variation should identify:

• The requested change.
• The affected opening and access group references.
• The hardware or key quantities added or removed.
• The change to price.
• Whether the work date or order changes.
• The revised document versions.
• The person approving the change.

The Oak Street example shows the document trail. Quote Q-1847 was 1,105. A 160 variation was approved, so invoice INV-1847 was 1,265.

The trade is different, but the rule holds. Stop, write the changed scope, get a yes and then prepare the changed system. Keep the approved variation with the original scope using the guide to writing a clear quote.

Freeze the records before installation

Lock the accepted hierarchy, locksmith door schedule, locksmith key control plan, quote and approved variations to named versions. Put those references on the work order used by the crew.

Keep the accepted locksmith master key quote, approved variations and invoice against the same Yes Foreman job so the workshop and site crew use the same versions.

Prepare the installation pack next. Give your tradies the approved rekey, replacement or investigation decision for each opening, key quantities, access arrangements, testing list and handover register before anyone starts preparing hardware.