The markup stack that broke in May
A May 2026 restaurant bid shipped with a broken markup stack because I trusted the engine over my own review.
In May 2026 I sent a bid for a quick-service restaurant client, produced by the estimating engine I built, with the markup stack wrong. Overhead, profit and contingency were piling onto one another when each should have sat on its own base. The final figure was $785,000. A number that high could cost the job on price, or the client's trust if they ever checked the math.
I sent it because the engine had been right on smaller jobs before, and I trusted that record instead of walking each line. That was the true mistake. It was not a bug in the code. It was my choice to skip my own check since the tool had earned some credit.
The error was caught before the client acted. We rebuilt the stack so each percentage rests on its own base and prints as its own line, and a corrected bid went out within the week. Now, nothing I build leaves on a single pass. Mine included.
Story details
| Project | Kanopi |
|---|---|
| Type | Mistake and repair |
| Firm telling | on the Common Ground wiki |