I live in the northeast near Providence, RI.

What is a reasonable material markup and labor markup for residential remodelling? The software I am using says 50% and the RSMeans book says like 12%. what's more realistic?

What are you marking up? Your labor (and employees), sub-contractor labor?, materials?

What are you billing for? For example are you including time that are are coordinating the subs are you cover it with overhead?

Bascially overhead should cover what YOUR COST are for needed expenses not directly related to a specific job. That includes insurance, advertising, office expenses and the like.

They divided by your productive "cost" for the job (cost being either labor or labor and materials depending on how you are going to apply it).

I have a number for materials and a number for labor. the markup should cover the overhead and other expenses.

i.e.:

1. 1200 SF of asphalt shingle installed
a. Labor = 1324.00
b. Materials = 1117.00
c. Total cost = 2441.00
d. Selling Price = 2441(X%) + 2441 = Selling Price to client. X = the markup in question.

"the markup should cover the overhead and other expenses."

You need to figure YOUR COST for those.

If you go to the forums on JLCONLINE and FHB you will find that there are pages and pages of discussions about how to calculate these and what is included.