How to price a job as a tradesperson
Price a job by adding up four things: your labour at a day rate that covers your overheads and your wage, materials with a mark-up, the costs of the job itself such as skips and scaffold, and a contingency for what you can't see. Add VAT if you're registered. Then check the total against what the job is worth to the customer.
How do I work out my day rate?
Start with what the business has to bring in over a year, then divide by the days you can charge for. Guessing a rate, or copying someone else's, is how busy tradespeople end up earning less than they did on the cards.
Here's an example. Change the numbers for your own.
| What you want to earn before tax | £40,000 |
|---|---|
| Overheads: van, fuel, insurance, tools, phone, accountant | £12,000 |
| What the business must bring in | £52,000 |
| Working days after holidays and bank holidays | 220 |
| Days you can bill, at about 80% | 176 |
| Day rate: £52,000 ÷ 176 | £295 |
The line people miss is billable days. Site visits, quoting, trips to the merchant, snagging, the odd day off sick: none of it is paid for by anyone unless your day rate carries it. GOV.UK lists the expenses you can claim when you're self-employed, which is a handy checklist of overheads you might have forgotten.
How do I price the labour?
Break the job into stages and put days against each one: strip out, first fix, second fix, finish. Stages are easier to judge than a whole job, and they show you where the time really goes. Add them up, then multiply by your day rate.
Be honest about the slow bits. Carrying everything up three floors, working round a family that's still living there, waiting for plaster to dry. If a job needs a second pair of hands, price that person as a cost with something on top, not at what you pay them.
Should I mark up materials?
Yes. You find them, collect them, carry the cost until you're paid and put things right if something fails. A mark-up of 10% to 20% on cost is common, though it varies by trade and by job.
Know the difference between mark-up and margin, because they're easy to confuse. A 20% mark-up on £1,000 of materials gives you £1,200, which is a margin of 16.7%, not 20%. If you price from one and think in the other, you'll come up short.
If the customer is supplying materials, say so on the quote, and say that delays or faults with what they've supplied aren't covered by your price.
What other costs should go on the quote?
The ones that belong to this job and no other. They're the easiest to forget and the hardest to add afterwards:
- Skip hire or waste disposal
- Scaffold, towers and access equipment
- Plant and tool hire
- Parking, permits and congestion charges
- Travel, if the job is outside your usual patch
- Certificates, notifications and building control fees
How much contingency should I add?
Enough to cover what you can reasonably expect to go wrong, which depends on how much of the job you can see. A repaint of a sound room needs very little. A bathroom in a hundred-year-old house needs more, because nobody knows what's behind the tiles.
You have two honest choices: build an allowance into the price, or leave the unknown out and say so in writing with how you'd charge for it. Our guide to quotes and estimates covers the wording.
What does a priced job look like?
A small bathroom refit, priced with the day rate above:
| Labour, 6 days at £295 | £1,770 |
|---|---|
| Materials, £1,400 at cost plus 15% | £1,610 |
| Waste removal | £180 |
| Contingency, about 5% | £180 |
| Price before VAT | £3,740 |
If you're VAT registered, add VAT on top: see VAT on quotes. The figures are an example of the method, not a guide to what a bathroom costs where you work.
How do I know the price is right?
Three quick checks before you send it:
- Would you be happy doing it for that? If you'd resent the job at that price, it's too low.
- Does it stand up next to similar jobs you've done? Look at what they really took, not what you quoted.
- Can you explain it? If the customer asks why, an itemised quote answers for you.
Don't price to be the cheapest. The customers you want are choosing on trust and on how professional you look, and a clear quote sent the same day does more for both than knocking fifty quid off.
How does QuoteMate help with pricing?
QuoteMate doesn't set your prices and never makes one up. You say the job and your figures out loud, and it lays them out as separate lines with a quantity and a price each. Anything you didn't put a price on is left blank for you to fill in, and a quote can't be sent until every line is priced.
You can show the customer a price for each item, or one price for the whole job. More on voice quoting and itemised pricing.
This guide is general information for UK tradespeople, not legal or tax advice. Rules and thresholds change, so check the linked official pages, or ask an accountant or solicitor about your own situation.