Guidance only — always verify against current standards and manufacturer instructions.
The TradePlanr app puts this calculator — plus gas & electrical certificates, quoting, invoicing and job sign-offs — on your phone, working even with no signal. Free to start — works in your browser, no download needed.
This calculator builds a job price from the ground up: materials with a markup, labour as hours times your rate, an optional overhead percentage and VAT. It returns the quote total excluding and including VAT, and the gross profit left after covering materials and labour.
It is for tradespeople pricing a whole job rather than a single item — a bathroom, a rewire, a boiler swap or a day's fencing. Instead of guessing a round number, you enter the parts you know (material cost, hours on site, your labour rate) and see a defensible price you can stand behind.
The materials are marked up first, labour is added on top, any overhead percentage is applied to the combined figure, and VAT is added last. Gross profit is what remains after the raw material and labour cost — before tax and your own time in the office.
Quote (ex VAT) = (materials × (1 + markup%) + hours × rate) × (1 + overhead%); Quote (inc VAT) = Quote (ex VAT) × (1 + VAT%)
Materials are marked up to a sell price, labour is hours multiplied by your hourly rate, and the two are added together. An optional overhead percentage is applied to that subtotal to cover running costs, then VAT is added on top. Gross profit is the ex-VAT quote minus your raw material cost and labour cost.
Type the net cost of the materials for the job and the markup percentage you want on them. The markup covers sourcing, collection, wastage and warranty — it is not free profit.
Enter how many hours the job will take and your labour rate per hour. Use realistic hours including setup, testing and clearing up, not just the headline task time.
If you want the price to carry a share of your running costs — van, insurance, tools, phone — add an overhead percentage. Leave it at 0 to price materials and labour only.
Choose whether to add VAT and at what rate. The calculator shows the marked-up materials, the labour, the quote ex and inc VAT, and the gross profit on the job.
The gross profit figure is not money in your pocket. It is what is left after the raw cost of materials and the labour you have priced — your own admin time, tax, National Insurance, pension and quiet-week cover all still come out of it. Treat it as the cushion the job gives you, not your wage.
Be honest about labour hours, because that is where quotes go wrong most often. Include travel, unloading, protecting the area, testing, certification and cleanup, not just the visible work. A job that is four hours 'on the tools' is often a full day once everything around it is counted.
Markup on materials and margin on the whole job are different measures — see the markup and VAT calculator for the distinction. This tool is a pricing aid, not accounting advice; check VAT rates and any reduced-rate eligibility with HMRC or your accountant.
Work it up from parts: cost your materials and add a markup, cost your labour as realistic hours times your hourly rate, add a share of overheads if you want the job to carry them, then add VAT if you are registered. This calculator does that in one place and shows the gross profit so you can see whether the price is worth your time.
Your labour rate has to cover more than your take-home wage — it carries your overheads, downtime, holidays and pension too. Work out what you need to earn per year, divide by the hours you can realistically bill, and use that as your rate. The day rate calculator helps you turn an annual target into an hourly figure.
It depends on the customer and the job. A single all-in price is simpler and hides your markup, which many trades prefer. An itemised breakdown builds trust on larger jobs and makes variations easier to price later. This calculator gives you both the components and the total so you can present it either way.
The gross profit is calculated after the labour you priced in the calculator, so if you costed your own hours at your labour rate, your time is already paid. What is left over is profit on top of that — the buffer for admin, tax and business costs, not a second wage.