How to price jobs and set a day rate that actually pays you

Published June 2026 · 8 min read

A day rate that feels good on site can quietly lose money once tax, dead time and the van are counted. Pricing isn’t guesswork or bravado — it’s arithmetic you do once and adjust twice a year. Here’s a straightforward method used across the trades.

Step 1: Know what a working day really costs you

Start with what you want to keep per year, after tax — say £35,000. Now work backwards:

• Add tax and NI. To keep £35,000 as a sole trader you need roughly £45,000 of profit (Income Tax after the £12,570 personal allowance, plus Class 4 NI at 6%). A live tax estimate makes this concrete — SubReady’s Tax page shows what to set aside as you earn.
• Add business costs. Van or mileage, insurance, tools, PPE, phone, software, accountant — for many one-person trades this is £5,000–£10,000 a year.
• Count sellable days honestly. 52 weeks minus holidays, bank holidays, sick days, weather, quoting, admin and gaps between jobs. Most sole traders sell 180–220 days a year, not 260.

Example: (£45,000 profit target + £7,000 costs) ÷ 200 sellable days = £260/day minimum. Below that, you’re paying to go to work.

Step 2: Sense-check against the market

Rates vary by trade, region and demand — a sparky in Manchester, a groundworker in Kent and a decorator in Glasgow all price differently. Ask around your network, check what agencies are paying, and remember advertised rates are asking prices, not floors. Your calculated minimum tells you which jobs to walk away from; the market tells you how much headroom sits above it.

Step 3: Price jobs, not just days

For quoted work, build the price from parts:

• Labour: realistic days × your day rate — including making good and snagging, which always take longer than you hope.
• Materials: at cost plus a handling margin (10–20% is common) — you’re financing, collecting and guaranteeing them.
• Plant and access: hire, delivery, fuel.
• Contingency: a line for the unknowns behind the plasterboard.

Under CIS, itemising labour and materials separately also keeps your deductions down — deductions apply to labour only (here’s why).

Step 4: Put it in writing as a quote

A written quote sets scope, price and validity — and protects both sides when the job grows. On SubReady you can message a quote from WhatsApp; it stays out of your books (its PDF is clearly stamped QUOTE with a valid-until date), and when the customer says yes, replying CONVERT turns it into a live invoice — no retyping. See quotes & CONVERT.

Handling the price conversation

When a customer says “that’s more than I expected”, resist the reflex discount. Walk the quote instead: here’s the labour, here’s the materials at today’s prices, here’s the access kit. If they still need a lower number, take scope out rather than margin — fewer coats, standard fittings, they do the clearing up. A discount teaches customers your first price was padding; a scope change teaches them your price is arithmetic. And if a certain kind of job always ends in haggling, that’s data too — price it higher or stop quoting for it.

Step 5: Review twice a year with real numbers

Your books tell you whether your pricing works: profit per month, spend on materials, how much of the year was actually billed. If your records live in SubReady, the Dashboard and Reports answer this in minutes — and asking on WhatsApp “how much did I earn this year?” gets the live figure. Raise your rate when you’re booked solid weeks ahead; that’s the market telling you you’re cheap.

Day rate or price work?

Both have their place. Day rate suits open-ended work, dayworks and jobs where scope is genuinely unknowable — you carry no estimating risk, but your income is capped by the calendar. Price work rewards speed and experience: quote well and your effective day rate beats anything an agency pays; quote badly and you work the overrun for free. A sensible mix for many subbies is price work for jobs they know cold, day rate for unknowns and other people’s chaos. Whichever you choose, the same arithmetic above sets your floor — and your books tell you afterwards which kind of work actually paid best, if the records are good enough to ask.

Common pricing mistakes

• Copying another trade’s day rate with different costs and dead time.
• Forgetting the tax — the January bill (and payments on account) comes out of those day rates.
• Quoting materials at cost with zero handling margin.
• Not chasing what you priced — a perfect price unpaid is worth nothing; have a late-payment routine.

Price from your numbers, quote in writing, convert cleanly, review with real data. SubReady handles the paper trail from £8.99/month — start the free trial.