Skip to main content

Free tool

Day Rate Calculator for UK Trades

Most tradespeople price off what the next van charges. This works the other way: start from what you need to earn, count the hours you can honestly bill, and get the hourly and day rate your business actually requires.

Your numbers

Your rate

Recommended day rate

£455

8 hrs · excl. VAT

Recommended hourly rate

£56.83

incl. 20% margin

Billable hours per year1,288 hrs
Salary + overheads to recover£61,000
Break-even hourly rate£47.36
Annual profit at recommended rate£12,200

Anything below the break-even rate means paying to go to work. Rates exclude VAT and materials — price materials separately with a handling markup.

Why 28 billable hours, not 40

The most common pricing mistake in the trades is dividing target income by a 40-hour week. Your week also contains quoting, site visits, driving, merchant runs, paperwork, invoicing, and chasing payments — none of which anyone pays for directly. For most sole traders, honest billable time is 25–32 hours a week, 44–48 weeks a year once holidays and the odd sick day are counted.

Price against those real hours and the quiet weeks stop eating your wages. Then hold the line: a rate built from your actual costs is defensible in a way “the going rate” never is. If a customer pushes back, the answer is not a discount — it is a clearer quote that shows what the price includes.

The follow-through is where software earns its keep: Field Forge prices every quote from your own labour rates, tracks actual hours and materials against the estimate, and shows the margin on every job in real time — so you can see rate slippage the week it happens, not at year end.

Related tools & reading

Day rates for UK trades — frequently asked questions

Self-employed electricians typically charge £280–£400 per day in 2026 depending on region — London and the South East sit at the top of that range. JIB-employed electricians are on agreed hourly grades (the 2026 JIB deal added 3.95% from January 2026). Your own rate should come from your costs and target income, not the average — that is what this calculator works out.

Newsletter

Get practical pricing tips for your trade business

Rates, quoting, and margin — one email a week. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

Cookie Preferences

We use essential cookies to make Field Forge work. With your consent we'll also load analytics cookies to understand how the product is used. You can reject analytics without losing any core functionality. For details see our Cookie Policy.