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% markup
equivalent margin 16.7%
| Billable hours per year | 1,288 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
Newsletter
Get practical pricing tips for your trade business
Rates, quoting, and margin: one email a week. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
We use your email only to send this newsletter, and you can unsubscribe at any time. See our Privacy Policy.
Start your 30-day free trial
Quote, schedule, and invoice from one platform. Set up in minutes. No sales call, no setup fee.
30 days free · No credit card required · Cancel anytime