How to quote a job as a tradie, step by step

The quote is where a job's profit is decided. Once the client says yes, you are working to that number, and every hour or box of screws you forgot comes out of your pocket. Quoting off gut feel works often enough to feel safe, right up to the job that should have made a few thousand and made a few hundred. This is a method that works for any trade: sparky, plumber, painter, chippy, landscaper or concreter. If you are still deciding how to charge for the work (by the hour, fixed, per unit or cost plus), start with how to price a job.

The short version

1. Walk the site and write down the scope: what is in, what is out, and what you are assuming.
2. Do a materials take-off at today's supplier prices, plus a waste allowance.
3. Estimate the hours for each stage and cost them at your true hourly cost, not your wage.
4. Add subcontractors, hire, tip fees and your share of overhead.
5. Add a contingency for anything you could not see.
6. Add your margin by dividing the cost by (1 minus the margin), not by adding a percentage on top.
7. Add GST if you are registered.
8. Put it in writing with the scope, the price, payment stages, terms and an expiry date, and send it fast.

1. Walk the site and write the scope

You cannot price what you have not defined. Walk the job with a checklist and write down every task, not just the obvious ones: set-up, protection, demolition, disposal, the fiddly bits, the second visit, the clean-up. The tasks you forget are the ones that eat your margin, because you still have to do them, you just will not have charged for them.

• Access: parking, stairs, how far you carry materials, whether anyone is living there
• What is behind it: get under the floor, look in the ceiling, open the switchboard or the meter box
• What the client is supplying, and what happens if it turns up late or wrong
• Start date, working hours and anything else on site at the same time
• Photos of everything, so you are pricing from facts, not memory

Then write the scope in three parts: what is included, what is not, and what you are assuming. Exclusions and assumptions are not fine print. They are what lets you price a variation later without an argument.

2. Do a materials take-off at today's prices

Measure from the plans or the site and list every material, including consumables and fixings. Price it at what your supplier charges today, not what it cost on the last job, and add a waste allowance set from what your past jobs really wasted. A take-off you copied from three months ago is already wrong.

3. Cost the labour at your true hourly cost

Estimate the hours stage by stage, including the slow first morning, travel, pick-ups and clean-up, for everyone who will be on the job. Then multiply by your true hourly cost, not your wage. Your true cost per hour includes super, insurance, the ute, tools, phone, software and all the hours you cannot bill, such as quoting and chasing payment, spread across the hours you can.

4. Add subbies, hire, disposal and overhead

Add every subcontractor quote, equipment hire, skip or tip fee and permit. Then add this job's share of overhead: the costs that keep the business running whether or not you are on the tools, such as insurance, accounting, software, advertising and registration. A simple way is to add up a year of those costs, divide by your billable hours, and add that amount for every hour on the job.

5. Allow for what you cannot see

Contingency is for the unknowns: what is behind the wall, how the ground digs, an old house that is not square. There is no right percentage. Size it to how much you could not see when you priced, and say in the assumptions what it covers. On a job you can fully inspect, it might be nothing. On a job you could not open up, price that part by the hour or as a provisional sum instead of guessing.

6. Add your margin the right way

Margin is your profit as a share of the price. To get a 15% margin, divide your total cost by 0.85. Adding 15% to the cost gives a 15% markup, which is only about a 13% margin, and the gap comes out of every job. The markup vs margin calculator converts between the two, and what is a good profit margin for a tradie covers what to aim for.

7. Add GST if you are registered

If your business is registered for GST, add 10% to the price and show it on the quote. Builders and other businesses usually compare prices ex GST; homeowners want the figure they will actually pay. Showing both the ex-GST price and the total avoids the argument. Do I need to put GST on a quote explains the rules.

A worked example: an interior repaint

Here is the method on a three-bedroom interior repaint. The numbers are an example, not a benchmark for your trade or area. The painter walked the house, counted the rooms and the prep, and priced paint and sundries from the supplier that morning.

Two things to notice. Adding 15% to the cost would have given $6,566.50, about $150 less on this one job. And the profit only survives if the job takes 64 hours. Log the hours against the job as you go and you will know by day three whether it is on track. A trade-specific walk-through is in how to quote a carpentry job.

8. Put it in writing

The quote template guide walks through each section of the free template. business.gov.au lists what a written quote should include. It also says that if a customer accepts your quote, it becomes a legally binding contract, which is why the scope and exclusions matter so much. Quote vs estimate covers the difference between the two.

• Your business name, ABN and contact details
• The customer's name and contact details
• A clear description of the work
• Itemised and total costs, including GST if it applies
• Any variations and revisions you discussed
• Payment terms, such as the due date and any late payment penalties, and how you want to be paid
• Start and finish dates
• A quote expiry date
• Space for the customer's signature and date

9. Set the deposit and payment stages

On anything longer than a day or two, the quote should say how and when you get paid: a deposit before you order materials, then stages tied to milestones the client can see, such as rough-in, frame or lock-up, and the balance at completion. Deposit caps for home building work differ by state. Progress claims and payment stages lists them and shows how to size each stage.

10. Send it fast, then follow up

A quote that lands while the client still remembers your visit is easier to say yes to. Send it as a PDF the same day or the next, with a short note on what is included and when you could start. If you have not heard back in a few days, ring or message once to ask whether they have any questions. And keep your pricing worksheet with the quote, so that when the job is done you can check what it really took against what you priced.

Quoting from your phone

TrackYaTradie builds quotes from your own price list and job templates, lets the client accept online, and then tracks hours and costs against the quoted price while the job runs, so you find out a quote was light while there is still time to do something about it. The template above is free either way.