Labour cost
Your own time and employed labour at their real cost to the business, not an employee wage copied straight into a customer quote.
Free UK trade calculator
Price a job from its real costs
Labour, materials, plant, subcontractors, overheads, contingency and profit are different numbers. Enter yours, choose a target gross margin, and see the ex-VAT selling price and equivalent markup without handing over any data.
Job price, margin and markup calculator
Enter costs, not hoped-for selling prices. Include the cost of your own labour and the share of annual overhead this job has to recover. The calculator then converts your target gross margin into the selling price and shows the equivalent markup.
Planning result
£3,125 ex VAT
- Identified costs
- £2,530
- Contingency
- £127
- Costs plus contingency
- £2,657
- Gross profit at 15% margin
- £469
- Equivalent markup on cost
- 17.6%
Formula: (identified costs + contingency) ÷ (1 − target margin). This is transparent estimating arithmetic, not a market-rate claim, quote recommendation, tax calculation or substitute for checking the actual scope.
Margin and markup are not the same
| Target gross margin | Equivalent markup on cost | Selling price on £1,000 cost |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | 11.1% | £1,111 |
| 15% | 17.6% | £1,176 |
| 20% | 25.0% | £1,250 |
| 25% | 33.3% | £1,333 |
| 30% | 42.9% | £1,429 |
Example: £1,000 cost plus 20% markup sells for £1,200 and leaves £200 profit, which is 16.7% of the selling price. To retain a 20% gross margin, £1,000 of cost must sell for £1,250.
What belongs in the calculation
Materials
Purchase cost, delivery, unavoidable wastage and consumables required by the specification.
Plant and subcontractors
Hire, access equipment, waste, specialist trades and any defined external package.
Overhead allocation
The job's share of the van, insurance, software, quoting, training, premises and other non-billable costs.
Contingency
A separate allowance for identified uncertainty such as access, hidden conditions or volatile quantities.
Profit
The return retained after the job's actual costs. It is not spare contingency and it is not VAT collected for HMRC.
Turn the number into a defensible quote
01
Define the outcome
Describe what is being supplied, what finished means and who is responsible for access, protection and waste.
02
Write assumptions
Record quantities, working hours, access, parking, power, water, customer decisions and anything priced from photographs.
03
State exclusions
Name work, materials, making good, certification or hidden conditions that are not included.
04
Control variations
Agree how extra work is authorised and priced before doing it. A profitable base quote can still be lost through undocumented extras.
VAT and CIS: keep tax separate from the price
VAT is not margin
The calculator can show standard-rate VAT, but the correct VAT treatment depends on the supply and customer. Construction work between VAT- and CIS-registered businesses may fall under the domestic reverse charge. Check the live HMRC guidance for the job.
CIS is not a discount
Price the work before the CIS deduction. The contractor applies the appropriate deduction to the relevant labour element and supplies a payment and deduction statement.
Questions trades ask about pricing work
How do I calculate a price for a trade job?
Add the real labour, materials, plant, subcontract and overhead costs attributable to the job. Add a visible contingency for identified uncertainty, then divide that total by one minus your target gross margin. Check the final result against scope, access, risk and the local market.
What is the difference between markup and margin?
Markup is profit divided by cost. Gross margin is profit divided by the selling price. They are not interchangeable: a 20% markup produces a 16.7% gross margin, while a 20% gross margin requires a 25% markup on cost.
Should I add profit to labour and materials?
A sustainable price has to recover every cost and leave profit, but avoid adding the same allowance twice. If your labour input is already a customer charge-out rate containing overhead and profit, do not also treat it as a raw delivery cost in this calculator.
Should contingency be counted as profit?
No. Contingency covers defined uncertainty in delivering the scope. Profit is what remains after the actual cost of delivering the job. Keep them separate so you can see whether overruns consumed contingency or genuine margin.
Does CIS reduce the price I should quote?
No. A CIS deduction is an advance payment towards tax and National Insurance, not a commercial discount. Agree the work value first and show the deduction correctly in the payment paperwork.