What to charge per day -- build a day rate that survives reality
Day rate is not 'what my mate gets'. It is: fixed costs + desired wage + risk + holiday + sick + training + tools + van + quiet weeks. The tradesmen who name a number without doing this maths are often the busiest and the most stressed. If you skip the calculation, you are busy and broke.
Start with true cost per working day
Annual costs divided by billable days -- not calendar days. Most sole traders have 200-220 available working days per year. Subtract bank holidays (8), target holiday (15 days), realistic sick days (5-10), training and CPD (3-5), and quiet/gap weeks (10-15 days).
That gives most trades 160-185 truly billable days. Use 175 as a working estimate unless your trade has strong seasonality.
- Van: insurance, fuel, servicing, depreciation -- for a well-maintained working van, budget £5,000-£8,000/yr
- Tools and equipment: replacement, repair, new purchases -- £1,500-£3,000/yr depending on trade
- Public liability and employer liability insurance: £600-£1,500/yr depending on coverage
- Accountant and software: £500-£1,200/yr
- Mobile, data, subscriptions: £500-£800/yr
- Protective equipment, consumables, workwear: £400-£800/yr
The minimum viable day rate formula
Add your annual fixed costs to your desired net annual income. Divide by your realistic billable days. That is your break-even day rate -- the floor below which you cannot sustainably operate.
Example: fixed costs £12,000 + desired net income £45,000 = £57,000 total required. Divided by 175 billable days = £326/day minimum. At that rate there is no profit, no buffer, no reinvestment. Add 15-20% for profit margin and risk: minimum viable day rate in this example is £375-£390/day.
Why you need a profit margin above break-even
Break-even is not sustainable -- it leaves no cash for unexpected van repairs, bad debt from a non-paying customer, or simply the fact that estimates of billable days are often optimistic. A 15% margin above break-even means one slow month does not mean you cannot pay yourself.
Minimum call-out vs full day vs half-day
Reactive and small repair work often takes less than a day but the costs are the same: van, time, fuel, admin. Without a minimum charge, you can do three 2-hour jobs and earn the same as one 6-hour job -- but with three times the admin and fuel.
Set minimums explicitly and put them on your quotes and website where relevant: 'Minimum call-out: 2 hours at day rate.' Half-day rates protect short jobs without writing off the afternoon.
- Minimum call-out: 1.5-2 hours -- covers travel and setup even for small reactive work
- Half-day: 4 hours, typically 60-70% of full day rate
- Full day: 8 hours or project completion -- whichever comes first
- Travel time: if site is more than 30 minutes from base, consider charging travel time or adding it to quoted hours
- Waiting time: if held up by other trades, note your standing-time rate on the quote
Seasonal adjustments and how to handle quiet periods
Some trades have predictable seasonal patterns: heating engineers are busiest in autumn and winter; garden landscapers peak in spring and summer. Pricing needs to account for the slow season being funded by the busy season.
If January is always quiet, your day rate in October needs to compensate -- not just cover costs in the moment. This is why the annual calculation matters more than the day-by-day view.
- Identify your 3 slowest months: budget them as 50-60% billable
- Your effective annual billable days may be lower than 175 -- recalculate with realistic seasonal data
- Emergency and reactive work in quiet periods: charge a premium -- that is when your availability has high value
When to show your day rate vs a fixed price
Day rates work well for: reactive maintenance and repair, variations and extras on a fixed-price job, large or complex jobs where scope may shift, and labour-only contracts where materials are the customer's responsibility.
Fixed prices work better when scope is well-defined, materials are included, and the customer wants certainty. Internally you still use your day rate to sanity-check the hours -- if a fixed-price quote implies working for £180/day, something is wrong.
Where Pro Quoter fits
Quote day-rate sections cleanly from saved lines -- build your day rate and half-day rate into the Price Book once and pull them into quotes without recalculating.
Same hub for diary, measures and invoices -- not bloated CRM noise. Built for tradesmen who work on real sites and want quoting to take minutes, not evenings.
FAQ
- Should I tell customers my day rate?
- When it helps -- reactive work and variations are commonly priced at day rate, and stating it upfront prevents disputes. Fixed-price jobs still use day rate internally to sanity-check hours, but customers do not need to see it.
- What is a typical day rate for a UK tradesman in 2025?
- Highly variable by trade, region and experience. Electricians and plumbers in London commonly charge £350-£500+/day. Tilers and decorators in regional areas often charge £200-£300/day. The right number is the one that covers your actual costs with a margin -- not a number based on what someone else charges.
- Should my day rate include or exclude VAT?
- Always quote exclusive of VAT if VAT-registered and add it as a separate line. Quoting day rates inclusive of VAT creates confusion when you invoice and can imply you are trying to hide the VAT element.