Dayworks: when to charge them and how to get them paid

↑ Part of the Pricing series · How to price a job and not lose money

Dayworks means charging for work by the time it took and the materials it used, rather than at a price fixed in advance. You keep a record of the hours, the materials and any plant, the customer or contractor signs it, and you bill it at rates agreed before you started. It is the right tool when nobody can say in advance how much work there is, and the wrong one when somebody could have priced it and did not.

This page sits under our guide to pricing a job. It covers when dayworks are the honest answer, the rates to agree before you start, and the record that turns hours on site into money in the bank.

Part 1When dayworks are the right answer

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Dayworks suit work that genuinely cannot be measured or priced in advance:

• Opening-up and investigation. Stripping out to find where a leak is coming from, or exposing a structure so an engineer can look at it.
• Unforeseen extras during a job. Something turns up that was never in the scope and has to be dealt with before you can carry on.
• Small, scattered tasks. A list of odd jobs on a site where pricing each one would take longer than doing it.
• Emergency and making-safe work. When the job is to stop the damage first and worry about the paperwork after.

They suit the customer less when the work could have been priced. A customer on dayworks carries the risk of everything taking longer, which is exactly the risk a fixed price exists to take off them. If you can see the work well enough to price it, price it. If part of it is unknowable, a provisional sum inside an otherwise fixed quote is often fairer than putting the whole job on dayworks.

Part 2Agree the rates before you start

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The argument about dayworks is almost never about the hours. It is about the rate, and it happens because nobody wrote one down. Agree these in writing first, on the quote or on the variation that brings dayworks in:

• Labour rate, per hour or per day, for each kind of operative if they differ. Base it on your real day rate, which already carries your overheads, not on what an employee costs you.
• Materials, at invoiced cost plus a stated percentage. The percentage covers buying, collecting and the risk of waste.
• Plant and equipment, at hire cost plus a percentage, or at your own rate for kit you own.
• What counts as time. Travel to a merchant mid-job, waiting for another trade, the minimum charge for a call-out. Decide now, not when the sheet is in front of someone.

On larger commercial contracts dayworks are often valued on a published basis, such as the RICS definition of prime cost of daywork, with percentage additions on each part. If a contract names one, read it before you price anything, because it decides what you can and can't charge for.

Part 3The daily sheet

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A dayworks sheet is the record of what was done, by whom and with what, signed by the person you are billing. Fill one in every day, while the detail is fresh, and get it signed the same day:

• The date and the job, with a reference that ties it to the quote or the instruction.
• What was done, in plain words someone can check later.
• Who did it and for how long: names or trades, start and finish times, breaks.
• Materials used, with quantities, and the receipts kept behind them.
• Plant used, and for how long.
• The customer's or contractor's signature and the date.

The signature confirms the time and materials were used. It is not necessarily agreement that the work is chargeable, and on a commercial job you may see a sheet signed "for record only". That is still worth having. A sheet signed on the day is evidence; a list of hours produced at the end of the month is a claim you have to argue for.

Part 4Pricing the sheet

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Once the sheet is signed, pricing it is arithmetic on the rates you agreed.

Labour, 1.5 days at a £240 day rate	£360.00
Materials at invoiced cost	£85.00
Materials percentage, at 15%	£12.75
Small plant hire at cost	£45.00
Dayworks for the sheet	£502.75

Each figure traces back to something the customer has already agreed or signed for: the rates in writing before the work, the time and materials on the sheet. That is why dayworks priced this way get paid and dayworks priced from memory do not.

Part 5Getting them paid

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• Submit weekly on any job that runs more than a few days, rather than saving everything for the final account.
• Attach the signed sheets and the receipts to the invoice. The customer should not have to ask what they are paying for.
• Keep dayworks separate from the fixed-price work on the invoice, so a query about one does not hold up payment of the other.
• Raise it early when dayworks are running ahead of what anyone expected. A customer warned at day three can make a decision; one told at day ten feels ambushed.

If dayworks came in because the scope changed, the paperwork behind that change matters as much as the sheet. Our guide to handling variations covers getting a change agreed in writing before the work starts.

Common questionsDayworks: quick FAQ

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What does "dayworks" mean in construction?

Charging for work by the time, materials and plant it actually used, at rates agreed in advance, instead of at a fixed price. It is used for work that can't be measured or priced before it is done.

What rate should I charge for dayworks?

Your real day rate, the one that already covers your overheads and profit, plus a stated percentage on materials and plant. Agree all of it in writing before the work starts.

Do dayworks sheets have to be signed?

They should be, by the person you are billing, on the day the work is done. An unsigned sheet is your word against theirs; a signed one is a record they have already checked.

Is dayworks the same as a day rate?

Not quite. A day rate is the figure you charge for a day of your time. Dayworks is a way of charging a whole piece of work by recorded time and materials, and your day rate is one of the rates it uses.

Can I put a whole job on dayworks?

You can, but a customer carries all the risk of overruns, so many will not accept it. Where most of the job can be priced, a fixed price with a provisional sum for the unknown part is usually easier to agree.

This guide is general information for UK tradespeople, current to the best of our knowledge in 2026, and is not tax, accounting or legal advice. Rates, thresholds and how they apply to you change, so confirm your position with HMRC, a qualified accountant or a solicitor before relying on it. TradeDraft accepts no liability for decisions made on the basis of this guide. Questions: hello@tradedraft.co.uk.