A quote should be worked out, not guessed.
A price you've guessed at feels quick. It's the round number that sounds about right, the VAT added on at the end, the "market rate" borrowed from someone else's job. And it works, right up until the one you underpriced, the tax you got wrong, or the margin that turned out not to be there. Here's the other way to price a job.
What a guess actually costs
- The round number. "£4,000, that'll be fine." Then the skip, the waste and the day you didn't charge for turn it into £3,400 of real money in your pocket. And you've already sent the quote.
- The tax added last. VAT tacked on at the end, CIS forgotten, the Domestic Reverse Charge missed. The customer doesn't pay for that correction. Your margin does.
- Someone else's rate. A price averaged from other people's jobs doesn't know your day rate, your overheads or your patch. It fits their business, not yours.
Two ways to price a job
| Guessing it | Working it out | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the price comes from | A round number that feels about right | Your own rates and day rate, line by line |
| VAT, CIS & the Reverse Charge | Added at the end, or missed | Applied to the HMRC rules as you build |
| Your margin | You find out on the final invoice | Shown before you send, on every job |
| When a mistake shows up | After you've committed to the price | On screen, while you can still change it |
| What the customer gets | A figure with nothing behind it | A costed quote that holds up to questions |
How TradeDraft works it out
- Your rates, not an average. Overheads and margin come from your day rate and your costs, so the price fits your business, not a figure pulled from thin air.
- The tax by the rules. VAT, CIS and the Domestic Reverse Charge are applied the way HMRC expects, on the quote, not worked out later or left to chance.
- Checked before it goes out. The Margin Health panel shows what you actually keep, so you send the quote knowing the number holds up.
What "worked out" means
Worked out means the number is reproducible. It comes from figures you entered, run through the same rules every time, and you can see exactly how it was reached, the line totals, the tax and the margin all on the page. A price you can explain to a customer is a price you can stand behind when they push back. That's the difference between a quote and a guess with a confident voice on it.
When a rough number is fine
We'll be straight with you: for a ballpark over the phone, or a small cash job with no VAT and no CIS, a round number does the job. TradeDraft earns its keep the moment there's tax to get right, a margin worth protecting, or a signature on the line.
Building a quote is free. The 14-day trial (no card) unlocks sending, downloading and online acceptance.