How to quote a job as a tradie — and protect your margin

Quoting is where a job is won or lost — and where your margin quietly disappears if the numbers aren't right. Price too high and you lose the work; price too low and you win a job that costs you money. This is a practical guide to quoting a trade job so you win a fair share of the work *and* actually make money on it.

Why quotes lose money

Most tradies quote one of two ways, and both leak profit.

The first is the rushed figure on site — a number off the top of your head to seem responsive. It feels fast, but you're guessing at materials and forgetting the fiddly bits, so the quote comes in short the moment you count the real cost.

The second is the spreadsheet at 9pm — an hour of typing after a full day on the tools, that still doesn't show your real margin because cost price and sell price are muddled together. Slow to produce, and you're still quoting half-blind.

The fix isn't working harder at either one. It's a repeatable method.

Step 1 — Break the job into labour and materials

Every quote is two things: the hours it'll take, and the stuff you'll use. Split them out. Guessing a single lump sum hides where the money goes; itemising forces you to think about each part and gives the client a quote they can trust.

Step 2 — Price materials at real cost (and keep a price list)

Use your actual supplier prices, not last year's memory. The single biggest time-saver here is a materials price list you build once and reuse — so a length of conduit or a mixer tap drops into every quote at the right price without a phone call to the merchant. Keep it current and every quote gets faster and more accurate.

Step 3 — Add your markup (and know the difference from margin)

This trips people up, so be precise:

• Cost price — what you pay for the material.
• Markup — the percentage you add on top.
• Sell price — what the client pays.
• Margin — your profit as a percentage of the *sell* price.

Worked example: a part costs you $100. Add a 30% markup and you sell it for $130 — but your margin is only about 23%, not 30%, because margin is measured against the sell price. If you need a genuine 30% margin, you have to mark up by roughly 43%. Quoting on markup while thinking in margin is one of the most common ways tradies underprice a job.

Step 4 — Price your labour to cover more than the hours

Your charge-out rate has to cover more than the hour worked — it carries your vehicle, insurance, tools, admin time, super and the unbillable hours (quoting, travel, chasing invoices). If your rate only covers the hour on the tools, the business runs at a loss no matter how busy you are. Set a rate that covers your overheads, then quote the realistic number of hours — including setup and pack-up.

Step 5 — Build in a little contingency

Jobs move. A wall opens up, a fitting's the wrong size, the client adds "just one more thing." A small contingency (or a clear note on how variations are priced) means the surprises don't come out of your margin. Which leads to the most important line on the quote…

Step 6 — Put variations in writing

Verbal "yep, add that" is where profit disappears. Note on every quote how extra work is handled, and capture variations in writing as they come up. When the invoice arrives, there's no argument about the extra $400 — it was agreed and recorded.

Step 7 — Make it professional and easy to accept

A clean, branded quote with clear line items, your terms, GST shown, and a validity date ("valid 30 days") wins more work than a figure texted from the ute. And the easier it is to say yes — accept online, no printing, no scanning — the faster it converts while you're still fresh in the client's mind. Then follow up: a quick check-in a few days later closes jobs that would otherwise go cold.

Common quoting mistakes to avoid

• Quoting a lump sum you can't break down later.
• Confusing markup with margin (Step 3).
• A charge-out rate that only covers the hour on the tools.
• Forgetting travel, setup and pack-up time.
• Agreeing variations verbally.
• Letting a sent quote sit without a follow-up.

FAQ

See it done for you

Everything above is a method you can run on paper — but it's a lot faster when the tool does the maths. My Apprentice's quoting builds from your own materials list and shows your cost, markup and sell price as you build, so you never quote blind, and an accepted quote turns into a job in one click.

→ See how quoting in My Apprentice protects your margin.