Price labour and materials separately

Most jobs are your time plus the stuff you fit. Splitting them on the quote shows the customer what they are paying for, and gives you a number to check against when the job is done.

If your business is a service rather than a trade, these lines are called Service rather than Labour. Same thing, named the way you would say it.

Two ways to price your time

• By the hour — an hourly rate and the hours you expect. Good when the work is open-ended.
• A fixed fee — one price for the job, with the hours you have allowed shown as an estimate. Good when you know the shape of the work.

Steps

1. On the draft quote, add a line.
2. Choose the labour or service line type.
3. Fill in the Description, then either Hours and your rate, or the fixed fee with Hours (estimate).
4. Add your materials as their own lines.

The quote shows the split, so the customer can see the labour and the materials rather than one number they have to take on trust.

Confirming the hours

When you turn an accepted quote into an invoice and it carries hourly labour, you are asked to Confirm the hours first. Put in what you actually did.

This is deliberately a stop rather than one tap. The hours on the quote were an estimate; the hours on the invoice are what you are charging for, and those are rarely identical.

The standing caveat

Quotes carry a line saying the price holds for the work described, and that anything found on the day gets agreed with you before it is done. It is there so a variation is a conversation, not an argument.