Quoting and pricing guides for UK trades
Last reviewed 12 September 2026
Reference material on the parts of the job that happen before the tools come out: pricing the work, writing the quotation, getting the tax treatment right, and getting paid. Written by the team behind SRA Property Consultants, who have priced and run UK construction work for 35 years.
How to price a building job so it still makes money
A method for pricing UK trade work: measure the labour, price the materials, add real overheads, then add margin last. With the arithmetic worked through.
Quote or estimate: the difference that decides who pays for the overrun
In UK law a quote is an offer that becomes a fixed-price contract when accepted. An estimate is not. What each one commits you to, and when to use which.
What a quote must include to be safe in the UK
A checklist of everything a UK trade quotation should carry: identity, scope, exclusions, price and VAT treatment, payment terms, timescale, cancellation rights and guarantee.
How to work out your true hourly rate
The arithmetic behind a trade hourly rate: chargeable hours, fixed overheads, holiday and sickness, and why the rate you charge is nothing like the wage you take home.
Exclusions and assumptions: the two lists that protect your price
How to write the exclusions and assumptions on a UK trade quotation so the scope holds, with the standard items for each trade and the wording that survives a dispute.
VAT for UK trades, and the domestic reverse charge
When a UK trade has to register for VAT, what the 90,000 pound threshold really means, the reduced and zero rates in construction, and how the domestic reverse charge works.
CIS deductions explained, for subcontractors and contractors
How the Construction Industry Scheme works in practice: the 20 and 30 per cent rates, gross payment status, what is deducted and what is not, and how subcontractors get the money back.
Payment terms, deposits and staged payments
How to structure deposits and stage payments on UK trade work so your cash stays ahead of your costs, and what the Construction Act requires on commercial contracts.
Variations and extras: how to get paid for work outside the quote
Why extra work on UK building jobs so often goes unpaid, and the short written process that turns a variation into an agreed, billable instruction.
Why quotes get rejected, and eight fixes that win more of them
Customers rarely choose the cheapest quote. They choose the clearest one that arrives first. Eight practical changes to a UK trade quotation that raise the acceptance rate.
Domestic versus commercial: what changes in the way you quote
The legal and practical differences between quoting for a householder and quoting for a business in UK construction, from cancellation rights to payment notices.
Chasing late payment without losing the customer
A calm, escalating process for recovering an overdue invoice in UK construction, from the first reminder to statutory interest, suspension, adjudication and the small claims track.
Where to start
If you have never sat down and worked out what an hour of your time has to earn, start with the true hourly rate, because every other number on a quotation is built on it. If you win plenty of work but the profit is not showing up at the end of the year, read the pricing method and the guide to variations, since that is almost always where it goes. If you are being paid late, the payment terms guide is the prevention and the late payment guide is the cure.
The tax guides are the ones worth reading before you need them. VAT registration is triggered by a rolling twelve month turnover rather than by your accounting year, so it arrives without warning, and the domestic reverse charge changes the cash in your account without changing a single price on your invoices.
Write the quote itself in a couple of minutes
BidReady turns the answers to a short set of questions into a professional quotation with the scope, the exclusions and the terms already in it. Write your first quote free, or see how it works.
This guide is general information for UK trades, written by the BidReady team. It is not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules change and individual circumstances differ, so take professional advice before acting on anything that matters.