Work out the day rate you actually need to charge to take home what you want. It builds in the two things trades forget: your overheads, and the fact you can't bill 365 days a year.
Change the billable days and watch the rate move. Drop from 260 to 210 and the same take-home needs a noticeably higher day rate, because you're earning a year's living in fewer days.
Worklot quotes at your real rate, turns won work into jobs, and invoices the minute they're signed off, so the days you do bill actually get paid. Built for small trade and engineering firms.
Most people set a day rate by copying what the last firm charged, or by taking the wage they want and dividing by five days a week. Both quietly leave you short, because they ignore the days you never get paid for and the costs of running the business before a penny reaches you.
There are roughly 260 weekdays in a year. Knock off around 28 for holiday and you're at 232. Then take off the days lost to illness, quoting jobs you don't win, chasing invoices, servicing the van, paperwork and weather. Realistically most self-employed trades bill somewhere between 200 and 220 days. Your whole year's living, and every business cost, has to come out of those days, not out of 365.
Add those together to get the revenue you need to bill for the year, then divide by your billable days. That is your honest day rate. Anything less and you're funding the customer's job out of your own pocket.
Same £35,000 take-home, same 20% tax set-aside and £9,000 of overheads, but a different number of billable days:
| Billable days | Day rate needed |
|---|---|
| 260 (every weekday) | £203 |
| 230 | £229 |
| 210 | £251 |
| 190 | £278 |
The fewer days you can bill, the more each one has to earn. That's why pricing as if you work every weekday is the fastest route to working hard and still coming up short.
It's the minimum you need per day to hit your target once costs and tax are covered. Quote at or above it. If a job is awkward, urgent or high-risk, charge more. The number here is your floor, not your ceiling.
The principle is the same: work out the total the business needs to bill across the year, including your pay, the company's tax and all overheads, then divide by billable days. This tool gives a sound estimate either way. Your accountant can fine-tune the tax figure.
No. Only put fixed running costs in overheads. Materials you buy for a specific job get added on top of your labour when you quote that job, usually with a markup. Keep them separate or you'll double-count.
Divide the day rate by the hours you're genuinely on the tools, not the hours you leave the house. The calculator uses an 8-hour day. If you really bill 6 productive hours, your true hourly rate is higher than a simple divide-by-eight suggests.
A free tool for general guidance, not financial or tax advice. Tax and National Insurance depend on your total income and circumstances; check your figures with an accountant or on gov.uk before you rely on them.
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