How to Price a Job So You Actually Make Money
Most Irish tradespeople price jobs the same way: a quick mental calculation, a gut feeling, and a number that feels about right. Sometimes it works. More often, it doesn’t. And the frustrating part is you won’t find out until the job is done and you’re wondering where the money went.
After twenty years in business and finance, I can tell you that undercharging is the single most common financial problem in Irish trades businesses. Most tradespeople are leaving 20–40% on the table on every job. Not because they’re bad at their trade. Because nobody ever taught them how to price properly.
Here’s how to fix that.
Why gut-feel pricing kills your profits
Pricing by instinct feels efficient. You know roughly how long something takes, you have a sense of what materials cost, and you quote a number that seems fair.
The problem is that “seems fair” is doing a lot of work there. It doesn’t account for the jobs that run over. It doesn’t factor in your van, your insurance, your tools, your phone, or the hour you spent driving to the job. It certainly doesn’t account for the time you spend quoting jobs you don’t win.
Gut-feel pricing is also inconsistent. You price the same bathroom fit-out at different rates depending on whether you’re busy or quiet, whether you like the customer, whether it’s a Monday morning or a Friday afternoon. That inconsistency is leaving money on the table at the exact moments when you could be earning more.
The four numbers every tradesperson must know
Before you quote anything, you need to know four things with certainty.
Your real hourly labour cost. This is not what you’d like to earn per hour. It’s what you need to charge to cover your salary, your PRSI contributions, your holiday pay (you’re entitled to it even as a sole trader), and any sick days you’ll inevitably take. If you want to take home €50,000 a year, your labour cost after overhead allocation is typically €35–45 per hour at minimum, often more.
Your material cost. Not the trade price. The actual landed cost including delivery, any wastage, and returns that didn’t happen. Add 10–15% to your initial material estimate and you’ll be far closer to reality.
Your overhead allocation per job. Every job needs to carry a fair share of your fixed costs: van repayments, insurance, fuel, tools, your mobile phone, accounting fees, advertising. Add up all your annual overheads, divide by the number of billable hours you work in a year, and that’s your overhead rate per hour. Most tradespeople discover this number is €8–15 per hour and are shocked.
Your target net margin. After labour, materials, and overhead, what’s left? For trades businesses in Ireland, a healthy net margin is 15–25%. Under 10% and you’re essentially working for a wage with all the risk of self-employment and none of the safety.
A simple job costing formula
Take a bathroom renovation as a practical example.
Labour: 3 days × 8 hours × €45/hour (your loaded rate) = €1,080 Materials: €850 (trade cost) + 12% wastage/contingency = €952 Overhead allocation: 24 hours × €10/hour = €240 Subtotal: €2,272 Target margin at 20%: Add €568 Quote: €2,840
Most tradespeople in this scenario would quote somewhere between €2,200 and €2,500 based on gut feel, and then be puzzled when they’re not making money. The formula isn’t complicated. It just requires you to know your numbers and apply them consistently.
How to account for jobs that go over time
Every experienced tradesperson knows some jobs will run longer than quoted. The question is whether you’re pricing that in or absorbing it as a loss every time.
There are two approaches. The first is to build a contingency into every quote, typically 10-15% added to your labour estimate to account for the unexpected. The second is to quote labour on a time-and-materials basis above a fixed price for the core work, so overruns are charged rather than absorbed.
For most straightforward jobs, a 10–15% labour contingency is the simpler approach. For larger or more complex jobs, particularly anything involving older properties, hidden infrastructure, or work that depends on other trades finishing first, time-and-materials billing with an estimated ceiling is fairer to both parties.
Always make exclusions clear in your quote. “This price assumes no hidden pipework issues” is not a caveat. It’s a professional statement that protects you.
What margin should you be making?
Across the Irish trades sector, typical net margins run from 8% at the low end to 25%+ for well-run businesses with efficient systems. Where you fall depends on your trade, your market, and how disciplined your pricing is.
If you’re consistently below 12%, you have a pricing problem, not a volume problem. More work at poor margins just means more stress for the same outcome. Chasing volume is how trades businesses get busy and broke simultaneously.
A useful rule of thumb: if you couldn’t afford to take three weeks off sick without your business being in trouble, your margins aren’t high enough. Profitability is what gives you options.
The one thing to do this week
Pick your last five completed jobs. For each one, write down what you actually charged and then calculate what you should have charged using the formula above. The gap between those two numbers is your current undercharging rate.
Most people who do this exercise are genuinely surprised. Not slightly off. Significantly undercharging on every job they quote. Once you see the number, it’s very hard to go back to guessing.
If the maths feels overwhelming or you’re not sure what your real costs are, that’s exactly what we help with. A monthly review with someone who knows the numbers removes the guesswork permanently.
Ready to stop leaving money on the table?
Pricing properly starts with knowing your real costs. Our Fractional CFO for Trades service gives you a Chartered Accountant in your corner every month, helping you price jobs correctly, track margins, and make more from the work you’re already doing.
Book a free 30-minute call. No commitment, just straight answers.
Or read next: Job Costing 101: Do You Know If Your Jobs Are Actually Profitable?