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United Kingdom

Pricing construction work in the UK

A day rate that ignores CIS, VAT and the days you do not bill is a pay cut you handed yourself. These guides work out what an hour of your time costs, what the reverse charge and the reduced rate bands do to the number, and what going self-employed costs before the first invoice goes out.

Click through it first

Registration, tax, licensing and insurance in one tracked run. Open a business that is already through it and see where every document lands.

Open the demo business

No card, no form. Sign in later and everything you built stays on the same account.

9 guides on this

After you qualifyPublic and Employers' LiabilityPick a public liability limit you can defend to a main contractor, and know whether the £5m employers' liability the 1969 Act makes compulsory has to cover the labour-only lad on day rate. Every cover a UK contractor meets, with the statute or the JCT clause behind it.How to run the businessApproved contractor listsA main contractor will not read your price until you are through prequalification. This is the real structure behind SSIP, CHAS, the Common Assessment Standard and Constructionline's tiers, which single certificate a firm your size actually needs, what each costs in 2026, and the document pack that satisfies all of them at once.How to run the businessSocial value in a tenderSocial value is a published marking scheme, not a CSR essay, and the Cabinet Office's own guide says volumes are not evaluated. Work out what those marks are worth in pounds of price, then write the answer that scores.How to run the businessZero-Rated and 5% VATUK construction runs four VAT positions at once, and the gap between 20% and 5% on a £60,000 conversion is £9,000 on your customer's price. Tell on sight whether a job is 0%, 5% or 20%, with the Schedule and the paragraph of Notice 708 beside each rate, and know which four documents let you hold it.How to run the businessThe Retentions BanThe Commercial Payments Bill proposes to end cash retentions in construction. What clauses 11 to 16 actually say, the three dates they set running, the 50% penalty in section 113E, and how to price and paper a job while retention is still being taken.How to run the businessVAT reverse chargeThe exact wording HMRC accepts on a reverse charge invoice, the six conditions that switch it on, why CIS takes materials out of the deduction while the reverse charge keeps them in, and how to pull your input VAT back a month faster.How to run the businessCost of going self-employedAn itemised 2026 setup bill in pounds, from the £36 CSCS card to the van, plus the month by month cash flow that shows why you need about £10,000 behind you before the first application gets paid.How to run the businessWhat an hour costs youTake a £280 day rate apart: 185 billable days, £15,220 of van, tools and pension, and £30,337 landing at £14.45 an hour. Then see what a priced job does to the same year.How to run the businessWhich contract to signPick a named contract for the job in front of you, priced: JCT Home Owner at £40, Minor Works 2024 at £100, Intermediate at £178, or your own written terms. Includes the five clauses that decide whether you get paid, and the 14 day cancellation right that can turn a finished job into an invoice you cannot send.

Count it instead of estimating it

Hourly rate calculatorOverhead, billable days and the wage you want in. The hourly rate that pays for all three.Free, no signup.Markup and margin calculatorAdd twenty percent to your costs and you keep sixteen point seven. Enter one job and see the price, the profit, both percentages, and what the mix-up is worth in dollars.Free, no signup.
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The rest of the United Kingdom library

The Construction Industry SchemeVAT for UK constructionGetting paid on UK constructionStarting a construction business in the UKConstruction bookkeeping in the UKCSCS cards and site ticketsFinding construction work in the UKPayment notices and adjudication
Every guideThe whole United Kingdom libraryAfter you qualify