Pricing a job

[marc5180]

Hi guys just a quick question regarding quotes for an installation. How would you work your prices out for the job? Say the engineer was on 8pounds per hour and it would take him two days to fit the unit, which cost 1800 pounds for the units and materials. What would be a good way to work it out so that isnt to expensive but also not too cheap? Would you incorporate the mileage and what other expenses would be added on if there are any?

[frank]

Say the engineer was on 8pounds per hour

Have we gone back in time? is it 1998?

Marc

Get the buying price of your kit, add 20%
Work out how many hours it will take to install including travel time, multiply by your hourly rate + 15% to cover NI
Work out the cost of your materials, add 20%

Add all these up and then add a % to cover overheads, (insurance, vehicles, tools, office, phone, fax, heat , light, power, etc ) then add a profit to the final figure

[marc5180]

Hehe ok maybe 11pounds a hour then!! how about for a breakdown would that just be charged at say11 pounds per hour x2 then add fuel would that be a rough estimate? Would there be a call out charge?

[leftjobrunning]

Hehe ok maybe 11pounds a hour then!! how about for a breakdown would that just be charged at say11 pounds per hour x2 then add fuel would that be a rough estimate?

Will avoid any jobs in Lancashire area. LOL

[marc5180]

I would have thought out of all of this forum there would be more than one person to give me some help on the topic. Well i guess i was wrong.

[The MG Pony]

look at the countries mate, we're not all in the area and the transport costs would kill ya for some of the others to help ya out, but I'm sure they'd love to go to the UK for a paid vacation! lol

(No need to be sarcastic)

[Abe]

I would have thought out of all of this forum there would be more than one person to give me some help on the topic. Well i guess i was wrong.

Everyone has different ways of pricing a job.......Horses for Courses ....

Frank got it right, cos that is the proper way to do it and the company will survive.....

Theres the yardstick way.......
Theres the beer money way.....
Theres the DIY way.........

No one felt the need to expand on Frank's way, because the bulk of us use his method.

Good Luck

[marc5180]

I didnt mean to be sarcastic, sorry if it came accross like that. I appreciate everyones help
Cheers

[Smokey]

Call out, would depend a little on your travelling time, but £50-£70 to include the first hour would be what I would charge, plus any parts. I think the costs for the install were very good. Some peoples overheads may come in a little more but you need to calculate what you spend a year on insurance, bank charges, vans, fuel, accountant, mobile and fixed phones, replacement of equipment, advertising and then work out what your daily overhead is (work on 5 days a week and 47 weeks to allow for holidays)

[leftjobrunning]

On call out charges my company charges £65 for first hour, £55 for any additional hours. £55 for all travelling time and the £65 again per hour for any out of hours calls.
And make sure you charge by the hour and state this to the customer before hand, it saves on arguments when you present them with the sheet on completion, 1 hour 15 minutes is 2 hours chargeable.

Wouldn't have a clue about pricing installs but would love to find out, any tips from installers??

And BTW I wasn't being a bollox in my earlier post, sorry.

[marc5180]

Brilliant thats the type of info im after, if a few more people could give their input id be made up, id have most of the info i needed
Cheers guys

[slingblade]

Funny, whenever i cost a job i do not think in terms of annual overheads. this is due to my charging rates covering all expenses in the first place. engineers time has wage and profit inbuilt, travel time is charged at full rate as well as site time. mileage on top to cover vehicle expense. with 30 to 50% on parts and new kit there is enough to cover everything. continuity of work to sustain a large workforce is about the only problem i see, but if you are good you are sure to be busy.
£45 a manhour on split bashing with the 30% margin on kit should turn a profit.

[Brian_UK]

Marc I appreciate that you want information for pricing but getting upset because not everyone is throwing data at you doesn't help.

A lot a tradesmen have spent a lot of time and effort working out how much it costs to sell themselves, how much it costs to employ staff and sell their services on.

To expect them to give this trade sensitive data openly on a forum like this is a little naive.

You should know how much your staff cost you and how much profit you want to make. If you know how long the job is going to take then you should be able to work out the price from those figures.

If, however, you don't know how much your staff, or yourself, cost to employ then I fear that your trading days will come to an early end.

[Abe]

Well put Brian.

Mick.......put across how you pricing up jobs at present, and we can assess if there are any flaws, or which areas you need to consider

[Makeit go Right]

Say the engineer was on 8pounds per hour and it would take him two days to fit the unit...

I think you gave us a bit of a scare with “£8-00 per hour.” Maybe labour is a bit cheaper in your parts but in the south, you’d be doing well to get a fridge engineer to work for that kind of money - you'd be doing very well!

I must say I checked what flag you were flying when I saw the hourly rate. (Blimey, a union flag - not in China or somewhere with low rates of pay.)

I doubt if you would get a cleaner for that rate here in the south of England.

No, the rate would be more like £30-00, and on up from there, plus the cost of the materials and any special equipment. But, you should look at a LUMP SUM FIXED PRICE to do the job, if you’re looking for someone to install for you. Otherwise, he could take a week if you are paying for every hour he works.

{Reminds me of the advert where the old lady was feeding the builders big time, and the builder said, “Well, it could be another 8 weeks to complete - ” (down comes the next roast meal for the workers) “well, 10 weeks tops. 14 weeks at the outside.” }

a) A “back-to-back” split system could be done in a day, if they go for it.
b) Up to 15m run with no complications would be 2-3 days
c) Then start adding days on for longer runs and complications.
d) Then there is lifting equipment, scaffold # towers, special hole-drilling.

Basically, don’t waste time asking for hourly rates. Show them the job and say how much to install all of that. Get a lump sum quote and see if you like it.

[DEVIL]

just a litle question out of quriosity, u know in my home country it's payd not by hour but, by dificulty of the job, riscs, time, and so on, so a clinet comes to us says what he needs or whants whe think abaut it and say the price for what whe whould do, so i have no clue how the / hour metod works, the question, when u take a litle brake or somthing like that, probably u don't smoke (i do) for let's say 10-15 min, do u cut this time out, or it's included ?

[marc5180]

Hi guys thanks for all the input, at the moment im employed by an AC/refrigeration firm but i was/am thinking of starting up on my own eventually.
I wanted some ideas on pricing so when i do decide to start on my own i would have the costs all planned out making it one less thing to worry about. Brian_UK i apologise if i was being pushy.
Thanks
Marc

[monkey spanners]

Marc, one thing to keep an eye on is what the wholesalers are charging you for stuff. It really does pay to shop around and compare prices. I quoted to replace a 10hp scroll only to have another company qoute a fitted price for LESS than i was buying the compressor for.

Jon

[Andy W]

Are you after a guide line for doing the install as a foreigner or as a potential self employed engineer?

Also worth pointing out is if you are not VAT registered you will still be charged VAT by the wholesaler so will need to build it into your costs.

[marc5180]

Are you after a guide line for doing the install as a foreigner or as a potential self employed engineer?

Also worth pointing out is if you are not VAT registered you will still be charged VAT by the wholesaler so will need to build it into your costs.

I was after a guide line as a potential self employed engineer. Didnt want to just pluck a random figure out of the air. I wondered how to price it so that it is competitive and without being to expensive so i lose out on jobs.

[Andy W]

When I price an installation, I work out all my material costs add between 40 & 50% mark up on parts, add on top of that my day rate for just me or man & mate and to include travel and mileage and thats it. VAT on top of course. Once you have done a few you get a feel when you walk into a room on what size is required and approx how much it will cost, saves time with the time wasters who collect quotes and do nothing about them.

[BigJon3475]

http://www.visioninfosoft.com/products/electrical/tmbm/