Price the true job—not just the obvious materials
BuildPocket Trade Mode helps sole traders and small contractors build transparent estimates quickly without carrying full estimating software onto site.
A complete estimate structure
- Preliminaries and site setup
- Labour, teams and productivity
- Materials and purchasable quantities
- Plant, hire, deliveries and disposal
- Subcontractors and provisional sums
- Overhead, risk and contingency
- Markup or target gross margin
- VAT and customer total
Markup is not margin
A 20% markup on £1,000 cost produces a £1,200 selling price and £200 gross profit. That is a 16.7% gross margin, not 20%.
Small-job reality matters
Travel, collection time, protection, setup, cleanup, parking, tool wear and snagging are real costs. They should be explicit rather than quietly absorbed into an optimistic labour rate.
Customer-facing output
The printable draft quote shows scope, assumptions, validity and customer price while keeping internal cost and margin information private.
BuildPocket assists estimating; it does not provide tax, contract or technical-design advice.
TRADE MODE
Multi-line estimate builder
Add separate work items so materials, labour, plant and subcontract costs stay visible.
Draft estimating aid—not accounting, tax or contractual advice. Check rates, scope and VAT treatment before issuing.