Content hub
Materials, Equipment & Van Costs for Trade Businesses
Guidance on pricing materials, calculating van costs, managing trade accounts, and recovering the money you spend before the invoice lands.
Buying, marking up and controlling the money that leaves before the invoice lands.
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Materials are where cash disappears fastest. You pay the merchant on Tuesday and the customer pays you in three weeks — if the deposit was right and nobody lost a receipt.
This hub covers deposits for material-heavy jobs, supplier pricing and trade accounts, markup, returns, tracking spend by job, tools, hire versus purchase, vans, fuel, waste, and how to let a team buy things without losing control.
What this hub covers
Topic clusters
Written in the order the decisions actually arrive.
Funding the purchase
Whose money buys the materials, and when.
Pricing and recovering materials
Markup, wastage, delivery and returns.
Tools, plant and vans
The kit that quietly costs you a rate rise.
Team purchasing control
Limits, approvals and receipts.
Markus on this hub
What matters most here
The three things that change the numbers fastest in this part of the business.
Know your true landed cost
The price on the trade counter is not what the material costs you. Delivery, wastage, cutting loss, returns you never make and the fuel for the collection all belong in the figure you mark up.
Add a realistic wastage percentage by material type — 5% on boards and tiles, more on anything cut to fit — and price from the landed cost, not the invoice line.
Decide who buys the materials, and say so in the quote
Customer-supplied materials shift the cost off your quote and the risk onto your labour. If the goods arrive late, short or wrong, your week is gone and you are not paid for it.
If you allow it, write the terms down: you are not responsible for the suitability, quantity or failure of goods you did not supply, and standing time is charged at your day rate.
Buy tools on payback, not on offers
A tool earns its place if it removes hire cost, saves hours you can sell, or wins work you currently turn down. Work out the payback in jobs, not in months of 0% finance.
Track what you actually hire over a year. Anything you hire more than six or seven times is usually cheaper to own, and anything you hired once in three years never needed buying.
Tools
Calculators for this area
- calculatorMaterial Deposit CalculatorSet a deposit that funds early project costs without overreaching.
- calculatorMaterials Markup CalculatorConvert cost, markup and margin — including wastage and your collection time.
- calculatorVan Cost CalculatorUnderstand the annual, daily, per-mile and per-billable-hour cost of a work van.
- finderEmployee Purchase-Card FinderWork out whether you need debit expense cards, prepaid cards, reimbursement or credit.
Templates
Paperwork for this area
- CSVMaterial Deposit WorksheetA one-page justification for the deposit you are asking for, in the customer's language.
- CSVVan Cost WorkbookA year of vehicle costs in one place, converted into the number that matters: recovery per billable hour.
- TXTEmployee Expense PolicyThe written rules that let people buy what they need without you approving every fitting — and without losing a receipt a week.
Straight answers
Common questions
- What markup should I put on materials?
- Most UK trades work between 10% and 30% depending on the trade, the risk carried and how much handling is involved. Set it from the margin you need after wastage and collection time, and apply it consistently rather than negotiating per job.
- Should I let customers buy their own materials?
- You can, but price the labour on the assumption something will be wrong, state in writing that you do not warrant customer-supplied goods, and charge standing time if you are held up.
- How do I handle a supplier price rise mid-job?
- Quote with a validity period, keep the supplier quotation, and include a clause that material price increases above a stated percentage are passed on with evidence. Tell the customer as soon as you know, not at invoice stage.