Minimum Job Charge Calculator
Set a floor for short jobs that still covers travel, set-up and admin.
Who it is for: UK self-employed tradespeople and small trade contractors.
What you get: Minimum profitable charge for a short visit.
How this calculation works
This tool runs in your browser. No data is sent to our servers. Below are the assumptions used.
- Every short job is assumed to consume travel, set-up, clear-up and invoicing time, because it does.
Hypothetical worked examples
To help you understand the outputs, here are illustrative examples generated using the same logic.
Illustrative example 1: A sole trader working 30 billable hours per week with £18,000 in annual overheads needs to recover £11.54 per hour before any profit is added. If they want a £35,000 target owner pay before personal tax, the true hourly rate rises to around £28–£32 based on the inputs entered.
Illustrative example 2: A small team with a van, premises and two employees requires a higher day rate to cover shared operational costs. The calculator shows the break-even point clearly so the business owner can set a rate that covers all costs before profit is considered.
Questions people ask
- Why do short jobs often lose money?
- Short jobs carry the same fixed overhead as longer ones — travel, set-up, clear-up, invoicing and the time it takes to quote and confirm the booking — but spread those costs across fewer billable minutes. A 30-minute job that takes 45 minutes of travel and 15 minutes of admin has effectively cost you 90 minutes of your day. Without a minimum charge, you are subsidising the customer's convenience.
- What should I include in my minimum job charge?
- Travel time both ways at your hourly rate, vehicle cost per mile, a minimum on-site period (typically one hour), set-up and clear-up time, invoicing time and a reasonable margin. The calculator works through each of these so the final figure is justified, not guessed.
- How do I explain a minimum charge to a customer?
- Be straightforward: 'My minimum charge for any visit is £X, which covers travel, the first hour on site and the admin involved in booking and invoicing.' Most customers who understand the economics of running a trade business will accept this. Customers who push back on a transparent minimum charge are often not the customers you want.
- Should my minimum job charge be the same as my call-out fee?
- Not necessarily. A call-out fee is typically for reactive or emergency attendance. A minimum job charge is the floor for any booked job, however small. They may be similar in value, but they serve different purposes and should be quoted separately if you use both.