Tradie Quote Calculator Australia

Build the price from the ground up: (1) multiply your charge-out rate by the hours you estimate, (2) add materials at cost plus a markup that pays you for sourcing, carrying, delivering and warranting them, (3) add a travel or callout fee if you charge one, and (4) add 10% GST to the subtotal if you are registered for GST. Put the total in writing with a scope that says what is and is not included, so extra work is a variation you price rather than an argument you have. This calculator runs all four steps and shows the rows you would put on the invoice.

It depends on the GST toggle, and getting it wrong overcharges the customer by 10% on the whole materials line. If you are registered for GST, enter the price BEFORE GST, the ex GST figure on the supplier invoice, because you claim that 10% back from the ATO as an input tax credit, so the receipt total is not what the materials actually cost you. The calculator then adds GST once, at the end, across the whole subtotal. If you are not registered you cannot claim anything back, so the GST you paid at the counter is a real cost to you: turn the toggle off and enter the receipt total. Put $440 in with the toggle on when the ex GST cost was $400, and a 20% markup quotes that line at $580.80 instead of $528.00, while you also keep the $40 credit.

No, and the gap is wider than it looks. Markup is measured against what the materials cost you. Margin is measured against what you sell them for. Mark $400 of materials up 20% and you charge $480, so the $80 you keep is 20% of your cost but only 16.7% of the sale. To actually keep 20% of the sale you would need a 25% markup. Confusing the two is the most common trade pricing error, so the breakdown on this page states the markup you entered and the margin it really produces, side by side.

Work it out backwards from your own numbers rather than copying a figure off a cost guide. Add up what a year costs you: the income you need to live on, plus vehicle, fuel, tools, insurance, licences, phone, software, accounting fees and super. Divide that by the hours you can realistically invoice, which for most sole traders is 20 to 25 a week once quoting, travel, ordering, warranty callbacks, admin and chasing payment come out, not 38. That gives your break-even rate, and your charge-out rate has to sit above it or the job pays for itself and nothing else. This calculator holds no model of your overheads, so it cannot check the rate for you: it prices exactly what you type.

If you are registered for GST, yes, on every taxable sale, and the figure you give the customer should be the GST-inclusive total so the invoice holds no surprises. Registration is compulsory once your GST turnover reaches $75,000 in any rolling 12-month period, and you have 21 days from crossing it to register. Below that you can stay unregistered, charge no GST and switch the toggle off, but you also cannot claim the GST back on your materials, which is why the calculator changes what it asks you to enter for materials when you flip it.

Generally yes, and that is what makes it a quote rather than an estimate. Once the customer accepts a fixed price for a defined scope you have a contract at that price, so hours you did not allow for are your risk, not theirs. What you can charge for is work OUTSIDE the agreed scope: a variation, agreed and priced in writing before you do it. The Australian Consumer Law guarantees sit on top of that, the work has to be done with due care and skill within a reasonable time, and they do not go away because you underquoted. The practical protections are a written scope that lists exclusions, a note that hidden conditions get repriced, and quoting hours you can actually hit. The overrun slider on this page shows what an unpriced overrun does to your hourly return.

If you are registered for GST and a customer asks for a tax invoice, you must give them one within 28 days of the request, unless the sale is $82.50 including GST or less. That is the rule, and it is often quoted backwards: $82.50 is the point above which the BUYER needs a tax invoice to claim a GST credit on the purchase, not a point above which you must automatically issue one on every job. If you are not registered for GST you cannot issue a tax invoice at all, and should not try: you issue a plain invoice with no GST line and nothing on it that claims to be charging GST. Most trades issue a tax invoice on every job anyway, because business customers need one to claim the credit.

The arithmetic is exact and every component is rounded to whole cents before it is added, so the rows always sum to the total and you can copy the breakdown straight onto an invoice. The 10% GST rate and the registration threshold come from the shared Australian rate pack this site keeps in one place, not from numbers typed into this page. What is not exact is the assumptions: how many hours the job really takes, what the materials cost by the time you buy them, and whether your charge-out rate covers your overheads. The calculator cannot check any of those. It is precise about your inputs and says nothing about whether your inputs are right, which is why the overrun slider is here.

A quote is a fixed, binding price for clearly defined work, once accepted, you are generally committed to that figure unless the scope changes. An estimate is your best-guess approximation that can move as the job unfolds. Always put quotes in writing, state exactly what is and isn't included, and note that the price may change if the customer requests variations or hidden issues are uncovered.