How to Price Electrical Work

How to price electrical work comes down to four numbers added together: your labour time multiplied by a rate that covers your wage, overheads and profit, your materials plus a markup, an uplift for access or site conditions, and the time it takes to test and certify. Price defined jobs at a fixed price. Price unknowns, like fault finding, by the hour.

Why sparks underprice

I run an electrical contracting firm. The install is the bit everyone prices. The testing, the certificate, the notification and the drive to the merchant are the bits that go missing.

None of that is free. It’s your time, and your time is what you sell.

Step 1: Work out your real hourly rate

Start from what the business costs to run, not from what the sparky down the road charges. Add up what you need to pay yourself for the year, then every overhead: van, fuel, insurance, your scheme membership, test kit calibration, tools, phone, software, accountant.

Then divide by the days you can actually bill. Not 52 weeks of 5 days. Take off holidays, quoting, admin and the odd dead day. Then add your profit on top. Profit is what’s left for the business after you’ve been paid, so it doesn’t come out of your wage.

The tradesperson day rate calculator does this sum for you, and the true labour cost calculator does the same for anyone you employ.

Step 2: Time each task, not the whole job

Break the job into tasks and put a time against each one: strip out, first fix per point, second fix per point, board change, testing.

Use your own times from finished jobs, not a figure off a forum. If you don’t record how long things take, start now. How to price labour on trade jobs walks through fit times properly.

Step 3: Price materials and add a markup

Price materials at what you pay, then add your markup. Markup covers the wholesaler runs, the returns and the fact you’re guaranteeing the kit you fit. Remember that a 15% markup is not a 15% margin. The material markup and margin calculator shows the difference, and how to price materials for trade jobs covers it in more depth.

Step 4: Add access and site factors

Same job, different house, different price. A board in a cramped understairs cupboard, a loft with no boards, high ceilings, an occupied home you have to work around, out-of-hours commercial work, parking a ten-minute walk away. All of it slows you down. Put a percentage on the labour for it with the site labour uplift calculator rather than guessing.

Step 5: Bill the testing and the paperwork

This is the bit that catches people out. Under BS 7671, a new circuit or a consumer unit change needs an Electrical Installation Certificate, and an addition or alteration that doesn’t add a circuit needs a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate. In England, a new circuit or a replacement consumer unit in a home is also notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations.

All of that is time on your quote: testing every circuit, writing up the schedule of results, completing the EIC or the minor works certificate, and notifying through your scheme. Price it as a line, every time.

Step 6: Set a minimum charge

A small job still costs you the drive, the parking, the setup and the paperwork. Set a minimum charge or call-out charge and stick to it. The call-out charge calculator works it out from your costs.

Fixed price or day rate?

Use a fixed price when the job is defined: a board change, extra sockets, an EV charger on a straightforward run. If you’re quick, the margin is yours.

Use a day rate or hourly rate when you can’t see the job: fault finding, remedial work, anything behind a finished wall. Pricing an unknown at a fixed price means you carry all the risk.

Worked example: a consumer unit change

Illustrative figures only, not market rates. Put your own numbers in.

Say your costs work out like this. You want to pay yourself £40,000 a year and your overheads come to £14,000, so the business needs £54,000. You can bill 180 days. That’s £300 a day to break even. Add 20% profit and you get £360 a day, or £45 an hour over an 8-hour day.

Now the job: a consumer unit change in a three-bed semi.

Labour: 7 hours for strip out, fit and terminate, plus 1.5 hours for testing, the EIC and notification. 8.5 hours at £45 = £382.50

Access: the board is in a tight understairs cupboard and the family is at home. 10% on labour = £38.25

Materials: board, RCBOs, surge protection, tails and sundries at £320 cost, plus 15% markup = £368.00

Total: £788.75, plus whatever your scheme charges to notify the job. Call it £790 before notification.

Then add one line that saves arguments: remedial work found during testing is not included and will be charged at £45 an hour. You don’t know what the insulation resistance readings will show until you’ve done them. Say so before you start, not after.

Extra sockets and rewires

An extra double socket might come to about an hour and a quarter with the test and the minor works certificate. At £45 an hour that’s £56.25 of labour, which is under a half-day minimum of £180. The minimum charge applies. That’s what it’s for.

A rewire is the same method at scale. Count the points, multiply by your first fix and second fix times, add the board and a testing line for every circuit. Then write down what’s excluded, like plastering, decorating and lifting floors, or you’ll end up doing it for free.

Common mistakes

Copying someone else’s rate. Their van, their overheads and their billable days aren’t yours.

Leaving testing off the quote. The certificate takes time. It goes on the price.

Fixed pricing fault finding. You can’t price what you can’t see. Charge it by the hour.

Confusing markup with margin. 15% on cost is about 13% of the selling price.

No exclusions. If making good isn’t in the price, write that on the quote.

Do this in FieldHive

Once you’ve got your rate, your times and your markup, the trade job pricing calculator puts them together into one job price, labour, materials and uplift in one place. Then the quote and estimate builder turns it into a quote you can send. If you want the quote to become the job and then the invoice without typing it all again, that’s what FieldHive does.

Aid, not advice

This guide explains a method for pricing electrical work. It is not financial or legal advice, and every figure in the worked example is illustrative, not a market rate. Your rate depends on your own costs. Certification and notification requirements depend on the work and where it is: check BS 7671, your competent person scheme and your local building control body.

Checked September 2026: Approved Document P (Electrical safety, dwellings), 2013 edition, gov.uk; BS 7671 certificate types (EIC, Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate).