Running the firm, 29 October 2026
How many hours does admin take a tradesperson? What 28 firms told us
On the calls we had with 28 UK trade firms, owners described admin taking anywhere from about 10 hours a week to two full days a week, and one electrician tracked 60 to 70% of his time going on it. Most of it happens in evenings and at weekends. Quoting, bookkeeping and replying to enquiries take the biggest share.
Where do these numbers come from?
From our own calls, not a survey. Between July and October 2026, Nexley's founder had 54 sales and onboarding calls with owners of 28 trade and construction firms: builders, roofers, electricians, heating engineers, groundworkers, a fabricator and a signage engineer. Firms ranged from one-person businesses to about 14 workers.
We didn't ask a fixed question, so the hours below are what owners volunteered. Treat them as examples from real firms, not an average for the trade. Where we give a count, such as "about 15 of the 28", it's the number of firms that raised the issue unprompted.
How many hours a week does admin take?
Between about 10 hours a week and two days, for the firms that gave us a figure. Here's what individual owners said.
Source: Nexley sales and onboarding calls with 28 UK trade firms, July to October 2026. Each figure is one firm, not an average.
The pattern underneath is that admin grows with the firm while the owner stays the only one doing it. The Essex electrician put it this way: "Our turnover has sort of like superseded our infrastructure."
When does the admin get done?
Mostly outside working hours. Almost every owner we spoke to did paperwork in the evenings or at weekends, because the day belongs to the job. A roofer running six people in Buckinghamshire did admin "until 1 or 2 in the morning".
A few had boxed it in. An East Anglian electrician with two apprentices kept admin to Monday mornings only. That works at three people; it got harder for firms past five or six, where enquiries, supplier bills and staff questions arrive every day.
Which tasks take the most time?
Quoting first, then the books, then replying to people. These are the issues firms raised, counted by how many of the 28 brought them up.
| What eats the time | Firms raising it |
|---|---|
| Owner as bottleneck, admin in evenings and weekends | Almost all |
| Quoting: merchant prices, rate cards, options, branding | About 15 |
| Xero, receipts, supplier bills, reconciliation | About 12 |
| Tenders and take-offs | About 10 |
| Job management software that doesn't fit | About 9 |
| Missed enquiries and slow replies | About 8 |
| No job costing: not knowing which jobs make money | About 7 |
| RAMS and health and safety paperwork | About 5 |
Quoting dominates because every job needs one and most firms win only some. A sole tradesperson told us he wins about one in four quotes, so three out of every four hours spent pricing earn nothing. For the cost of tendering in particular, see the real cost to tender a construction job.
What is your admin time costing you?
More than most owners think, because it's never invoiced. Multiply your weekly admin hours by the weeks you work and by what an hour of your time is worth: your charge-out rate, or what you'd earn on the tools.
Your numbers, not a promise. Change any figure to match your firm.
A builder on two days a week of admin
Two days a week is about 16 hours. Valued at a £45 charge-out rate over 48 working weeks.
| Admin before16 hrs × 48 weeks × £45 | £34,560 |
| Admin after30 min × 5 days = 2.5 hrs × 48 weeks × £45 | £5,400 |
| Time freed a year13.5 hrs × 48 weeks × £45 | £29,160 |
About 2 days a week on adminnowAbout 30 minutes a day
I don't know if I'm making money on jobs.
He moved quotes, supplier bills and variations onto his phone as they happened, and a week's backlog cleared in under 24 hours. A seven-engineer emergency plumbing firm in Dundee saw 284 tasks handled and 15 hours saved during its trial.
What did owners do with the time back?
The ones who freed time mostly spent it winning work. The Essex electrician had one admin-free week and used it for four meetings with new leads. Others spoke about getting weekends back. If you're deciding who should take the hours off you, compare an office admin, a bookkeeper or AI, and start by writing down the rules only you know, using the template in getting the business out of your head.
Where Nexley fits
Nexley is the AI back office for UK trade firms: five AI assistants run your tenders, quotes, buying, scheduling and invoicing. It connects to the tools you already work in, you run it all from WhatsApp, and you approve everything. £799 a month.
Nexley takes on the paperwork hours over WhatsApp. You send a voice note, photo or forwarded email from site; it drafts the quote, logs the supplier bill against the job, writes the invoice or replies to the enquiry, and sends it back for you to approve. Nothing goes out until you say yes.
Common questions
How many hours a week do tradespeople spend on admin?
Among the 28 firms we spoke to, owners who gave a figure reported between about 10 hours a week and two days a week. One electrician tracked 60 to 70% of his time. This is a small sample of firms that were looking for help, so it may run higher than the trade as a whole.
Which admin task takes tradespeople the longest?
Quoting, in our calls: about 15 of the 28 firms raised it. Pricing materials from merchants, applying rates, adding options and exclusions, then branding the quote all add up, and most quotes don't win.
How do I cut my admin hours?
Write down the rules you repeat, capture information on site as it happens rather than in the evening, and hand the drafting to someone or something else while you keep approval. See 7 ways to stop doing paperwork at 9pm and how to stop missing enquiries on site.
Is this data a survey?
No. It's what owners told us on sales and onboarding calls with 28 firms. We report counts of firms and individual figures, never percentages of the trade.
Sources
- Nexley sales and onboarding call notes, 28 UK trade firms, July to October 2026 (internal, anonymised)
- GOV.UK: One year until Making Tax Digital for Income Tax launches
- GOV.UK: Holiday entitlement
Every rule, rate and date above was checked against these sources on the date shown at the top.
Topic: Running the firm
Keep reading
Running the firm
Construction accounting software (UK): what it does, what to check before you pay and whether you need it
What construction accounting software has to handle that a general bookkeeping app may not (job costs, CIS, the VAT reverse charge, retention and stage payments), a checklist to use before you pay, and when a small firm can manage with what it has.
Running the firm
"It's all in my head": getting a trade business out of the owner's head and into a system
If every question on site ends with a call to you, the business stops when you do. This guide gives you a 20-minute head audit, a one-page rules template and the order to hand things over in.
Running the firm
Office admin, bookkeeper or AI? What each costs a small trade firm
A worked cost for a 20-hour admin on the 2026 minimum wage, a bookkeeper's monthly fee and an AI tool, set against what your own evenings cost. Use the calculator to put your own numbers in.
