Pricing and quoting, 29 October 2026
How to work out your overheads per man-day
Overheads per man-day is the cost of running your business, divided by the days your team spends on paid work. Add it to the true cost of a day's labour and you have the least a day on site can earn before you make any profit. For most small trade firms it lands between £20 and £60 a man-day, and it's the number most often left out of a price.
What counts as an overhead?
An overhead is any cost you pay whether or not a job is on. Materials, plant hire and subbies for a specific job are not overheads: they go straight into that job's price. Everything that keeps the lights on is.
Here's a year of overheads for a real-sized firm: a roofer with six people on the tools, including the owner, working mostly domestic with some subcontract work for builders.
| Overhead | A year |
|---|---|
| Two vans, lease | £10,800 |
| Insurance: public liability, employer's liability, vans | £3,200 |
| Yard and storage | £4,800 |
| Marketing (paid social, website) | £3,600 |
| Tools and kit, replacing what breaks or walks | £3,000 |
| Accountant and bookkeeping | £1,800 |
| Phones and software | £1,800 |
| Training, cards and accreditations | £1,200 |
| Total | £30,200 |
Your list will differ. What matters is that it's complete, so take it from last year's bank statements rather than memory.
How many days does your team work?
There are about 260 weekdays in a year. Nobody bills all of them. Take off holidays and the days that pay nothing, and a person on the tools usually manages 200 to 215 productive days.
- Start with 260.
Fifty-two weeks of five days.
- Take off 28 days of holiday.
A full-time worker is entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid leave a year, which is 28 days, and bank holidays can count towards it. That leaves 232.
- Take off weather and gaps between jobs.
Roofers and groundworkers lose more here than an electrician working inside. Ten to fifteen days is common.
- Take off sickness and training.
Allow five to eight.
- Take off the owner's quoting and site visits.
If you price and survey during the week, those days earn nothing. Count them for yourself only.
For the roofing firm: 232 days, less 12 for weather and gaps, less 6 for sickness and training, gives about 214 for the team. The owner loses another 20 or so to quotes and visits, so the firm averages 210 productive days per person.
What does a day of labour cost you?
More than the day rate you pay, for two reasons. You pay holiday on days nobody works, and as an employer you pay National Insurance on top of wages. Both have to be paid for by the productive days.
True cost of one productive day for a roofer on £170 a day
Take one employed roofer on £170 a day, paid for 260 days including holiday.
| Wages for the year£170 × 260 paid days | £44,200 |
| Employer National Insurance15% of pay above £5,000 | £5,880 |
| Total cost of employing them | £50,080 |
| Productive days they workfrom the step above | 210 |
| True labour cost per productive day£50,080 ÷ 210 | £238 |
Putting it together: overheads per man-day and your day rate
Now divide the overheads across the days that earn. Six people × 210 productive days = 1,260 man-days a year. £30,200 ÷ 1,260 = about £24 per man-day.
So before a penny of profit, each person on site has to bring in £238 for their own labour and £24 towards the overheads: £262 a day. At a 15% margin, the day rate is £262 ÷ 0.85 = about £308.
Your numbers, not a promise. Change any figure to match your firm.
Change the figures to your own. If the answer is well above what you charge now, you're either under-pricing or carrying overheads the work can't support. Both are worth knowing before the next quote goes out.
Why one day over can wipe out the profit
A small margin doesn't survive a small overrun. Take a four-day re-roof for two people, priced at the day rate above.
A four-day job that runs one day over
| Price: 2 people × 4 days × £308 | £2,464 |
| Cost: 2 people × 4 days × £262 | £2,096 |
| Profit as quoted | £368 |
| Extra day: 2 people × £262 | £524 |
| Profit after a one-day overrun£368 − £524 | −£156 |
I didn't even understand how to price in overheads. When they run over by one day, that's all the profit gone.
He'd been pricing commercial roofing at around £60 a square metre while the work was going for nearer £36.50, and losing domestic jobs to rounding. Working out overheads per man-day was what let him see which jobs paid and which didn't. If you price subcontract work by the square metre, convert your day rate to a price per m² next.
How often should you work it out again?
Recalculate whenever something big changes: a new van, a new hire, a move to a yard, or a jump in insurance. Otherwise once a year, from the year's real figures, is enough. Keep the workings so you can show a client or a bank how your rate is built.
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.
For pricing, Nexley keeps your labour rates, overheads and margin in your price list and applies them to every quote it drafts, so a voice note from the van becomes a priced quote you check and approve. When your overheads change, you tell it once.
Common questions
What's a typical overhead per man-day for a small trade firm?
Often between £20 and £60. Firms with a yard, several vans and paid marketing sit at the top end; a sole trader working from home with one van sits at the bottom. Your own figure is the only one that counts.
Should I include my own wage in overheads?
Not if you work on the tools: count yourself as one of the people on site and price your labour like anyone else's. Include your time as an overhead only for the days you spend quoting, surveying or doing admin, because no job pays for those.
Is overhead per man-day the same as a day rate?
No. Overhead per man-day is one part of a day rate. The day rate is labour plus overheads plus profit.
Do subcontractors need to work this out?
Yes. A labour-only subbie still has a van, insurance, tools and days without work. The same sum tells you the least you can accept per day or per square metre.
Sources
Every rule, rate and date above was checked against these sources on the date shown at the top.
Topic: Pricing and quoting
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