Pricing and quoting, 29 October 2026
Price per point for electrical work: setting and quoting it
To price electrical work per point, time how long one point takes you (first and second fix), multiply by your labour rate per hour, add the materials for that point, then divide by one minus your margin. At 50 minutes, £40 an hour, £14 of materials and a 20% margin, a double socket comes to about £59. Testing, certificates and the consumer unit are priced on top.
What counts as a point?
A point is one place where the installation ends in an accessory: a socket outlet, a lighting point, a switch, a fused connection unit, a cooker outlet or a data socket. Pricing per point lets you quote a job from a drawing or a walk-round count without timing every cable run.
The weakness is that points are not equal. A double socket on a new radial in a kitchen takes longer than a switch drop in a stud wall. If you use one rate for everything, you'll win the switch-heavy jobs and lose money on them, and lose the socket-heavy ones you'd have made money on. Most electricians who price this way keep four or five rates, not one.
How do you work out your price per point?
Build it from four numbers you control: minutes per point, your labour rate per hour, materials per point and your margin. The sum is the same as any other price: cost, then margin on top.
- Time a point.
Take the total first-fix and second-fix hours from three recent jobs and divide by the number of points. Include chasing, clipping, terminating and the walk to the van. That's your minutes per point.
- Work out your hourly rate.
Take the true cost of a productive day (wages, employer's National Insurance, holiday) plus your overheads per man-day, and divide by the hours you work on site. Overheads per man-day shows the full method.
- Cost the materials for one point.
Back box, accessory, grommets, fixings and a share of the cable. Use your merchant's current price, not last year's.
- Add your margin.
Divide the cost by (1 − margin). A 20% margin means dividing by 0.8. Markup and margin are different sums; don't mix them.
Price per double socket, built from the firm's own figures
An electrician's own costs: a productive day costs £300 with overheads, over 7.5 hours on site.
| Labour rate per hour£300 ÷ 7.5 hours | £40.00 |
| Labour for one point50 minutes ÷ 60 × £40 | £33.33 |
| Materials for one pointback box, double socket, cable share | £14.00 |
| Cost per point£33.33 + £14.00 | £47.33 |
| Price per point at 20% margin£47.33 ÷ 0.8 | £59.17 |
Should every type of point have its own rate?
Yes, if your work mixes them. The same method gives a different rate for each type, because the minutes and materials differ. Here is the table for the same firm at £40 an hour and a 20% margin.
| Point type | Minutes | Labour | Materials | Cost | Price per point |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Double socket | 50 | £33.33 | £14.00 | £47.33 | £59.17 |
| Lighting point | 40 | £26.67 | £12.00 | £38.67 | £48.33 |
| Fused spur | 45 | £30.00 | £16.00 | £46.00 | £57.50 |
| Data point | 35 | £23.33 | £10.00 | £33.33 | £41.67 |
| Light switch | 25 | £16.67 | £8.00 | £24.67 | £30.83 |
The minutes and materials are illustrations. What matters is that each line uses your own times. Grade the materials too: a brushed steel socket costs more than white plastic, so either keep a separate rate or add the difference as an option on the quote.
Your numbers, not a promise. Change any figure to match your firm.
What does a point price leave out?
Points cover outlets. They don't cover the work that makes the installation legal and finished, and that is where per-point quotes most often lose money.
Putting it together on a real quote
Count the points by type from the drawing or your walk-round notes, multiply each by its rate, then add the fixed items. For a kitchen and utility room with 24 points, all priced at the double-socket rate for simplicity, the points come to 24 × £59.17, about £1,420. Testing, certification and a new cooker circuit go on as separate lines, each built the same way: hours × £40, plus materials, divided by 0.8.
Show the client a short breakdown: number of points by type, then the fixed items. It reads as fair, it lets them see where an extra socket would land, and it makes variations easy to price because the rate is already agreed. If you send options (standard white or brushed steel), price each as its own line; quotes with options covers how to lay them out so the client doesn't add them all up.
A London electrical and fire alarm contractor we spoke to, running about ten live commercial projects, told us quoting took "two, three days" in some weeks. What he wanted was to send a point count from site over WhatsApp and get back a priced quote using his own per-point rates, with his standard exclusions attached. The rates already existed. The time went on typing them into a document.
How often should you check your rates?
Every time materials move and at least twice a year. Cable, accessories and boards change price through the year, and a per-point rate built on old prices loses money quietly on every job. Check your supplier invoices against the materials figure in each rate (see spotting supplier price rises) and retime a few jobs to see if your minutes still hold.
Keep a short note of how each rate is built: minutes, hourly rate, materials, margin. When a main contractor or a client questions a price, you can show the working instead of discounting.
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 per-point pricing, Nexley holds your rates by point type, your fixed items and your standard exclusions. Send a voice note or a point count from site on WhatsApp and Nexley drafts the quote using your numbers, for you to check and approve before it goes out. When a supplier price changes on an invoice, it flags the rate that depends on it.
Common questions
What's a typical price per point for electrical work in the UK?
There is no official rate, and published figures vary by region, accessory grade and whether the job is a new build, a rewire or an occupied home. Work yours out from your own minutes, labour rate and materials, then sense-check it against what wins and loses work for you.
Does a price per point include the consumer unit?
Usually not. The consumer unit, new circuits, testing and certification are priced as separate lines because they don't scale with the number of points. Say so on the quote so the client compares like with like.
Should I quote per point or by the day?
Per point suits jobs you can count in advance: rewires, new builds, extensions, fit-outs. Day work suits fault-finding and jobs where you can't see what's behind the walls. Many firms quote per point and keep a day rate for variations.
Do I charge VAT on a price per point?
If you're VAT-registered, yes, at the rate that applies to the work. For work for a VAT-registered contractor that reports under CIS, the domestic reverse charge may apply instead.
Sources
- GOV.UK: Approved Document P, Electrical safety: dwellings
- London Borough of Richmond upon Thames: Building Regulations and electrical works
- IET: Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate, BS 7671:2018+A4:2026
- GOV.UK: Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027
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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