What's a normal markup on materials?

On the supplier's price, most trade businesses land somewhere between 15% and 35%, and it tends to run higher on small orders and lower on big-ticket items where the customer can see the price online. What matters more than the benchmark is that the number covers what the materials actually cost you — wastage, freight and your time included — and then leaves the margin you meant to make.

Should I mark up materials at all, or just charge for my labour?

Mark them up. Sourcing, carrying, storing and warranting materials is work and risk, and a customer who could have bought them cheaper online could also have installed them. Charging cost on materials and hoping the labour rate carries everything means the labour rate has to be higher than it looks — and it's the labour rate the customer compares.

Do I show the customer the markup?

No. The customer sees a materials price, or a single job price, on the quote. The markup is your arithmetic, the same as the labour rate is. What they do see is the total including VAT, which is why the calculator shows it.

Why is the price with VAT on there?

Because that's the figure a homeowner sees. Quoting a consumer, the price you show has to be the full amount they'll pay, as one figure — so the sell price on its own isn't the number for the quote. The calculator works the margin on the ex-VAT figure, where it belongs, and shows the inclusive one for the document.

The supplier gives me a trade discount. Which price do I use?

What you actually paid, after the discount. The discount is your margin's head start, not the customer's — unless you've decided to pass some of it on, in which case do that on purpose by lowering the margin, not by accident by using the list price as your cost.

How is this different from the job profit margin calculator?

This one works forwards from the supplier's invoice to the price to charge for the materials. That one works backwards from a finished job to the margin it left. Use this when you're pricing; use that when you're checking whether the pricing worked.

Materials markup

Materials markup calculator for tradies

Work out what to add to the supplier's price so the materials carry the margin you actually want — after the offcuts, the delivery and the hour you spent at the trade counter. Adding 20% to the invoice is not a 20% margin, and it's before any of those.

Free. Your email is the only thing we ask for.Figures for the United Kingdom from HMRC and the statutory sources listed under the calculator.

What the supplier charged youThe materials for this job at cost, before VAT.Margin you want on materialsAs a share of the price you'll charge, not a markup on cost. Somewhere between 15% and 30% is usual on materials.Hours spent getting themOrdering, the trip to the supplier, waiting at the counter, taking the wrong part back. Time you'd otherwise be billing.

Fine-tune your numbersWhat an hour of your time costs, wastage, delivery and freight and overhead share on materials

What an hour of your time costsWhat the hour costs the business, not what you charge for it. The floor from the charge-out rate calculator is the honest number.WastageOffcuts, breakage, the half-bag and the odd length left over. 5% is typical; timber and tiles run higher.Delivery and freightWhat it cost to get the materials to the job, if you paid for that separately.Overhead share on materialsA slice of your overheads to recover through materials, as a percentage of what you paid. Most tradies carry overheads in the labour rate instead, so leave this at 0 unless materials are most of your turnover.

Sell the materials for£1,381.25excluding VAT

Add to the supplier's price38.13%the markup that gets you there

Add 38% to the supplier's price and the materials carry a 20% margin after wastage, freight and your time.

Add 20% and call it a margin — the usual mistake — and this order is £181 short.

What the materials really cost£1,105.00paid £1,000, 5% wastage £50, your time £55. This is the figure the margin sits on, not the supplier's invoice.

Your time in them£55.001 hour × £55 an hour. Ordering and collecting is work you can't bill anyone for unless it's in here.

Markup on true cost25%A 20% margin is a 25% markup. Add 20% to cost instead and you keep 17%.

Profit on the materials£276.25What's left after everything the materials actually cost.

Price with VAT£1,657.50What goes on a quote to a homeowner: the sell price plus 20% VAT.

Figures used — checked August 2026

Every HMRC and statutory figure this calculator uses, taken from the authority that publishes it. We re-read them at each financial-year boundary — the site fails to build if we haven't.

Figure	Value	Applies	Source
VAT standard rate	20%	4 January 2011 (unchanged)	gov.uk

The supplier's invoice is not what the materials cost

Three things sit on top of the number on the invoice, and none of them show up anywhere unless you put them there.

Wastage. The offcut, the tile that cracked, the tin with a third left in it. Five percent of the order is gone before it's on the wall, and it came out of your margin.
Your time. The hour at the trade counter is an hour you didn't bill anyone. At what your hour costs the business, that is often the biggest hidden cost on a small order.
Getting it there. Delivery, freight, the toll on the way to the supplier. Small each time, and never on the customer's invoice unless you've decided it will be.

The calculator adds those to what you paid and calls the total the true cost. The margin sits on that figure. Put the margin on the supplier's invoice instead and every one of the three comes out of the profit you thought you'd made.

Markup and margin are not the same number

The number you type into a quoting app is a markup — a percentage added to cost. The number you want to end up with is a margin — a percentage of the price you keep. They are not interchangeable, and the difference is not small.

A 20% margin needs a 25% markup on true cost.
A 30% margin needs a 43% markup.
A 40% margin needs a 67% markup.

Which is why the second figure on the result is the markup to apply to the supplier's price: it is the one you'll type, and it is bigger than the margin you asked for because it has to cover the wastage, the freight and your time as well as the gap between the two definitions. The job profit margin calculator shows the same pair from the other side, once the job is done.

Materials markup calculator for tradies

The supplier's invoice is not what the materials cost

Markup and margin are not the same number

Materials markup, answered.

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