Bidmio — ERP for trades, construction and service

    What should you charge per hour as a painter and decorator?

    Start with the money you want in your account each month. We add income tax, National Insurance, pension, your van and running costs, and the hours nobody pays for. UK figures for 2026/27: income tax for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with Scottish rates as an option.

    2026/27 tax year

    With typical UK figures for 2026/27, a painter and decorator needs to charge at least £44 an hour excl. VAT, about £352 a day, to take home £2,600 a month after tax. Change the numbers to your own below.

    Step 1 of 3 · Your pay

    GBP

    What you want paid into your own account, like the bottom line of a payslip.

    %
    %

    Quiet months, bad payers, new kit.

    Where do you pay income tax?

    Your minimum hourly rate

    £44/hr

    excl. VAT · £53 incl. VAT

    Billable hours a year
    1,416
    Turnover needed a year, excl. VAT
    £62,177

    Where each hour goes

    • Your take-home pay50 %£22.03
    • Income tax8 %£3.59
    • Class 4 National Insurance3 %£1.22
    • Pension5 %£2.33
    • Running costs24 %£10.34
    • Buffer10 %£4.39

    Guide figures only, errors excepted and without guarantee. The numbers show what a healthy, profitable business needs.

    Built for painters and decorators

    Bidmio for painters and decorators

    From the first call to the paid invoice: quotes, timesheets, materials and invoices in one system, made for painters and decorators. See how it fits together in an ordinary week.

    See Bidmio for painters and decorators
    Reality

    Your body is your most important tool, and you can't buy a new one

    Being a tradesperson is hard physical work. Knees, back and shoulders do not last 50 years on ladders and scaffolding, and nobody pays you when they say stop. Your rate has to pay for that while you still can.

    Do the maths: to stop at 63 instead of 68 you have to fund 5 years without pay. At £2,000 a month that is £120,000 before tax and inflation, and the State Pension, at most £241.30 a week, does not start until 68. That money only comes from one place: your rate in the years your body can still do the work.

    Underpricing is not the way to a good life. Every hour you sell too cheaply, you pay for later with your body, your pension and your time off.

    Where do the numbers come from?

    Every number in the check is either an official UK rate or an estimate that we label as one. Open a field to see why, with an example from real life.

    Take-home pay after tax

    Start with what you need paid out to make your household work: mortgage or rent, car, family and holidays. The calculator works backwards from the amount after tax: Class 4 National Insurance (6% from £12,570, 2% above £50,270) and income tax at 20%, 40% and 45% above the £12,570 Personal Allowance, which tapers away above £100,000. In Scotland the Scottish bands apply.

    Real life: A median full-time employee takes home about £2,636 a month. To take home £2,600 a month as a painter and decorator, the business needs a profit of about £41,300 a year before tax, after every cost is paid. About £3,300 of that goes into your pension, £1,700 to Class 4 and £5,100 to income tax.

    Source

    Your own take-home pay after tax

    In a firm with employees the owner also needs paying. We cost your own pay the same way as for a sole trader, and the employees' costs come on top, spread over all the firm's billable hours.

    Real life: Many owners pay themselves what is left at the end of the month. If the rate does not cover your own pay, you are working for free managing other people.

    Source

    Pension savings

    We start at 8% of profit, the auto-enrolment minimum an employee gets. As a sole trader nobody pays in for you. Contributions to a personal pension or SIPP get income tax relief at your highest rate, but they do not reduce Class 4 National Insurance.

    Real life: An employed electrician on £39,000 gets at least about £2,600 a year into a workplace pension, £980 of it from the employer. Put nothing aside yourself and you rely on the State Pension, at most £241.30 a week from 67 or 68.

    Source

    Buffer in the business

    Bidmio's estimate: keep about 10% of turnover in the business for quiet months, customers who pay late or not at all, callbacks and new kit. Without a buffer every surprise comes out of your own pay.

    Real life: A main contractor goes into administration owing you £4,000 for two weeks' work. With a buffer you can take the hit and still pay yourself that month.

    Bidmio's estimate from typical figures. Change it to your own.

    Where you pay income tax

    Income tax bands differ: England, Wales and Northern Ireland use 20%, 40% and 45%; Scotland has six bands from 19% to 48% (2026/27). Where you live decides it, not where the job is. National Insurance, VAT and CIS are the same everywhere.

    Real life: A Scottish plumber with a profit of £50,000 pays about £1,500 a year more income tax than a plumber in Carlisle with the same profit, so the same take-home pay needs a slightly higher rate.

    Source

    Show 18 more explanations
    Employed tradespeople

    Each employee is costed with the median wage for the trade (ONS ASHE 2025), 5.6 weeks' holiday, employer's National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 (covered by the Employment Allowance for a small firm), a 3% workplace pension, insurance and a van.

    Real life: An employed painter on £16.17 an hour costs you about £29 per billable hour once holiday, sickness, pension, insurance and van are paid. Charge £35 and only about £6 an hour is left for the risk and your time.

    Source

    Apprentices

    An apprentice is costed at the apprentice minimum wage of £8.00 an hour (under 19 or in the first year), with college about one day a week, no employer's National Insurance under 25 and training costs paid by the government for 16 to 24-year-olds at employers in England that do not pay the Apprenticeship Levy (a pay bill under £3 million). Such employers also get a £2,000 hiring payment for a new apprentice aged 16 to 24 starting from 1 October 2026; the calculator leaves the one-off grants out.

    Real life: A first-year apprentice costs about £16 per billable hour once college days, holiday and kit are counted: cheap labour only if you keep them busy and teach them well.

    Source

    Hours per week

    We start at 40 hours a week on the tools and the admin around them. The median full-time tradesperson in the ONS survey works 39 to 40 basic hours.

    Real life: Many sole traders work 50 or 60 hours with quotes and invoices in the evening. That is fine for a while, but the rate should pay for a normal week, not just the long one.

    Source

    Weeks of holiday

    An employee has a legal right to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday including bank holidays. We count 4 weeks here and the bank holidays separately. As a sole trader you pay for your own holiday through your rate.

    Real life: Two weeks in the summer, one at Christmas and one more: four weeks with no customer paying you. If they are not in your rate, you are paying for your holiday twice.

    Source

    Bank holidays

    England and Wales have 8 bank holidays a year (1.6 weeks), Scotland 9 and Northern Ireland 10. Most customers do not want work done on them.

    Real life: Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year, Easter and the May and August bank holidays: over a week and a half in which nobody gets a bill from you.

    Source

    Sickness

    We count one week a year. An employee gets Statutory Sick Pay from the first day off; as a sole trader you get nothing, so the rate has to cover your sick days too.

    Real life: Flu in January and a bad back in the autumn: five working days without a bill. In construction, a back or knee problem often means much longer.

    Source

    Billable share of your time

    Bidmio's estimate per trade: a painter and decorator bills about 78% of working time, electricians and plumbers about 72%, because pricing visits, quotes, driving, the merchant and paperwork are paid by nobody.

    Real life: A free quote on a Saturday morning, an hour at the merchant on Monday and the invoices on Thursday evening: a day a week easily goes without a bill. Check your own diary for a month.

    Bidmio's estimate from typical figures. Change it to your own.

    Billable share of your own time

    As the owner your time goes on quotes, planning, ordering, managing people and talking to customers. We start at 50% with employees; set 0% if you are no longer on the tools.

    Real life: With two employees most owners spend half their day on the phone, at the merchant and on site meetings. That time still has to be paid for by the hours the team bills.

    Bidmio's estimate from typical figures. Change it to your own.

    Van, fuel and insurance

    The starting point comes from our van check for your trade: depreciation, interest, diesel, insurance, vehicle tax (£360 a year), servicing and tyres, excl. VAT. Diesel was 200.04p a litre incl. VAT in October 2026. Work out your own van in the van check.

    Real life: A painter's £26,000 van doing 12,000 miles a year at 38 mpg costs about £840 a month with everything counted. Many only count the finance payment or the fuel.

    Source

    Business insurance

    Bidmio's estimate for public liability (most main contractors want £2m to £5m of cover), tools in the van and legal expenses. Employers' liability is compulsory as soon as you employ someone and is costed in the employee check.

    Real life: A customer's ceiling comes down after a leak from your pipework. Without public liability you pay for the ceiling, the carpet and the hotel yourself.

    Source

    Tools and equipment

    Bidmio's estimate per month for replacing and repairing hand and power tools, ladders, workwear and PPE. Higher in trades with test equipment or heavy kit.

    Real life: A stolen set of cordless tools from the van costs £1,500 to £2,500 to replace, and the insurance excess comes first.

    Bidmio's estimate from typical figures. Change it to your own.

    Accountant and software

    Bidmio's estimate for an accountant and bookkeeping software. From 6 April 2026 sole traders with qualifying income over £50,000 must keep digital records and send quarterly updates under Making Tax Digital; from April 2027 it is £30,000, and HMRC says it will drop to £20,000 from April 2028. Qualifying income is turnover, not profit.

    Real life: A plumber turning over £60,000 has had to send HMRC quarterly updates from compatible software since April 2026. Receipts in a carrier bag at the end of the year no longer work.

    Source

    Phone and IT

    Bidmio's estimate for a phone contract, broadband, a laptop or tablet and the apps you use for quotes and invoices.

    Real life: Customers ring while you are up a ladder. A phone that works on site and an app for quotes save hours every week.

    Bidmio's estimate from typical figures. Change it to your own.

    Workshop and storage

    Bidmio's estimate for a lock-up, a storage unit or a share of a workshop for materials and kit. Zero if everything lives in the van and the garage.

    Real life: A small storage unit is often £60 to £150 a month; leftover paint and tiles in the van cost fuel and get damaged.

    Bidmio's estimate from typical figures. Change it to your own.

    Marketing and lead sites

    Bidmio's estimate for your website, Google profile, van signs and lead sites. Lead sites such as Checkatrade, MyBuilder and Rated People charge a membership or a fee per lead, whether or not you win the job.

    Real life: Pay for ten leads and win two jobs, and the cost of all ten has to come out of those two jobs.

    Bidmio's estimate from typical figures. Change it to your own.

    Training and memberships

    Bidmio's estimate for courses, card schemes and registrations: CSCS cards, wiring regulations updates, and competent person schemes such as NICEIC or NAPIT for electricians and Gas Safe for gas work, which you need to self-certify notifiable work under the building regulations.

    Real life: An electrician who self-certifies Part P work pays for scheme registration and assessment every year, and gas engineers renew their ACS qualifications every five years.

    Source

    Income protection

    Bidmio's estimate for income protection insurance. As a sole trader you get no Statutory Sick Pay, so a long illness or injury means no income unless you insure it yourself.

    Real life: A torn knee ligament can mean three months off the tools. With income protection part of your income keeps coming in; without it, you live on savings.

    Source

    Extra cost of a limited company

    Bidmio's estimate of what a limited company costs on top of a sole trader: annual accounts, the company tax return and payroll for your director's salary from an accountant, plus the Companies House confirmation statement and a business bank account.

    Real life: Many accountants charge £1,000 to £2,000 a year more for a limited company than for a sole trader's Self Assessment return.

    Bidmio's estimate from typical figures. Change it to your own.

    All sources

    2026/27 tax year

    Rates change every tax year on 6 April, and some at the Budget. We update the figures once the new rates are published, but always check your own numbers with your accountant.

    Why is my rate higher than what others charge?

    Most tradespeople only count the hours on site. The calculator adds holiday, bank holidays, sickness, time on quotes and driving, income tax, National Insurance, pension and running costs. Those are exactly the items that are often missing from the price.

    Are materials included in the hourly rate?

    No. Materials are charged to the customer separately, ideally with a markup. The hourly rate covers your labour and the running of the business.

    Does it work in Scotland?

    Yes. Choose Scotland in the first step and we use the Scottish income tax bands for 2026/27 (19% to 48%). National Insurance, VAT and the rest are the same across the UK.

    How accurate are the tax calculations?

    We use HMRC's 2026/27 rates for a sole trader: Personal Allowance £12,570 (tapered above £100,000), income tax bands and Class 4 National Insurance. It ignores things like Marriage Allowance or student loans, so check your own position with your accountant.

    Do you store my numbers?

    No. Everything is calculated in your browser and nothing is sent to a server. The share link only contains your take-home pay, your current rate and your tax region.

    Disclaimer

    All calculations are a guide only and may contain errors. Bidmio gives no guarantee for the result, and the calculation is not tax, accounting or legal advice. The figures show what it takes to run a healthy, profitable business on the assumptions you entered and typical UK rates for 2026/27. Your own situation may differ, so always check the figures with your accountant before making decisions.