ESS BIZTOOLS Trades Industry - Welcome Letter

Thank you for your interest in the ESS BIZTOOLS Trades Charge-Out Rate Calculator.

In this Welcome Letter, we are giving you an overview of the Trades Charge-Out Rate Calculator developed by ESS BIZTOOLS and the resources available to assist accounting, bookkeeping and business advisory firms to help their trades clients establish charge-out rates designed to generate their targeted profitability.

The Trades Charge-Out Rate Calculator is available as a Standalone Package, providing your firm with a practical tool that can be utilised as part of the Financial / Commercial / Management Accounting Advisory Services you provide to SME clients.

1. HELPING YOU BECOME YOUR CLIENTS' “KEY STRATEGIC PARTNER”

ESS BIZTOOLS has developed a comprehensive range of Financial / Commercial / Management Accounting Advisory Services to assist Accountancy, Bookkeeping, Business Advisory and Chief Financial Officer Firms to deliver Business Enhancing Services to Small Medium Enterprises.

Our objective is to supply services which will encourage SMEs to rate their professional advisor – YOU – as their “KEY STRATEGIC PARTNER”, in accordance with the definition utilised by Intuit QuickBooks in its “SMB Navigator Report 2025”:

Key Strategic Partner – “They are a key partner in our business and our ‘go-to’ professional for advice, and they are extremely valuable to our business’s growth and success.”

Helping a trades business establish appropriate charge-out rates is a practical example of an advisory service that moves beyond traditional taxation and compliance work.

It gives your firm an opportunity to work directly with clients on pricing, productivity, costs and profitability – areas that can have a significant impact on the financial performance of their businesses.

2. ABOUT THE TRADES CHARGE-OUT RATE CALCULATOR

One of the most important questions for any trades business is:

“Are we charging enough for the services we provide to generate our targeted profit?”

Setting an appropriate charge-out rate involves considerably more than simply looking at what competitors are charging.

Customers may consider price, but they can also consider factors such as:

Reliability
Quality
Technical and backup services
Reputation
Punctuality
Tidiness
Location
Guarantees
Refund policies

These factors can influence the value customers place on the services being provided and should be considered as part of the overall pricing strategy.

The mathematical calculation then needs to reflect the actual financial and operational dynamics of the trades business.

The ESS BIZTOOLS Trades Charge-Out Rate Calculator has been developed to provide a structured approach to this process.

3. WHAT DOES THE TRADES CHARGE-OUT RATE CALCULATOR CONSIDER?

The calculator assists in determining appropriate charge-out rates by considering key information relating to individual team members or categories of team members.

Labour Costs

The calculation considers:

Salary and wages
Labour on-costs
Total paid working hours
Leave
Training and professional development
Other non-chargeable activities

This helps establish the actual employment cost associated with the people delivering services to customers.

Productive and Chargeable Hours

Not every hour for which an employee is paid can be charged to a customer.

The calculator therefore considers the estimated productivity percentage of available working hours to determine the chargeable hours expected from individual team members or employment categories.

This is important because an unrealistic productivity assumption can result in a charge-out rate that is insufficient to generate the required revenue.

Overhead Expenses

A budget of the business's overhead expenses should be prepared and regularly reviewed.

These expenses form part of the cost structure that needs to be recovered through the business's operations.

Purchases and Mark-Ups

Many trades businesses purchase products and materials on behalf of customers.

The mark-up earned on these purchases can be incorporated into the calculations and may be treated as additional profit or used to partly or fully subsidise the required charge-out rates.

Targeted Profit

An important question at the beginning of the process is:

“What profit does the business owner want the business to generate?”

The targeted profit can be based on factors such as the estimated value of the business and the owner's targeted rate of return or another agreed monetary target.

This profit target is separate from the salary or remuneration paid to the business owner for their role as a member of the Key Leadership Team.

4. DETERMINING THE REQUIRED CHARGE-OUT RATE

The ESS BIZTOOLS approach incorporates the relevant information for each team member or employment category to calculate a charge-out rate designed to contribute towards the business achieving its targeted profit.

The calculation considers the interaction between:

Wages and salaries
Labour on-costs
Available working hours
Non-chargeable hours
Productivity percentages
Chargeable hours
Overhead expenses
Mark-ups on external purchases
Targeted profit

An overall Proof Summary is then produced.

The Proof Summary identifies the projected:

Revenue
Labour costs and labour on-costs
Overhead expenses
Treatment of mark-ups on external purchases
Overall targeted profit

This provides the business owner with a clearer understanding of how the proposed charge-out rates relate to the financial objectives of the business.

5. INFORMATION PROVIDED FOR EACH TEAM MEMBER CATEGORY

The calculation provides key information for individual team members or employment categories, including:

Labour on-costs
Salary/wages
Paid working hours estimated for the year
Leave, training and professional development time
Networking hours
Calculated charge-out rate
Projected annual income for the category

This provides a structured basis for discussing pricing and productivity with your trades clients.

6. MONTHLY MONITORING – DON'T WAIT UNTIL YEAR-END

Calculating the charge-out rate at the beginning of the year is only part of the process.

An important component of this advisory service is the monthly monitoring of actual hours worked and productivity.

Actual performance should be compared with the assumptions used when the original charge-out rates were calculated.

If the actual productivity percentage for an employment category or individual team member differs significantly from the original estimate, a revised charge-out rate calculation can be prepared.

This allows the business to consider making appropriate pricing adjustments during the financial year rather than discovering after year-end that potential revenue has been lost.

This ongoing monitoring provides another opportunity for your firm to maintain regular advisory discussions with the client.

7. PREPARATION FOR THE DELIVERY OF SERVICES

As a subscriber to the Trades Charge-Out Rate Calculator Standalone Package, you will also receive access to selected ESS BIZTOOLS communication resources.

Business Insights

Short articles identifying practical business issues on which accountants and bookkeepers can provide advice to SME clients.

Subscribers can utilise these resources to help demonstrate that their firm can assist clients with a broader range of Financial / Commercial / Management Accounting Advisory Services.

Business Plus Newsletter

Business Plus provides practical information targeted at SMEs and can assist your firm in communicating with clients and prospects about important business and financial management issues.

Subscribers are invited to badge the newsletter with their firm's name and distribute it to clients and prospects.

These resources can help reinforce the message that your firm can provide valuable business advice in addition to traditional taxation and compliance services.

8. TRAINING RESOURCES

Training Support – Trades Charge-Out Rate Calculator

Training resources will assist you and your team to understand the methodology behind the Trades Charge-Out Rate Calculator and how the calculations can be utilised when assisting trades clients.

Members' Training

ESS BIZTOOLS is planning to present 42 training webinars over the full financial year, covering all aspects of the ESS BIZTOOLS Product Packages and ongoing issues confronting SMEs.

You will receive notifications of the training program, and we would like to see as many of your team members as possible attending the training webinars, with particular emphasis on developing “PRODUCT CHAMPIONS” within your firm.

Additional Training

You can request additional training in any aspect of the services provided by ESS BIZTOOLS.

You can access details of the additional training available and the investment by clicking here.

9. LICENCE AGREEMENT

Every new member/subscriber of ESS BIZTOOLS is required to agree to our Licence Agreement.

You can access the Licence Agreement by clicking here.

If you have questions on any aspect of the Licence Agreement, please do not hesitate to contact our Managing Director, Peter Towers, on telephone 0418 190 181.

10. TALENT ATTRACTION AND RETENTION

Attracting and retaining good people is becoming one of the biggest challenges facing our profession.

The new generation of accountants is looking for opportunities to develop skills beyond traditional taxation and compliance services.

Financial / Commercial / Management Accounting Advisory Services introduce team members to important business issues that SMEs need assistance with to survive and thrive.

Helping a trades client analyse its costs, productivity, pricing and targeted profitability is a practical example of the type of commercially focused advisory work that can broaden the skills and experience of your team.

Offering these Advisory Services can therefore assist Accountancy and Bookkeeping firms in the attraction and retention of talent.

11. PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS WE HAVEN'T ANSWERED

You can BOOK A DEMO – please complete the form and we will contact you to confirm a convenient time for a short meeting.

If you require any other information on ESS BIZTOOLS services designed to assist Accountants and Bookkeepers to deliver an outstanding range of Advisory Services, please complete the Contact Us form on the Homepage.

Thank you for your interest in the ESS BIZTOOLS Trades Charge-Out Rate Calculator.

If you would like to review the other major packages developed by ESS BIZTOOLS – the Starter Package, Advanced Package or Financial Forecasting Package – please return to Packages and Pricing and select the package you would like to review.

If you are interested in reviewing the other Standalone Product Packages developed by ESS BIZTOOLS, please return to Packages and Pricing – Standalone Product Packages, where you can review details of the standalone packages currently available.

We look forward to being of service to you and your colleagues within your firm.

12. READY TO SUBSCRIBE?

If you are ready to subscribe to the Trades Charge-Out Rate Calculator or another package of your choice, please click “SUBSCRIBE NOW” and complete the subscription form.

You will then be able to log on to your selected package within 24 hours, except on weekends when activation may take a little longer.

13. THANK YOU FOR VISITING ESS BIZTOOLS

Thank you for taking the time to review the Trades Charge-Out Rate Calculator developed by ESS BIZTOOLS.

We look forward to helping your firm provide practical, commercially focused Advisory Services that can assist trades clients to establish appropriate charge-out rates and work towards achieving their targeted profitability.

Have a great day!

Kind regards

Peter Towers
Founder and Managing Director
Telephone: 0418 190 181
Email:
Website: www.essbiztools.com.au

Trades Industry

Product Overview

A practical charge-out-rate and profitability framework for helping tradie clients connect labour productivity, wages, overheads, materials mark-up and targeted profit to the rates they charge.

Trades Industry gives accounting firms a structured way to help tradie clients move beyond setting charge-out rates by looking at competitors or simply increasing last year’s rates.

The centrepiece is the Tradies Charge Out Rate Calculator. It works from the economics of the individual trades business: employment classifications, wages and salaries, labour on-costs, paid hours, expected productivity percentages, chargeable hours, overhead expenses, materials purchased for clients, materials mark-up, work write-ups or write-downs and the owner’s targeted return or profit.

The calculator then determines the base cost per chargeable hour, the business overhead factor and the individual charge-out rate for each team-member classification. Separate proof schedules show whether the calculated charge-out rates and chargeable hours reconcile with the targeted income from labour and the forecast profitability of the business.

The supplied paper extends the calculator into an ongoing advisory process. It recommends monitoring individual team-member productivity, actual wages and labour on-costs, overhead expenditure, materials mark-up and the client’s targeted profitability. If those assumptions change during the year, the accountant can rerun the calculation and discuss whether future non-quoted charge-out rates need to be adjusted.

The package also includes a completed example calculator and a video explaining that example, giving your team a practical reference when introducing the system to clients. The included multi-sheet SME Needs Analysis workbook can be used as a broader front-end discovery tool where the client’s business-advisory priorities have not yet been fully identified.

The supplied ZIP contains five distinct files with no exact duplicates: the Procedure Control Form, detailed Setting Charge Out Rates for Trades paper, blank calculator, completed example calculator and SME Needs Analysis workbook.

Employment entitlements, superannuation, payroll tax, workers compensation, long-service-leave arrangements and other labour on-costs can change and may vary by jurisdiction or award. Current applicable rates and obligations should therefore be used whenever the calculator is completed for a live client.

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Key Benefits

Replace rule-of-thumb hourly pricing with a financial model that shows what each labour classification needs to recover — and then monitor the assumptions throughout the year.

Use the Procedure Control Form to introduce the Tradies Charge Out Rate Calculator to clients and prospects in a consistent way.

Use the detailed Setting Charge Out Rates for Trades paper to explain the commercial logic behind the calculator.

Move clients away from competitor-based pricing and arbitrary annual increases.

Explain why price is only one part of the customer’s buying decision and why reliability, quality, punctuality, reputation and service can support a stronger pricing position.

Calculate labour on-costs for permanent full-time, permanent part-time and casual employees.

Allow for current leave, superannuation, workers compensation, payroll tax, training, long-service-leave and other applicable employment costs.

Build a labour budget for each team-member classification using wages or salaries, paid hours and expected productivity.

Calculate targeted chargeable hours from individual and overall team productivity assumptions.

Calculate the Targeted Business Productivity Percentage for the workforce.

Establish the client’s targeted profit or return on the net investment in the business.

Prepare a detailed annual overhead budget and connect those overheads to the labour-recovery calculation.

Estimate annual materials purchased on behalf of customers and apply the client’s targeted materials mark-up.

Decide how much of the materials mark-up will subsidise labour charge-out rates and how much will remain as additional business profit.

Allow for expected work write-ups or write-downs in the labour-recovery calculation.

Calculate the total targeted income that needs to be recovered from the sale of labour.

Calculate the base cost per chargeable hour for each labour classification.

Calculate the Business Overhead Factor required to recover the total labour target.

Calculate individual trades-business labour charge-out rates for each team-member classification.

Use a Proof of Charge Out Rates schedule to confirm that calculated rates multiplied by chargeable hours produce the required labour income.

Use the Proof of Budgeted Profitability schedule to confirm that the overall financial model reconciles with the targeted business profit.

Use the supplied completed example calculator and explanatory video to understand how the calculation works before applying it to a client.

Monitor team-member productivity, actual wages, labour on-costs, overheads and materials mark-up throughout the financial year.

Recalculate future non-quoted charge-out rates when the assumptions used in the original model materially change.

Use monthly financial accounts and Key Performance Indicators to compare actual performance with the assumptions used to establish the rates.

Create a natural pathway into budgeting, cashflow forecasting, management reporting, KPI analysis and broader trades-business advisory work.

Who is This Product For

Designed for accounting and bookkeeping firms advising trades businesses that charge customers for labour and need a stronger financial basis for determining hourly charge-out rates and monitoring whether those rates are producing the targeted profit.

Accounting and bookkeeping firms with tradie clients that charge customers for labour by the hour or by labour classification.

Advisers working with electricians, plumbers, carpenters, painters, roofers, fabricators, repair businesses and other trade-based SMEs.

Practices helping clients that currently set charge-out rates by copying competitors or adding a percentage to last year’s rate.

Accountants helping tradie clients calculate the true cost of employing different categories of team members.

Advisers helping clients understand how employee productivity changes the amount of labour cost that must be recovered from chargeable work.

Firms helping businesses establish realistic chargeable-hour targets for individual team members and labour classifications.

Practices helping owners connect annual overhead expenses to the labour rates charged to customers.

Accountants helping tradies decide how materials mark-up should contribute to overall business profitability.

Advisers helping owners establish a targeted profit or return on the capital invested in the business.

Firms wanting to introduce monthly financial accounts and KPIs as a follow-on service after the initial charge-out-rate calculation.

Practices helping clients recalculate rates during the financial year when wages, productivity, overheads or other assumptions materially change.

Resources Included

The supplied Trades Industry archive contains five distinct files with no exact duplicates: the Trades Industry Procedure Control Form, detailed Setting Charge Out Rates for Trades paper, blank Tradies Charge Out Rate Calculator, completed example calculator and the multi-sheet SME Needs Analysis workbook.

The package is compact because the main value sits inside the linked charge-out-rate calculator and the detailed methodology supporting it. The Procedure Control Form also provides a direct example video showing the calculator in use.

Read Comprehensive Breakdown on this Package

Trades Industry gives accounting and bookkeeping firms a practical set of resources for helping tradie clients establish charge-out rates that reflect the real financial requirements of their business.

The package combines a detailed trades pricing paper, the Tradies Charge Out Rate Calculator, a completed calculator example, a Procedure Control Form and SME Needs Analysis material. Together, these resources provide a structured pathway from the initial client discussion through to calculating appropriate labour charge-out rates and monitoring whether the underlying assumptions are being achieved.

Move Beyond Competitor-Based Charge-Out Rates

Many trades businesses determine their hourly rates by looking at what competitors charge or by increasing last year’s rate without first calculating what the business actually needs to recover.

The Trades Industry resources provide a stronger basis for that discussion by connecting charge-out rates with the individual economics of the client’s business, including:

Wages and salaries
Labour on-costs
Available working hours
Team-member productivity
Chargeable hours
Business overheads
Materials and subcontract costs
Materials mark-up
Targeted profitability

This allows your firm to help the client understand why the rate required by their business may be quite different from a competitor’s rate.

Tradies Charge Out Rate Calculator

The Tradies Charge Out Rate Calculator is the central working resource within the package.

It provides a structured model for bringing together the client’s workforce costs, productivity assumptions, overhead expenses, materials strategy and profit objectives to determine appropriate charge-out rates for different categories of team members.

Rather than applying one generic hourly rate across the business, the calculator allows different labour classifications to be considered according to their own cost and productivity characteristics.

Understand the True Cost of Employing Team Members

The calculator helps the adviser work beyond the employee’s basic wage or salary and consider the additional costs associated with employing different categories of team members.

Depending on the client and current requirements, these may include:

Leave entitlements
Superannuation
Workers compensation
Payroll tax where applicable
Training and professional development
Long-service-leave arrangements
Other relevant employment costs

The resources provide for permanent full-time, permanent part-time and casual employees, allowing the adviser to build a more realistic picture of the client’s labour costs.

Turn Productivity into a Financial Target

A trades business generally pays team members for more hours than it can directly charge to customers.

Time may also be required for travel, supervision, administration, training, maintenance, cleaning and other non-chargeable activities.

The calculator therefore incorporates productivity assumptions so the client can establish realistic chargeable-hour expectations for individual team members and labour classifications.

This gives management a measurable productivity target rather than assuming that every paid hour will be recovered from customers.

Recover Business Overheads

Charge-out rates need to contribute towards more than direct labour costs.

The resources help the client bring annual business overheads into the pricing discussion so the rates charged for labour contribute towards the wider cost of operating the business.

This can include the substantial range of administration, premises, vehicles, systems, insurance and other overhead expenses required to support a trades operation.

Build the Owner’s Profit Objective into the Model

The pricing process also considers the profit or return the owner wants the business to achieve.

This helps separate:

The cost of the owner working in and managing the business
The additional return expected from owning and investing capital in the business

The resulting charge-out-rate model therefore aims to support the client’s profitability objective rather than merely recover wages and operating expenses.

Consider Materials Mark-Up

Materials purchased on behalf of customers can make an important contribution to the overall profitability of a trades business.

The resources help the adviser discuss:

Expected materials purchases
The client’s mark-up policy
The contribution materials make towards business profitability
How materials margins interact with the labour-pricing strategy

This allows labour and materials to be considered together as part of the overall financial model.

Consider Subcontracted Work

The supporting material also encourages the client to establish an appropriate commercial policy for subcontracted work.

This helps ensure subcontractor costs and the associated margin are considered deliberately rather than simply passed through to customers without understanding their effect on profitability.

Allow for Different Team-Member Classifications

Apprentices, qualified tradespeople, supervisors and other team members can have very different employment costs and levels of chargeable productivity.

The calculator allows these differences to be reflected when determining appropriate charge-out rates, giving management a more meaningful pricing structure across the workforce.

Check Whether the Proposed Rates Support the Financial Target

The calculator includes checking and proof schedules that allow the adviser to test whether the proposed charge-out rates and chargeable-hour assumptions are consistent with the client’s overall financial objectives.

This gives the accountant and client a clearer basis for discussing whether the proposed rates are commercially realistic before they are implemented.

Completed Calculator Example

A completed example of the Tradies Charge Out Rate Calculator is included to demonstrate how the different parts of the model work together.

The example provides a useful reference for partners and team members before they begin entering the financial assumptions of an individual client.

Supporting Calculator Example Video

The Procedure Control Form also provides access to an explanatory video that works through the completed calculator example.

This provides additional guidance for understanding how the charge-out-rate methodology can be applied before using the calculator in a client engagement.

Monitor Productivity After the Rates Are Set

The process is not intended to finish once a new set of charge-out rates has been calculated.

The supporting material encourages the client and adviser to monitor measures such as:

Team-member productivity
Chargeable hours
Actual wages and employment costs
Business overheads
Materials margins
Overall profitability

This allows management to determine whether the assumptions used when establishing the rates are being achieved in practice.

Review Charge-Out Rates During the Financial Year

If productivity, employment costs, overhead expenses, materials margins or profitability expectations change materially, the charge-out-rate model can be reviewed again.

This gives your firm an opportunity to help the client make adjustments during the financial year rather than discovering after year end that the rates being charged were insufficient.

Connect Charge-Out Rates with Monthly Financial Reporting

The charge-out-rate calculation provides a strong foundation for introducing regular management reporting.

Monthly Financial Accounts and Key Performance Indicators can help the client compare actual results with the assumptions used to establish the rates and identify areas requiring management attention.

This creates a natural ongoing advisory role around:

Labour productivity
Overhead control
Gross margins
Profitability
Financial targets

SME Needs Analysis

The package also includes the SME Needs Analysis workbook, providing a broader framework for discussing the client’s business and identifying areas where additional assistance may be required.

The Needs Analysis can help your firm explore issues involving:

Current business performance
Finance and capital requirements
Future planning
Risk management
Succession
Business improvement
Other business advisory services

This makes it useful as a front-end conversation before or alongside the charge-out-rate engagement.

Suitable for a Wide Range of Trades Businesses

The methodology can be applied across many labour-based trades and service businesses where team-member time needs to be recovered through customer charge-out rates.

This can include businesses such as:

Electrical
Plumbing
Carpentry
Painting
Roofing
Fabrication
Automotive repair
Equipment repair and maintenance
Other trade and technical service businesses

A Repeatable Trades Profitability Advisory Service

Together, the Trades Industry resources allow your firm to turn the question “What should I charge per hour?” into a broader profitability discussion.

Your firm can help the client establish financially supportable charge-out rates, set productivity expectations and then monitor whether the business is achieving the assumptions behind those rates.

This creates a natural pathway into Monthly Financial Accounts, Key Performance Indicators, budgets, cashflow forecasts, productivity analysis and broader business advisory services for trades clients.

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This Product Comes With...

Resource Highlights

Trades Industry – Tradies Charge Out Rate Calculator Procedure Control Form

Paper 165-010 – Setting Charge Out Rates for Trades

Form 165-010a – Setting Trade Charge Out Rates Calculator

Form 165-010a – Completed Setting Trade Charge Out Rates Calculator Example

BAS017A – Multi-sheet SME Needs Analysis workbook

Calculation of Labour On-Costs

Calculation of Labour Budget

Targeted Business Productivity

Return on Investment / Targeted Profit

Budgeted Overhead Expenses

Budgeted Materials Mark-Up

Work Write-Ups / Write-Downs

Targeted Income from Sale of Labour

Calculation of Base Time Costs

Calculation of Business Overhead Factor

Calculation of Trades Business Labour Charge-Out Rates

Proof of Charge-Out Rates

Proof of Budgeted Profitability

Example Calculator explanatory video

Supporting Resources

Training Included

The package does not identify a separate formal live training program. The Procedure Control Form, detailed trades pricing paper, completed example calculator and explanatory example video provide practical self-guided training for partners and team members before they use the calculator with clients.

The strongest ongoing learning process is to compare the calculator assumptions with actual monthly productivity, labour costs, overheads and profitability, then rerun the model where significant differences emerge.

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Business Insights

Explore related ESS BIZTOOLS material covering SME Needs Analysis, budgets and cashflow forecasts, management accounts, KPI monitoring, business profitability, labour productivity and the wider financial-management issues affecting trades businesses.

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