Why Tradespeople in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA and South Africa Can Use Trade Profit App

TradeProfit was built in the UK, for tradespeople. But the problem it solves isn't a British problem. Electricians in Melbourne, plumbers in Auckland, carpenters in Toronto and contractors in Texas all face the same question at the end of every job: did I actually make any money on that?

The words are different from country to country. So are the currency, the taxes and the vehicle in the drive. The maths of profit is exactly the same, and TradeProfit sets itself up for the country you work in. This post explains how it works for tradespeople in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA, as well as Ireland and South Africa.

The maths of profit is the same everywhere

In every country, the true profit on a job is worked out the same way. Take the price the customer pays, excluding sales tax, and subtract every cost the job created:

•       Materials, including waste and consumables

•       Your own labour, at what your time really costs

•       Labourers, helpers and subcontractors

•       Travel and vehicle costs

•       Your share of the business overheads

What's left is your profit. It doesn't matter whether you're paid in pounds, dollars or anything else. The steps are the same, and so are the mistakes: underestimating labour, forgetting overheads, and treating the money left in the bank as profit. Our guide on how to work out the true profit on a job walks through the full calculation.

What changes from country to country, and how TradeProfit handles it

The first thing TradeProfit asks when you set it up is which country you work in, which currency you use, and whether you charge sales tax. Your answers set up the app for your country, including the correct currency and tax rate. Here's what that takes care of.

Currency

Pounds, euros, Australian dollars, New Zealand dollars, Canadian dollars, US dollars or South African rand. You choose your currency when you set up the app, and every figure is shown in it. Your profit, margin and hourly recovery are worked out exactly the same way, whatever the currency.

Miles or kilometres, litres or gallons

The UK and the USA measure distance in miles. Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa use kilometres. The way people buy fuel and measure fuel economy varies too. In the UK, for example, you buy fuel by the litre but measure your van's fuel economy in miles per gallon.

TradeProfit lets you choose how you price your fuel and how you measure fuel economy, and it does the conversion for you. You enter your figures the way you normally think about them, and the app works out your real vehicle cost for every mile or kilometre you drive.

Sales tax

The UK, Ireland and South Africa have VAT. Australia and New Zealand have GST. Canada has GST, and depending on the province, HST or a provincial sales tax as well. In the USA, sales tax is set by each state, and the rules on whether it applies to labour vary.

When you set up TradeProfit, you tell it whether you charge sales tax, and it selects the correct tax rate for your country. You don't need to look up rates or work them out yourself. Tax you collect from customers isn't your money, so it's never part of your profit.

Your vehicle

In the UK and Ireland it's a van. In Australia and New Zealand it's often a ute. In South Africa it's a bakkie. In Canada and the USA it's usually a truck. Whatever you drive, it costs you money for every mile or kilometre in fuel, finance, insurance, registration, servicing and tyres. TradeProfit turns those costs into a real cost per distance travelled, so travel is priced properly on every job.

The words people use

A British tradesperson takes on a labourer or a mate. An Aussie or Kiwi tradie takes on an offsider. An Irish tradesperson might take on a helper or a labourer. An American or Canadian contractor hires a helper. A UK quote might be called an estimate or a bid in North America. The names change, but the costs are the same, and they all need to be in your price.

For tradespeople in each country

United Kingdom

TradeProfit was designed around UK tradespeople: sole traders and small firms, pricing domestic and commercial work, often VAT registered, and working hard to cover rising van, fuel and insurance costs. Everything in the app works exactly as intended for UK trades.

Australia

Australian tradies face high vehicle and fuel costs, long travel distances in many areas, and GST on their invoices. Knowing the true cost of every kilometre and every hour matters just as much as it does in the UK, and in regional areas where travel is a big part of every job, it often matters more.

New Zealand

New Zealand tradespeople work with GST, kilometres and, outside the main cities, long drives between jobs. Many work as sole traders or in small teams, exactly the type of business TradeProfit was built for.

Canada

Canadian contractors deal with GST, HST or provincial sales tax depending on where they work, and a seasonal climate that can cut the number of working weeks in a year. Fewer working weeks means fewer chargeable hours to cover your overheads, which makes knowing your true costs even more important.

United States

American contractors work with miles, US dollars and state-by-state sales tax rules. Truck costs, insurance and licensing all add up, and in a competitive market it's easy to win bids at prices that don't cover them. The profit maths is exactly the same as it is for a UK electrician or plumber.

Ireland

Irish tradespeople work in euros, with VAT and kilometres. Rising costs for vans, fuel and insurance put the same pressure on prices as they do across the water in the UK, and the same pricing mistakes are just as common. TradeProfit works in euros and applies the Irish tax settings when you choose Ireland at setup.

South Africa

South African tradespeople work in rand, with VAT and kilometres. Fuel and vehicle costs make up a large share of the cost of many jobs, especially where travel distances are long, so knowing the true cost of every kilometre makes a real difference to your profit. TradeProfit works in rand and applies the South African tax settings when you choose South Africa at setup.

The problems are the same everywhere too

In every one of these countries, many tradespeople:

•       Set their hourly rate by copying competitors instead of working it out from their own costs

•       Leave overheads out of their rate

•       Assume every working hour can be charged to a customer

•       Guess job times instead of breaking jobs into tasks

•       Never compare what a job was estimated to take with what it actually took

Our guides on why your hourly rate is not the same as your wage and how overheads affect what you need to charge use UK pounds in their examples, but the method works in any currency. Swap in your own figures and the results are just as accurate.

Setting up TradeProfit outside the UK

1.    Choose your country. This is the first question the app asks.

2.    Choose your currency. Every figure in the app is then shown in it.

3.    Say whether you charge sales tax. TradeProfit selects the correct tax rate for your country.

4.    Choose how you price fuel and measure fuel economy. The app does the conversions for you.

5.    Set your rates: your hourly rate, overheads, vehicle costs and working days. Set your working days realistically for where you work, allowing for public holidays and any seasonal downtime.

6.    Include every helper or offsider in the labourer cost on each job.

That's it. From then on, every job works exactly the same way as it does for a UK user, in your currency and with your tax rate.

The short version

Currency, distance, sales tax and trade language change from country to country. The way you work out profit doesn't. Tell TradeProfit where you work, which currency you use, whether you charge sales tax and how you price your fuel, and it sets itself up for you and does the conversions. It then shows you the true profit on every job, whether you work in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA or South Africa.

Know your real profit, wherever you work

Choose your country, your currency and your tax settings, and TradeProfit is ready for where you work. It shows your true profit on every job after labour, materials, vehicle, travel, overheads and helper costs. See your forecast profit before you quote, log the actual figures when you finish, and compare the two. Your dashboard shows your average profit and hourly recovery across all your work. It's free for your first 10 jobs, and no credit card is needed.

Want to go further? The practical business guides from Trade Skills Hub Academy are written for the UK, but the principles apply in most English-speaking countries. The Complete Guide to Estimating for Tradespeople shows you how to build your own labour-time database from your real jobs, wherever you work.