Trade Rates: What We Ask For and Why
What quoting at trade rate means, what it doesn't, and how the number you submit becomes the number you are paid.
The short answer
We ask for your trade rate, not a discount. It is the price of the work without the cost of winning it.
In the Mortaro network you price each job at trade rate and submit it to us. We add our fee on top in the customer's quotation. You are paid your rate in full, and nothing is deducted from it.
Contractors reasonably ask three things about that. What does trade rate actually mean? Is it a polite way of asking them to work for less? And how does the customer's price still stack up once a fee is added? This page answers all three.
It sits alongside no upfront lead fees, explained, which covers how our fee works. This page is about your number.
Definition
What we mean by trade rate
Every price a contractor gives a homeowner directly carries two kinds of cost. The first is the cost of the work itself: materials, labour, access equipment, waste, the overheads of running the job and your profit on it. The second is the cost of winning and administering the job: the marketing that produced the enquiry, the calls and surveys that never converted, writing the quote up, chasing it, collecting the money.
Trade rate, as we use it, is the first without the second. It is a full, profitable price for doing the work, set by you. It is not a price below cost, and it is not a figure you would lose money on.
The reason we ask for it is straightforward. In the network, the second set of costs is carried by us. We generate the enquiry, qualify it, book the visit, prepare and issue the quotation, follow it up, handle the customer's communication and administer the payments. If your price still included the cost of doing all that yourself, the customer would be paying for it twice, and the quotation would be harder to win.
Side by side
What goes into each price
The left column is your trade rate. The right column is the work the network takes on instead.
In your trade rate
- Materials
- Labour
- Access equipment
- Waste removal
- Overheads for running the job
- Your profit on the work
Carried by the network
- Generating the enquiry
- Handling and qualifying the customer
- Booking the site visit
- Writing and presenting the quotation
- Chasing the quotation
- Customer communication mid-job
- Collecting deposits and balances
The customer's price
How the quotation is built
You submit your trade-rate price after the survey. We prepare a professional quotation for the customer under the Mortaro template, naming you as the appointed main contractor, and add our fee on top of your figure. The technical scope and the pricing remain yours.
Because the price starts from trade rather than from a figure loaded with marketing and admin costs, the customer can usually be quoted at around what they would expect going direct, with the coordination included. That matters to you, because a competitive quotation is one that gets accepted.
We don't claim to be the cheapest option, and we don't ask you to be. The aim is a fair price for good work, presented properly and followed up. The quotation stage is covered in more detail in what Mortaro handles for contractors.
Clearing it up
What trade rate means in practice
Three common assumptions, and how it actually works.
A full price for the work
We are not asking you to price below what the job is worth. A contractor pricing at a loss is under pressure from the first day on site, and that helps nobody: not you, not the customer and not us.
Your figure, paid in full
Our fee is added on top of your figure, not deducted from it. The number you submit is the number you are paid. Do you take a percentage? answers this in a line.
Priced by you, job by job
You price each job yourself after surveying it. The scope and the figure are yours, based on what you saw on site and what the work involves.
Getting it right
Pricing accurately at trade
The best trade-rate price is an accurate one. Price too high and the quotation is harder to win. Price too low and you end up doing the job for less than it is worth. Neither outcome is good for you, the customer or the network.
On smaller jobs, such as repairs and rooflight installations, we aim for your price to come back within about 48 hours of the visit. Those can usually be priced straight from what you saw on site. On larger projects, material prices move and suppliers can be slow to confirm, so an accurate figure can take longer. That is fine as long as you keep us informed. Quote turnaround expectations covers the detail.
If something about a job means you can't price it properly from the visit, say so early. A clear message about what you need is always more useful than a guess that has to be revised later.
What the customer sees
Your name, your scope, your warranty
The quotation the customer receives is a professional written document under the Mortaro template. It names you as the appointed main contractor, sets out the work as you have scoped it, and is valid for 30 days. The customer knows exactly who is doing the job before they commit to anything.
Your workmanship warranty is part of the same picture. Every contractor in the network provides a minimum of 12 months, and on larger works and full replacements the period is typically longer. The terms are yours to set, and they are confirmed in the customer's quotation. It is worth pricing with that in mind: the warranty is yours, so the rate should support it.
What the customer is buying, in the end, is your work, delivered through a process that keeps them informed. Your trade rate pays for the first part. Our fee pays for the second.
Scale
Trade rates on larger projects
The principle is the same on a full roof replacement or a larger domestic project as it is on a repair: you price the work at trade, we add our fee on top, and you are paid your rate in full. What changes is the time an accurate price takes.
Larger jobs usually mean more materials, more variables and more suppliers to hear back from. Material prices move, and a figure that was right last month may not be right today. We would much rather wait for a price you can stand behind than rush one that has to be revised after the customer has accepted it. That is why larger jobs can take longer than the 48-hour aim for smaller work, provided you tell us where things stand.
The payment structure also matters more at scale. The deposit is 25% of the quotation and is passed on to you without unnecessary delay once the customer pays it, which helps with materials at the start of a longer job. The balance follows on completion in the same way.
How much larger work comes your way depends on your area, your trade and your track record, as with everything else in the network. How opportunities are allocated explains how that builds over time.
Before you join
Four questions worth answering honestly
A quick way to tell whether pricing at trade rate will work for your business.
What does winning a job cost you now?
Add up your marketing, lead fees and subscriptions over a year and divide by the jobs you actually won. It is a number worth knowing whatever you decide. That is roughly the cost that comes out of your price at trade.
How much of your week goes on admin?
Calls, quote writing, chasing and payment reminders all take time you could spend on paid work. In the network, that time comes back to you.
Is there room in your pricing?
If your price to a homeowner already has almost nothing in it beyond the cost of the work and a fair profit, trade rate may leave you little to gain on margin. The benefit then is mostly time and prompt payment.
Can you meet the standards?
Same-day responses, quotes back promptly on smaller jobs, and turning up to the visits you accept. The trade-rate model depends on the network being reliable, and that depends on you. Response time standards sets them out.
Where the value is
Why a trade rate still pays
A job through the network costs you nothing to acquire. There is no lead fee, no share of anyone's marketing spend, no evenings spent writing quotes and no weeks spent chasing payment. Your rate is paid in full, and it is passed on without unnecessary delay. For many firms, that is worth more than a higher headline price that has to carry all of those costs itself.
From your price to your payment
What happens to the number you submit
You submit your trade rate
After the site visit, you send us your price and scope for the job.
It becomes the customer's quotation
We prepare the quotation with our fee added on top, name you as the appointed main contractor, issue it and follow it up.
The customer accepts and pays the deposit
The 25% deposit is paid by bank transfer, collected by Mortaro as payment administration agent and passed to you without unnecessary delay.
You carry out the work
We organise the start date and handle the customer's communication while you are on the tools.
The balance is paid to you
On completion the balance is passed to you the same way. You have received your rate in full, with no lead fee to set against it. How and when you get paid has the detail.
If your pricing has no room below what you would charge a homeowner directly, the trade-rate model won't work for you, and it is better to know that before you join. Some firms already run lean enough that there is little marketing or admin cost to take out. For them, the value is time saved rather than margin. Why contractors leave the network is honest about who the arrangement doesn't suit.
Straight answers
Questions about trade rates
What rate should I quote?
Your trade rate: a full, profitable price for the work, without the marketing, sales and admin costs the network carries for you. What rates do you expect? gives the short answer.
Is anything deducted from my rate?
No. Our fee is added on top in the customer's quotation. You are paid your rate in full.
Who sets the scope of the work?
You do. You survey the job and set the technical scope and the price. We present it to the customer in the quotation, naming you as the appointed main contractor, and we claim no technical authority over your trade.
Can I decline a job if the numbers don't work?
Yes. Declining an opportunity carries no penalty; we just need a reply. Can I choose which jobs I take? covers this.
Does your fee make the customer's price uncompetitive?
It is added on top of your trade rate. Because your rate doesn't carry marketing and admin costs, the customer can usually be quoted at around what they would expect going direct, with coordination included. We don't claim to be the cheapest. For how that fits the wider model, see how contractor networks work or the contractor network hub.
For contractors
Tell us about your business
Your trade, the areas you cover and the size of work you take on. A person reads every enquiry, and if it looks like a fit we will send you the full application.