Daywork Sheets for Trade Businesses UK 2026 — How to Charge Time-and-Materials Work and Actually Get Paid

When Does Daywork Apply?

Daywork is the basis you fall back on when a fixed price isn't possible or fair. On a fixed-price job you carry the risk of the scope being bigger than expected; on daywork the customer carries it, because they pay for the actual time and materials used. Knowing which situations call for daywork keeps you from accidentally absorbing variable work into a fixed number.

• Extras and variations: The customer asks for additional work outside the original quote — an extra socket, moving a radiator, a second coat. Anything the fixed price didn't cover is daywork unless you re-quote it.
• Undefinable work: Chasing a leak, tracing a fault, hacking off loose plaster "until you hit something solid" — work where neither party can sensibly predict how long it takes.
• Insurance and repair jobs: Reinstatement and make-good work is frequently authorised on a daywork basis because the loss adjuster pays for actual work done, supported by records.
• Opening-up work: Investigating a problem before anyone can price the fix — lifting floorboards, removing panels, exposing pipework.
• Urgent call-outs: Emergency work where there's no time to survey and quote before you start.

The golden rule: agree the daywork rate before you start, not after. A customer who has signed off your hourly rate and markup in advance has very little room to argue about the total once the work is done and the sheets are signed.

What a Good Daywork Sheet Records

A daywork sheet only does its job if it captures enough detail to justify every pound on the eventual invoice. The whole point is that the customer can read it and see exactly what they're paying for. A vague sheet that just says "labour — 1 day" invites a dispute; a detailed one closes it down before it starts. Every daywork sheet should capture the following.

• Date and site: The specific day and the property or job reference. One sheet per day is the cleanest approach.
• Operatives and their hours: Each person by name, their start and finish times, and the chargeable hours — separating skilled and labourer rates where they differ.
• Labour rate: The agreed hourly or day rate for each grade of operative, shown clearly so the maths is visible.
• Plant and equipment: Any hired or owned plant used on the day — breakers, dehumidifiers, scaffold towers, access platforms — with its charge rate.
• Materials with markup: Every fitting, length, fixing and consumable, with quantities. Materials are normally charged at cost plus a markup (commonly 10–20%) to cover procurement, handling and waste.
• Description of work: A plain-English account of what was actually done — "chased out and reran cold feed to bathroom, made good plaster" — not just "plumbing".
• Site signature: The name, signature and date of whoever authorised the work on site, confirming the record is accurate.

Sample Daywork Sheet Layout

Here's a realistic layout for a single day's daywork on a domestic repair job. Keep the structure consistent across every sheet so the customer — and your bookkeeper — always knows where to look.

Underneath the figures, leave space for the description of work and a signature box. The signature is the single most important part of the document — without it, every line above is just your word against the customer's.

Getting Sheets Signed On Site

An unsigned daywork sheet is barely worth the paper it's printed on. The signature is what converts your record of the day into an agreed record of the day. Get the client — or, on a larger job, the main contractor's site manager — to sign the sheet at the end of each day, while the work is fresh in everyone's mind.

Make it routine, not awkward. "Can you just sign off today's sheet before I head off?" said every day becomes normal and expected. Hand over a copy or send a photo there and then so the customer has the same record you do. On commercial sites the convention is often that signing confirms the hours and materials are correct but does not by itself confirm the rates — those should already be agreed in writing — so the signature simply verifies what happened, which is exactly what you want.

If the person on site won't sign, that's a warning sign you need to deal with immediately, not at invoicing time. Ask why. If they dispute a figure, resolve it on the day while you can still point at the work. A signature you chase three weeks later, by email, after the customer has had time to develop second thoughts, is worth far less.

Daily vs Weekly Submission

How often you submit sheets depends on the job and the customer, but the principle is the same: the shorter the gap between doing the work and recording it being agreed, the stronger your position.

• Daily: Best practice for most daywork. One sheet, signed at the end of each day. Memory is fresh, disputes surface immediately, and nothing accumulates.
• Weekly: Common on longer contracts and commercial sites, where a summary sheet covering the week is submitted to the contractor by an agreed cut-off (often Friday or Monday morning). Even with weekly submission, capture the detail daily — don't reconstruct a week from memory.

On a main-contractor job, find out the submission deadline and stick to it religiously. Sheets handed in late are easy for a quantity surveyor to push back to the following valuation, which delays your money. On time, signed, and detailed is what gets paid.

How Daywork Differs From a Fixed Quote

The two pricing models put the risk in completely different places, and confusing them is how trades lose money. On a fixed quote you bear the risk of the scope ballooning; on daywork the customer does. The table below sets out the practical differences.

The most common — and most expensive — mistake is letting fixed-price jobs drift into daywork territory without telling anyone. The customer asks for "just one more thing", you do it to keep them happy, and you never paper it. Every variation is daywork. The moment a request falls outside the quote, start a sheet.

Common Disputes and How Signed Sheets Prevent Them

Almost every daywork dispute comes down to one of a small number of arguments, and a properly completed, signed sheet defuses each of them. Here are the ones you'll meet most often.

• "That should have been in the original price." A signed sheet describing work plainly outside the quoted scope shows it was an extra the customer asked for and approved.
• "It can't have taken that long." Recorded start and finish times, signed off daily, remove the room for "you only did half a day" arguments weeks later.
• "I never agreed to that rate." Defeated before it starts if your rates are agreed in writing first and the sheet references them.
• "Why am I paying markup on materials?" Explained up front and shown transparently on the sheet, markup is normal trade practice; hidden, it looks like you're padding the bill.
• "I don't recognise these charges." Hard to say when the customer's own signature is on every sheet and they had a copy on the day.

The pattern is clear: disputes thrive on delay and vagueness, and signed daily sheets kill both. The signature isn't bureaucracy — it's the cheapest insurance you'll ever buy against working for nothing.

Turning Sheets Into Accurate Invoices

Daywork sheets are the raw material your invoice is built from. If they're complete and signed, invoicing is a transcription job, not a reconstruction job. Pull the labour hours, plant, and marked-up materials straight off the signed sheets, total them, add VAT, and attach the sheets as supporting detail.

Attaching the signed sheets to the invoice does two things. It shows the customer the working behind the figure, which speeds up approval, and it gives you a complete evidence trail if the invoice is ever queried or you have to chase payment. A bare invoice for "daywork — £2,400" invites questions; the same figure backed by five signed daily sheets gets paid.

This is also where doing it digitally pays off. Capturing hours, materials and a signature on a phone on site — then having those flow straight through to a draft invoice — removes the re-keying step where errors and forgotten items creep in. You can see how time-and-materials work flows from site record to invoice in the Trade2Base demo dashboard, or start tracking your own jobs in minutes.

Daywork Sheets vs Staff Timesheets

It's worth being precise about this because the two get muddled. A staff timesheet records an employee's hours for the purpose of paying them — it feeds payroll, holiday and overtime. A daywork sheet records work for the purpose of charging the customer — it feeds the invoice. The same hour worked might appear on both documents, but they serve opposite ends of the money flow.

The practical implication: a daywork sheet shows charge-out rates and material markup, because it's a billing record. A timesheet shows pay rates, because it's a payroll record. Don't hand a customer a timesheet, and don't run payroll off a daywork sheet. Keep them as two separate documents doing two separate jobs.

Quick Reference: Daywork Sheet Checklist

Before you submit any daywork sheet, run it against this list. A sheet that ticks every box is one that gets paid without an argument.

• Date and site reference present
• Every operative named, with start, finish and chargeable hours
• Agreed labour rate per grade shown
• Plant and equipment listed with charge rates
• Materials itemised with quantities, cost and markup
• Plain-English description of the work actually done
• Signed and dated by the person who authorised it on site
• Copy given to the customer on the day
• Submitted by the agreed daily or weekly deadline