Set Hourly and Day Rates for Engineers
Trade2Base lets you set individual billable rates for every engineer on your team — hourly, half-day, or full-day. Rates flow automatically into quotes so your pricing is always accurate, and the engineer cost vs revenue report shows you exactly how profitable each team member is.
Where to find engineer rates
Go to Team in the left-hand sidebar. Click on an engineer's name to open their profile, then select the Rates tab. This is where you set and edit all billable rates for that individual. Each engineer can have completely different rates — useful if you employ a mix of apprentices, qualified engineers, and senior specialists.
Only account Owners and Admins can view or edit engineer rates. Engineers themselves cannot see their own rate settings.
Setting hourly, half-day, and day rates
Enter the rate you charge customers per hour for this engineer. Trade2Base uses this when you add a labour line item to a quote and specify a number of hours.
Set a flat rate for jobs that take roughly half a day (typically up to 4 hours). Choosing half-day on a quote line item applies this fixed amount rather than calculating hourly.
Enter a full-day flat rate. This is ideal for larger jobs where you quote a daily figure rather than breaking down individual hours. Day rates are common for commercial contracts and on-site work.
You can also record the internal cost of the engineer — their salary or subcontractor day rate. This figure is never shown on quotes or invoices and is used only in the engineer cost vs revenue report.
Different rates for different job types
Many trade businesses charge a premium for emergency callouts or weekend work. In the Rates tab, click Add rate type to create additional rate bands alongside the standard rate. You can create as many rate types as you need — for example:
- Standard — your normal weekday rate
- Emergency callout — a higher hourly rate for out-of-hours call-outs, often 1.5× or 2× the standard rate
- Weekend — Saturday and Sunday premium rates
- Bank holiday — for public holidays where you charge a premium
When building a quote, you select which rate type applies to each labour line. The correct rate pulls in automatically.
How rates appear in quotes
When you add a labour line item to a quote and assign it to an engineer, Trade2Base pre-fills the unit price from that engineer's rate profile. You can always override the figure on individual quotes without changing the engineer's saved rate. The customer sees only the total — the engineer's name is not shown on the customer-facing quote PDF unless you choose to include it.
Updating an engineer's rate only affects new quotes created after the change. Existing quotes and invoices keep the rates they were built with.
Engineer cost vs revenue report
Go to Reports → Engineer Revenue to see a breakdown for each engineer showing total revenue billed, total cost (based on their internal cost rate), and gross margin. You can filter by date range and export the report as a CSV. This report helps you identify your most profitable engineers and spot if any jobs are consistently under-priced.
The gross margin column only populates if you have entered an internal cost rate for the engineer. Revenue figures are always visible regardless.
Set up engineer rates in Trade2Base and let the platform do the maths for you.
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