Short answer
Price every material at landed cost, add 10–30% for handling, show it as its own line, and never price from memory. A personal catalog that matches voice to stored prices eliminates the 15–40% most sole traders lose to guessing.
Anatomy of a materials line
Labour rate
Your hourly time. Already covered by your hourly rate — materials line should not double-charge it.
Landed cost
Purchase price from the supplier, plus delivery, plus any typical wastage. This is the real cost to you.
Handling markup
10–30%. Covers time sourcing, picking up, storing, and the occasional unused stock written off.
Special-order risk
If the item is non-standard or imported, add another 10–15% to cover the risk of it sitting on your van.
Tax
Applied on top of the priced line — GST (AU/NZ), VAT (UK), HST/GST/PST (CA), state sales tax (US).
The SMASH edge
Every SMASH user builds a personal materials catalog — 50 items or 5,000, it doesn't matter. When you describe a job out loud, SMASH matches each line against your catalog and prices it at your number. No lookups, no guesses, no forgotten consumables.
0
Times you open a spreadsheet
60s
From voice to priced quote
100%
Of line items priced from your catalog
15–40%
Typical revenue recovered vs guessing
The SMASH app
SMASH turns every voice description into a priced line-by-line quote, pulling from your own catalog. No spreadsheets, no forgotten fittings, no undercharging.