Subbie pricing
Pricing subbie work in your quotes, with its own markup
When you sub out part of a job, the price you pay the other trade is a package, not your crew’s labour. Sammy has a Subbie line type for it, alongside materials, labour and other. Subbie work gets its own markup, stays out of your crew’s hours, and shows on your client’s quote as an ordinary priced line.
What is a subbie line?
A subbie line is a package price from another trade: the tiler’s price for the bathroom, the concreter you bring in for a slab cut, the sparky’s rough-in. Jam that into labour or other and two things go wrong. Your hours look like your own team is on site for the tiler’s three days, and you stack your full labour margin on top of someone else’s price.
Keeping subbie work on its own line fixes both. It also gives the takeoff a Subbies section, so you can see at a glance what’s going out to other trades on each job.
How it works
- You tell Sammy what you sub out. He never assumes work is subbied. Until you tell him, he keeps quoting it as labour and materials.
- Add a subbie rate rule if you know what you pay for a type of work. In AI Settings, add a rate rule, set its type to Subbie and put in the rate, like $65 per m² for tiling.
- Or add it to his instructions if you always sub out a whole trade but the price changes job to job. A line like “I subcontract all electrical and plumbing work” does it, and he estimates a package price.
- Set your subbie markup. Turn on variable markups in Basic trade customisation and set the Subbie markup, lower or higher than your labour markup. Leave it and subbie lines use your default markup.
- Quote as usual. From then on, when a job includes that work, Sammy prices it as a subbie line. You can add one yourself too, or ask him in the chat: “make the tiling a subbie line”.
What you get
- Honest hours. Subbie work doesn’t count toward your crew’s labour hours, so you know how long your own team is really on the job.
- The right margin. Subbie packages carry their own markup, set once or changed on any estimate with the markup sliders.
- A clear takeoff. Subbie lines get their own section with a subbie hours total. Untick it when you share the takeoff with your crew for a materials run.
- Nothing changes for your client. Proposals, PDFs and invoices show subbie lines as ordinary priced lines, and the word “subbie” never appears. Group an estimate by cost type and Sammy calls them “Specialist trades”.
- Works with your other tools. Subbie lines push across to Simpro, Ascora and ServiceM8 the same way other lines do, and kits can carry subbie components.
Once the job is won, add your subbies’ invoices to the job as costs, and Sammy shows what they’ve cost you against what you quoted for them. See job costing. Your materials are priced separately, from your supplier lists, and subbie lines are never matched to a supplier.
Questions tradies ask
Will my client see that I’m using a subbie?
No. Subbie lines look like any other priced line on the proposal, PDF and invoice. If you want the subbie’s name on a line for your own records, put it in the line’s note.
Why didn’t Sammy quote my tiling as a subbie line?
He needs to be told. Add a subbie rate rule for the work, or a line in his advanced instructions saying you sub it out. If you’ve trained Sammy on a past job and told him you used a subbie, that counts too.
Can I fix quotes I’ve already built?
Yes. Open the estimate, tap Actions, then More Actions, and choose Re-categorise lines. Sammy reviews every line and tells you how many he moved. It’s the only way he’ll re-type lines on an existing estimate.
What markup do subbie lines use?
The Subbie markup you set in Basic trade customisation, or your default markup if you haven’t set one. You can change it on any single estimate too.
Should I name rate rules after my subbie?
Name them after the work, like “Tiling – subbie package”, rather than the person. It still makes sense when you change tilers.