Price List and Rate Card Worksheet

Who this is for

A worksheet for setting your prices rather than a list of somebody else's. Enter what each item or hour costs you and the margin you want on it, and the price is worked out, with the tax-inclusive figure alongside at whatever rate you enter.

Anyone building a price list or rate card from scratch, trades pricing labour by the hour or the day, and makers working out what an item has to sell for once the materials are paid for.

What this helps you track

• Every item or service you sell, with your own code for it
• The unit each one is priced by — each, hour, day, metre or job
• What it costs you before any margin
• The margin you have decided on, line by line
• The price that follows, and the same price with tax added

How to use it

1. Write your business, the date the prices take effect, the currency and the tax rate you charge at the top. That rate is yours; this sheet supplies none.
2. List each item or service with a code you will recognise on an invoice and a description a customer will understand.
3. Choose the unit it is priced by, so an hourly rate and a fixed job price sit on the same list without confusion.
4. Enter what it costs you: materials, the trade price, or your own cost of an hour. Where you cannot work a cost out, leave it blank and type the price you want into the margin-free lines instead.
5. Enter the margin you want as a percentage. The price and the tax-inclusive price are worked out in the browser and the workbook; on paper, do the two multiplications yourself.
6. Review the sheet whenever costs change, and keep the old version so you can see what moved and when.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

What margin should I use?

The sheet has no opinion and no figure. Margin depends on your trade, your costs and your market, and the column takes whatever you decide, line by line.

Is margin the same as mark-up?

Here it is a percentage added to your cost, which is usually called mark-up. If you prefer to work from a target margin on the selling price, work the figure out the way you normally do and enter whatever percentage produces the price you want.

Where does the tax rate come from?

From your own registration and the rules where you are. Enter it at the top and the tax-inclusive column follows; leave it blank and that column simply repeats the price.

Can I hand this to a customer?

Print it after hiding or emptying the cost and margin columns, or copy the finished prices onto a clean price list sheet. This worksheet is for working the prices out, and shows more than a customer needs to see.

How often should I review prices?

That is for you and your costs to decide. The effective-from date at the top exists so that a customer question about an old price can be answered from the right sheet.