Quoting jobs and working out materials
Most quotes that go wrong don't go wrong on the labour. They go wrong because someone guessed the materials in the ute on the way home. Here's the maths, and a calculator that does it for you.
Materials calculator
Pick the job, put the numbers in, get a materials list you can walk into the trade desk with.
Materials list
Quantities only, rounded up. Always sanity-check against the actual product spec before you order — board widths, sheet widths and post lengths vary by supplier and by range.
Turning that into a quote
Materials list on one side, hours on the other, and a margin you're not embarrassed to defend. Put your own numbers in — they stay on your phone.
Quote builder
Where the trade counters are in Canberra
Six Bunnings sites across the ACT, including one dedicated Trade Centre.
The dedicated trade site. Gungahlin end, handy off the GDE.
Covers Belco, Kippax, Charny and the northern run.
Closest to the new estates and Googong via Majura.
Inner south, and next door to half the other suppliers you need.
Saves the run up the Parkway when you're working the valley.
Handy off Majura Parkway between the north and the inner south.
Check hours before you drive — trade hours and retail hours aren't always the same.
PowerPass, plainly
If you're running a trade business and you haven't got a PowerPass account, get one. It's free, and it's the difference between paying retail and paying trade.
What you get
- Trade pricing on a lot of the range — not everything, and the app will scan a product and tell you if it's covered
- Trade Assist for quotes, orders and deliveries, so you're not standing in the aisle counting rails
- Click & Collect and site delivery — worth a lot when the fence is going in tomorrow
- Cash, credit or a 30-day account, with monthly statements you can drop straight into your books
- Equipment hire — the truck for the day is often cheaper than a delivery
What you need
- A valid ABN or ACN for a standard account
- Owner builders need a permit; apprentices need their registration papers
- A credit or 30-day account means a proper application — director details and financials
- No membership fee for the account itself
Bunnings sets all of this and it changes. Confirm the current position with them, not with us.
Five habits that stop quotes going bad
- Split materials and labour on the page. Customers argue with a lump sum. They rarely argue with a list.
- Write down what's excluded. Rubbish removal, making good, painting afterwards, and anything you've assumed they're supplying. That one paragraph prevents most disputes.
- Say how variations get priced before there is one. "Anything not in this quote is charged at $X an hour plus materials, and I'll tell you before I start it."
- Put a use-by date on it. Thirty days. Timber and steel move, and you shouldn't be held to a March price in September.
- Add the contingency openly instead of hiding it. On an old Canberra house, "allowance for up to two rotten posts, credited if not used" reads as honest. A padded lump sum reads as expensive.