Pricing, profit & tax tips, sorted by country.

Not every allowable expense is obvious. A few categories get missed year after year — not because tradesmen don't spend the money, but because it never gets logged as a business cost in the first place.

Every trade has one — the job that quietly goes sideways. What separates a bad week from a genuinely lost job is usually how early it gets noticed, and what happens next.

On a cost-plus or time-and-materials job, a customer asking to see the receipts before they pay isn't an insult — it's a reasonable check on an invoice they can't otherwise verify. How you answer says more about the relationship than the number on the invoice does.

Buy materials for two jobs in one merchant run and you're left with a single receipt that, tagged whole to either job, quietly lies about both of them. Here's how to split it properly instead of picking one job to absorb the whole cost.

A customer who wants to supply their own tiles, fittings or fixtures isn't unusual — but it creates a job cost picture with a hole in it if the only things tracked are the ones you personally paid for.

Plenty gets written about which pricing model earns more. Less gets said about which one actually makes it possible to see, mid-job, whether things are on track — which matters just as much, since a pricing model you can't monitor is one you can only judge after it's too late to fix anything.

Not every deductible expense is obvious. A few categories get missed year after year — not because tradies don't spend the money, but because it never gets logged as a business cost in the first place.

Every tradie has one — the job that quietly goes sideways. What separates a bad week from a genuinely lost job is usually how early it gets noticed, and what happens next.

On a cost-plus or time-and-materials job, a customer asking to see the receipts before they pay isn't an insult — it's a reasonable check on an invoice they can't otherwise verify. How you answer says more about the relationship than the number on the invoice does.

Buy materials for two jobs in one merchant run and you're left with a single receipt that, tagged whole to either job, quietly lies about both of them. Here's how to split it properly instead of picking one job to absorb the whole cost.

A customer who wants to supply their own tiles, fittings or fixtures isn't unusual — but it creates a job cost picture with a hole in it if the only things tracked are the ones you personally paid for.

Plenty gets written about which pricing model earns more. Less gets said about which one actually makes it possible to see, mid-job, whether things are on track — which matters just as much, since a pricing model you can't monitor is one you can only judge after it's too late to fix anything.

Not every deductible expense is obvious. A few categories get missed year after year — not because contractors don't spend the money, but because it never gets logged as a business cost in the first place.

Every contractor has one — the job that quietly goes sideways. What separates a bad week from a genuinely lost job is usually how early it gets noticed, and what happens next.

On a cost-plus or time-and-materials job, a customer asking to see the receipts before they pay isn't an insult — it's a reasonable check on an invoice they can't otherwise verify. How you answer says more about the relationship than the number on the invoice does.

Buy materials for two jobs in one merchant run and you're left with a single receipt that, tagged whole to either job, quietly lies about both of them. Here's how to split it properly instead of picking one job to absorb the whole cost.

A customer who wants to supply their own tiles, fittings or fixtures isn't unusual — but it creates a job cost picture with a hole in it if the only things tracked are the ones you personally paid for.

Plenty gets written about which pricing model earns more. Less gets said about which one actually makes it possible to see, mid-job, whether things are on track — which matters just as much, since a pricing model you can't monitor is one you can only judge after it's too late to fix anything.

Not every deductible expense is obvious. A few categories get missed year after year — not because contractors don't spend the money, but because it never gets logged as a business cost in the first place.

Every contractor has one — the job that quietly goes sideways. What separates a bad week from a genuinely lost job is usually how early it gets noticed, and what happens next.

On a cost-plus or time-and-materials job, a customer asking to see the receipts before they pay isn't an insult — it's a reasonable check on an invoice they can't otherwise verify. How you answer says more about the relationship than the number on the invoice does.

Buy materials for two jobs in one merchant run and you're left with a single receipt that, tagged whole to either job, quietly lies about both of them. Here's how to split it properly instead of picking one job to absorb the whole cost.

A customer who wants to supply their own tiles, fittings or fixtures isn't unusual — but it creates a job cost picture with a hole in it if the only things tracked are the ones you personally paid for.

Plenty gets written about which pricing model earns more. Less gets said about which one actually makes it possible to see, mid-job, whether things are on track — which matters just as much, since a pricing model you can't monitor is one you can only judge after it's too late to fix anything.