Charging for the hours worked and the materials used, plus an agreed markup, instead of a fixed price. It suits work whose extent genuinely cannot be known up front — chasing a leak, opening up an old building — and it requires records the customer will accept, which means hours logged as they happen rather than reconstructed. Whether you may bill this way at all on residential work varies: some provinces and states still require a written estimate or a ceiling price, so the arrangement is not always as open-ended as it sounds.
This one depends on where you work
The rule behind time and materials is set by the province or state the work is in, and the versions do not agree with one another. We have described the shape of it and deliberately not named a deadline, a cap or a percentage — check the rule where you work, or ask someone who practises there.
In FieldQuo — Materials on the job
FieldQuo records what went on site and what it cost against the job, which is the record a time-and-materials bill has to stand on.
Related terms
- Job costingPutting the real labour, materials and expenses of a finished job against what you charged for it, so you know what that job made.
- Change orderA written record that the job has changed, what the change is, and what it costs — agreed before the extra work starts.
- Unit priceA price for one unit of work — a square foot of floor, a linear foot of cabinet, a fixture, a visit — which you multiply by the quantity.
- TimesheetThe record of who worked how long on what.
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