should builder show receipts

Should You Show Clients Your Itemised Material Receipts?

Q: Do I legally have to show clients my material receipts?

Not on a fixed-price supply-and-fit job - the contract is for a finished outcome at an agreed price, and how you source materials within it is your business. The exception is where you agreed materials at cost or your contract explicitly promises receipts: then you must provide them, because verifying cost is part of the deal you struck.

Q: Should I charge a markup on materials?

Yes, and it needs no apology. You spend unpaid time ordering, collecting and returning materials, you carry the warranty risk if something fails, and you absorb wastage. A markup - or a trade discount you keep - pays for all of that. Build it into a fixed supply-and-fit price and it never becomes a conversation.

Q: What if the client wants to buy the materials themselves?

Let them, with conditions stated up front: you cannot guarantee materials you did not supply, wrong or late deliveries become their delay rather than yours, and your labour price reflects the extra coordination. Some clients accept that happily; many decide supply and fit sounds better once they understand what your price was actually covering.

Q: Is supply and fit better than day rate plus materials at cost?

For most domestic jobs, yes. The client gets certainty - one price that cannot creep - and you keep your trade discount as margin without ever discussing it. Day rate plus materials at cost suits genuinely open-ended work like renovation discoveries, but it invites receipt audits and turns every merchant trip into a line item to defend.

By Eddie · 6 June 2026 · 4 min read

No - on a fixed-price, supply-and-fit job you're not obliged to show itemised material receipts, and most of the time you shouldn't. The client agreed a price for a finished outcome, not a shopping list plus labour. But whether the question ever comes up is decided much earlier, by how you priced the job in the first place.

Two ways to price, and only one invites an audit

Supply and fit means one fixed price covering materials and labour: the bathroom, fitted, for £4,800. Your trade discount, your wastage allowance and your margin all live inside that number, invisibly - exactly as they should. Day rate plus materials at cost is the other route, and it's the one that invites receipt audits: the moment you promise materials at cost, the client is entitled to check what cost was. You've written them an invitation.

That's why supply-and-fit fixed pricing is the standard, and for good reason. It isn't secrecy - the client knows the full price before you start, which is more certainty than a day rate ever gives them. It just keeps the trade discount you've earned through years of merchant loyalty where it belongs: in your margin.

What to say when a client asks anyway

Stay friendly, explain the pricing model, and redirect the transparency to where it genuinely helps them - the spec.

Reply to a receipt request on a fixed-price job

Totally fair question. The price we agreed is a fixed supply-and-fit price - one number that covers all materials, my labour, wastage and the guarantee on the work. It's not an hourly rate plus a pile of receipts, so there isn't a receipts step - the price you saw is the price, and it can't creep on you.

What I'm always happy to do is walk you through the spec: exactly what's being fitted, which brands, and what's included. Want me to send that over?

One honest exception: if you agreed day rate plus materials at cost, hand the receipts over without a fuss. That was the deal, and quibbling over it costs you far more than the margin you didn't build in.

Where transparency genuinely pays

Being closed about receipts doesn't mean being closed about the job. Itemise your quote by outcome - strip-out, first fix, tiling, second fix - with a price against each, and name the brands going in. Clients who can see what they're paying for rarely ask what the copper cost. A clearly itemised quote (Quotato builds one from a voice note) settles most transparency worries before they form.

From the tools: My brother, a joiner, learned this one the expensive way. Early on he ran a loft wardrobe job as day rate plus materials at cost, and the client - a nice bloke, but a spreadsheet enthusiast - asked for every receipt, then queried the mileage to the merchant and a £6 tube of adhesive. Two hours of his Sunday went on defending pennies. Since he moved to fixed supply-and-fit prices, the receipt question has come up twice in five years, and both times the same answer - the price covers the finished job, guaranteed - ended it in one message.

Quick answers

Do I legally have to show clients my material receipts?

Not if the job was priced supply-and-fit - you agreed a fixed price for an outcome, so the receipts behind it are your business. You only owe receipts where the agreement itself promises materials at cost, because then checking the cost is part of what the client bought.

Should I charge a markup on materials?

Yes. Ordering, collecting, returns, wastage and warranty risk all cost you time and money, and the markup - or the trade discount you keep - is what pays for them. Fold it into a fixed price and it never needs discussing.

What if the client wants to buy the materials themselves?

Allow it with clear conditions: no guarantee on materials you didn't supply, their delays are their problem, and your labour price accounts for the extra coordination. Plenty of clients change their mind once those trade-offs are spelled out.

Is supply and fit better than day rate plus materials at cost?

For most domestic work, yes - the client gets one certain price and you keep your margin private. Day rate plus cost has its place on genuinely open-ended jobs, but it turns every receipt into a potential debate.

Quotato turns a voice note into a clearly itemised, fixed-price quote - branded, professional and sent from your phone before you've left the driveway.
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