How to Build a Rates Library
A rates library is a structured, reusable set of your own unit prices for labour, materials and plant, built up once and then applied to every job you price from then on. Building one properly means gathering current supplier and labour costs, turning each into an all-in rate that covers plant, on-costs and margin — not just the bare unit price — and organising those rates by trade section so they are easy to find and keep current. Done well, a rates library is what keeps your pricing consistent and protects your margin job after job, instead of re-guessing costs from scratch every time.
Key takeaways
- A rates library is a reusable set of your own unit prices for labour, materials and plant, built once and applied to every job you price.
- A bare unit rate covers material or labour cost alone — an all-in rate adds plant, on-costs and margin, and it is the all-in rate that should be used to price a job.
- Structuring rates by trade section makes a library fast to search, price against and maintain, instead of one long undifferentiated list.
- Rates go stale the moment supplier and labour costs move — reviewing and updating them regularly is what stops a quote quietly under-pricing a job.
- My Trade Hub gives you an editable rates library that applies automatically to measured quantities, so your own rates price every job consistently.
What a rates library is, and why it protects your margin
A rates library is a structured, reusable set of your own unit prices — what it costs you to supply and install a square metre of formwork, a lineal metre of pipe, or a cubic metre of concrete — built up once and then applied to every job you price from then on. Instead of re-deriving costs from scratch on each quote, you look up, or automatically apply, a rate you have already built and tested.
The reason a rates library protects margin is consistency. When jobs are priced from memory or a rough guess, some are priced too high and lose the work, and others are priced too low and quietly erode profit. A properly maintained rates library means every job is priced against the same tested, current numbers, so your margin is a deliberate decision rather than a lottery.
Gathering current supplier and labour rates
A rates library is only as good as the cost data behind it. Start by pulling current pricing from your regular material suppliers rather than relying on last year’s invoices — timber, steel, concrete and fixtures all move in price, sometimes significantly, over the life of a rates library.
Labour rates need the same discipline. Use your actual all-up labour cost per hour, not just the award or enterprise wage rate, and build plant costs from real hire rates or your own equipment’s running cost. The goal is a set of source numbers you trust enough to build every rate on top of.
- Material costs — current supplier price lists or recent invoices, not historical pricing.
- Labour costs — your actual hourly cost, including on-costs (see below), not just the base wage.
- Plant and equipment — current hire rates, or the real running cost if you own the equipment.
- Subcontract rates — recent quotes from the trades you regularly subcontract to.
Bare unit rate vs all-in rate: what is the difference
A bare unit rate is just the raw cost of material or labour for one unit of work — for example, the supplier price of a square metre of plasterboard, on its own. An all-in rate builds on that bare cost by adding everything else it actually costs to get the item installed: labour, plant, on-costs such as superannuation and insurance, and your margin.
The difference matters because a bare unit rate, applied directly to a quote, will under-price the job every time — it is missing most of what the work actually costs. The worked example below shows how a bare material cost turns into a usable all-in rate.
| Cost component | Amount (per m²) |
|---|---|
| Material (board, screws, compound) | $8.50 |
| Labour (0.35 hrs at $65/hr) | $22.75 |
| Plant (minor tools allowance) | $1.20 |
| On-costs (super, insurance, leave loading — approx. 25% of labour) | $5.69 |
| Subtotal (cost) | $38.14 |
| Margin (illustrative, 15%) | $5.72 |
| All-in rate (ex GST) | $43.86 |
Structuring rates by trade section
A rates library becomes hard to use the moment it turns into one long, undifferentiated list. Structuring it by trade section — preliminaries, earthworks, concrete and structure, carpentry, services, and so on — mirrors how a job is actually built and priced, so you can find the right rate quickly and see at a glance where a section might be missing coverage.
This structure also makes maintenance realistic. Reviewing an entire rates library in one sitting is a big undertaking, but working through it trade section by trade section, on a rolling basis, keeps the job manageable and means no single section is neglected for too long.
First-principles build-up vs adjusting a benchmark rate
There are two broad ways to arrive at a rate: build it up from first principles — material cost, labour hours, plant and on-costs, added together as in the worked example above — or start from a benchmark rate, such as a published guide, a past job, or an industry rate, and adjust it for your own costs and the specifics of the job.
A first-principles build-up takes more work up front but gives you a rate you actually understand and can defend — you know exactly what is in it. Adjusting a benchmark rate is faster, but only as reliable as the benchmark itself and how carefully you adjust it; used carelessly, it imports someone else’s assumptions about labour productivity or on-costs into your own pricing. Many estimators use a mix: first-principles for their core, high-volume items, and adjusted benchmarks for the long tail of items they price less often.
Keeping rates current as prices move
Material and labour costs do not stand still, and a rates library that is not reviewed regularly slowly drifts away from reality — usually in the direction of under-pricing, since costs tend to rise more often than they fall. Set a routine for checking rates against current supplier pricing rather than waiting until a job comes in under budget and working backwards to find out why.
Pro tip
Put a recurring reminder in your calendar to review one or two trade sections at a time, rather than trying to check the whole library at once — a rolling review is far more likely to actually happen than a once-a-year overhaul.
Common mistakes that quietly erode margin
Most rates library problems are not dramatic — they are small, quiet gaps that add up over many jobs. Stale rates that have not been checked against current supplier pricing for months, or years, are the most common cause, but they are far from the only one.
- Stale rates — using last year’s, or older, pricing without checking it against current supplier costs.
- Forgetting wastage — not allowing for offcuts, breakages and material loss in the rate.
- Forgetting on-costs — pricing labour at the bare wage instead of the full on-cost rate.
- Mixing bare and all-in rates in the same library, so some items are quietly under-priced relative to others.
- No structure — one long list that is too unwieldy to review or maintain properly.
How My Trade Hub helps with your rates library
My Trade Hub gives you an editable rates library for your own labour, material and plant costs, structured by trade so it is easy to build, review and keep current. Every rate stays fully editable — My Trade Hub does not impose its own pricing on your business.
Once your rates library is set up, it is applied automatically to the quantities measured from your uploaded plans, so a priced Bill of Quantities comes together without re-entering rates job after job — one of the reasons My Trade Hub is designed to prepare a priced tender 60-75% faster than doing it manually. It is free to create a My Trade Hub account, with tiered plans in AUD for estimating and tender preparation, and no lock-in contracts.
Frequently asked questions
What is a rates library in construction estimating?
A rates library is a structured, reusable set of your own unit prices for labour, materials and plant — built up once and then applied to every job you price, rather than re-deriving costs from scratch each time.
What is the difference between a unit rate and an all-in rate?
A bare unit rate is the raw cost of material or labour alone. An all-in rate builds on that by adding plant, on-costs such as superannuation and insurance, and margin — it is the all-in rate that should be used to price a job.
How do you build a rate from first principles?
Add up the material cost, the labour hours at your full on-cost rate, any plant required, and your margin, for one unit of the work — for example, per square metre or lineal metre. This gives a rate you understand and can defend, rather than one borrowed from a benchmark.
How often should a rates library be updated?
Regularly, and on a rolling basis rather than all at once — reviewing one or two trade sections at a time against current supplier and labour costs is more sustainable than an annual overhaul, and catches price movements sooner.
How should a rates library be structured?
By trade section — preliminaries, earthworks, concrete and structure, carpentry, services, and so on — mirroring how a job is actually built. This makes rates faster to find, price against and review than one long undifferentiated list.
What is commonly left out of a rate that causes underquoting?
Wastage and on-costs are the two most common omissions. Material rates that do not allow for offcuts and breakages, and labour rates priced at the bare wage rather than the full on-cost rate, both understate the true cost of the work.
Does My Trade Hub include a rates library?
Yes. My Trade Hub gives you an editable rates library for your own labour, material and plant costs, which is applied automatically to the quantities measured from your plans when you prepare a priced Bill of Quantities.
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