[ag]

Hi all

When you are costing equipment into a quote how do youdo it?
For example, a year contract and you require a hoover to be on site or a rotary machine. you've had the rotary for a couple of years, but you need to buy a hoover to put in there. How do you cost the equipment in? Do you say the rotary is worth 500 so I'll spread that out over the year or do you do it to half its cost? im uncertain on this one.
Any help would be great?
Many thanks
Agnes

[Mike_Boxall]

Hi Agnes

The typical rates charged for cleaning equipment generally equate to the cost price written down over 2 years. So an £80 vacuum would be charged at £0.77 per week and a £500 rotary would be charged at £4.81. Often contractors will base the price on the list price rather than the cost price to make extra profit and some equipment will need to have a reasonable cost for maintenance and servicing built in. Vacuums and polishers only really need PAT testing if they're looked after properly.

Regards

Mike

[Bertie Boo]

Hi Agnes

I leave this to my accountant. I buy whatever i need (and he's always saying that i COULD be buying more, i.e. there is still room under the tax allowance to account for more, although as i said to him i STILL have to buy the stuff out my money lol, i only get the tax back) and he kind-of writes it off over a period of time....? I'm not sure quite what all the ins and outs are, it kinda washes over me after a while...

Are you saying like "this job will be for one year so i have to buy this that and that, it comes to £XXX which is £X per month over 12 months" and then allow for that in the quote? If so, i dont ever do it like that, i just buy stuff as and when i need it (as little as possible of course!) and in my mind just 'write it off' because when its something like a peice of equipment (esp a vacuum cleaner) then it will be around for a very long time and as such will come in handy in the future.

A different matter ( i would think) if you had to spend a small fourtune on one peice of equipment that you know you will never use again. I've had similar scenarios (though to a much lesser financial cost) when a  client needs a particular cleaning soloution to do the job and i know i will never ever use it again. In those cases i've told teh client i will get the product if THEY pay for it and after i've used it i will obviously leave the remainder of the product with them. Works for me, but only on low-priced stuff.

Cheers

Stephen