A two hour callback does not cost two hours
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Two hours on site plus the travel comes to about £177, and £123 of that is chargeable time nobody invoices. Three a month is £6,365 a year, or seven jobs’ worth of profit.
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A two hour callback does not cost two hours. It costs the chargeable time it displaces, on a day rate that was calculated assuming you would bill that day.
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Three things worth knowing
The lost chargeable time is usually most of the cost, and it is the part that never appears on any invoice or in any bookkeeping.
This is not an argument for refusing to go back. Callbacks are how you keep a reputation. It is an argument for knowing what an hour of goodwill costs.
The last figure is what it is worth spending to avoid one: better materials, or another hour on site the first time.
The same sum, in a workbook
With the annual figure in days and in jobs' worth of profit.
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RESOURCES
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A long period of account needs two separate capital allowances computations, and since April 2026 they are not even calculated at the same writing down rate.
Company law allows accounts to run for 18 months; corporation tax never allows an accounting period longer than 12. Here is how the split is drawn.
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