Priced the way Electrician work is billed
A service call / diagnostic and a ceiling fan install don't get quoted the same way, so why would every trade? SideWRK prices Electrician the way the work is really billed: off a flat service-call menu — a $125 diagnostic, then priced work (e.g. $185 a line). Tap the work, put in the numbers, and the line prices itself — no napkin math, no undercharging a job because you rushed the quote.
What Electrician jobs actually run
These are the starting numbers SideWRK loads for common Electrician work — researched to be realistic, so you can send an estimate that isn't a guess. Adjust any of them to your market in a tap.
Typical starting prices in the app — your area, your materials, and your reputation move them. You set your own; these just keep you from undercharging on the first quote.
Panel upgrade, priced out
Numbers only mean something on a real job, so here's how SideWRK builds the ticket on a common one:
SideWRK puts the parts on at what you actually paid — so the $1,320 of labor is what you clear, not a marked-up parts total dressed up as profit.
What moves a Electrician price
Two Electrician jobs that look the same on paper can be a hundred dollars apart once you're on site. Here's what actually changes the number — the things to size up before you quote:
- Panel and service size — a 100A panel on a 200A demand is an upgrade, and the upgrade is the big-ticket line, not the outlet.
- Permit and inspection — a permitted job to the adopted NEC costs more because it takes more, and that's the job, not padding.
- Access — fishing wire through a finished, insulated wall is hours you never spend on open new construction.
What a Electrician job puts on the record
Every trade documents something different, and Electrician is no exception. SideWRK captures the panel and service size (like a 200A main) and the rest of what your work needs on the record — the details that protect you and make the invoice stand up:
- the panel and service size (like a 200A main)
- whether it's owner-occupied
- a permit plus rough-in and final inspection flag against the adopted NEC
- a written-contract reminder
Example note on a job: "Existing wiring not to current code — new work brought to code only."
How to price a Electrician job in SideWRK
- 1
Start the job and add your work
Open a Electrician job and tap a suggestion like "Service call / diagnostic" or "Outlet / GFCI install" — the common work is already loaded, so you tap instead of type.
- 2
Price it off a flat service-call menu
Enter the numbers and the line prices itself, off a flat service-call menu — a $125 diagnostic, then priced work (e.g. $185 a line). Put parts on at your cost so what you clear is real profit, not just the Electrician ticket total.
- 3
Note the details
Add a plain-English note — for example, "Existing wiring not to current code — new work brought to code only." — and a photo of the work.
- 4
Log what the job needs
Capture the Electrician-specific records: the panel and service size (like a 200A main), and whether it's owner-occupied.
- 5
Send it and get paid
Send the Electrician estimate for approval. Your customer approves from their phone, the invoice goes out, and you get paid — card or Apple Pay, on the spot.
Staying on the right side of the rules
SideWRK documents your Electrician work — it doesn't make you licensed, and it says so plainly. What to know: an electrical license and a permit with inspection to the locally-adopted National Electrical Code — the app flags the permit and reminds you to put it in writing. The app flags the permit and license triggers so they never surprise you mid-job.
Electrician pricing — common questions
How do I price a Electrician job in SideWRK?
You bill off a flat service-call menu — a $125 diagnostic, then priced work (e.g. $185 a line). Add the work — Service call / diagnostic, Outlet / GFCI install, Panel upgrade — enter the numbers, and each line prices itself. Parts go on at your cost, so you see real profit and not just the total.
What does a typical Electrician job cost?
It depends on the work, but as a realistic starting point a common job like panel upgrade runs about $2,200 in the app — roughly $1,320 of that is your labor and about $880 is parts at your cost. Common Electrician work ranges from about $125 to $2,200. Those are defaults you can change — you always set your own prices.
What does SideWRK document on a Electrician job?
The records Electrician work actually needs: the panel and service size (like a 200A main); whether it's owner-occupied; a permit plus rough-in and final inspection flag against the adopted NEC. They stay on the job as you work, so the paper trail is built instead of reconstructed later, and the disclosures this trade needs print on the estimate and invoice themselves.
Do I need a license to do Electrician work?
That depends on your state and the job, but here's the shape of it: an electrical license and a permit with inspection to the locally-adopted National Electrical Code — the app flags the permit and reminds you to put it in writing. SideWRK documents the work; it doesn't certify you, and it flags the permit and license triggers so nothing sneaks up on you.
Does SideWRK work for trades other than Electrician?
Yes — it runs all 42 trades, each priced and documented its own way. If you run more than one, the Multi-Trade plan unlocks them all and switches between them in a tap.
Your first jobs
The menu above settles the number. The first calls are the harder half — a moonlighting electrician has no shop sign, and nobody hires electricity casually. What gets a stranger to yes:
- Start where you're already vouched for. The first book comes from people who've watched you work — the day-job crew, the family with the dead outlet, their neighbors once the story travels. An electrician gets recommended person to person; a listing gets scrolled past.
- Say the credit on the phone. The $125 service call comes off the bill when they go ahead with the repair. What that fee actually pays for, and when in the call to say so, is settled in Stop Quoting Electrical Work by the Hour.
- Then learn the walk-around. How to Upsell Electrical Work Without Being Pushy is this trade's money guide: two minutes of honest looking on every service call, three questions that sort what you found, and the year-scale math on what saying the true thing is worth. Read it before the second call, not the fiftieth.
Repeat business
A house's electrical work arrives in chapters. The GFCI call is chapter one, the EV charger lands when the car does, and the panel's day comes when it finally fills. Repeat business in this trade is mostly remembering which chapter each house is on:
- The property record is the memory. Panel and service size, the address, what the last visit turned up — it lives on the job's property record, so the callback gets quoted from facts. "200A main, headroom to spare, the charger's a clean add" goes out the same day; a guess costs a second site visit first.
- Work the follow-up rhythm. One text, to one person, ideally the week you'll be on their street anyway — never a blast. The note that earns it and the words that go out are the back half of the walk-around guide. Panel upgrades close on that rhythm, almost never on the first visit.
How electrician work bills
A flat service-call menu, led by the fee that earns the drive. Open an electrician estimate in SideWRK and the form deals these lines — tap one, it fills in, every price stays yours to edit:
The app's own tap-to-fill menu — every line is quantity × price each, so recessed lighting bills by the can at $150 each; the $600 in the starting numbers above is what the app loads for a whole-room job. A seventh line runs on the clock: Labor (per hour) at your shop rate — the app starts electricians at $95 — for the diagnosis nobody can flat-rate and the odd repair that follows it.
Half the kitchen is out. The diagnostic finds a worn breaker, and the two counter receptacles on that circuit are going back in with GFCI protection — scope she agreed to before the estimate went out. She approves, and the fee stops being a fee: the app adds the credit as its own minus line, shown and then honored in writing, capped so a credit can never drag an invoice below zero. She reads $608 of work minus the $125 she already agreed to. You read $465 of labor cleared, because the breaker rode through at cost.
Whether to run a menu at all is the settled argument of Stop Quoting Electrical Work by the Hour — it bills the same five-call week on the clock and on the menu, names the one job type where hourly still wins, and walks the switch without spooking your regulars. The menu above is where that argument lands in the app: each line a tap on the estimate, parts at your cost so the ticket shows what you cleared, the whole thing approved from the customer's phone.
Multiplying jobs
Past the first stretch, growth is follow-through — and follow-through is exactly what a day job crowds out. The app carries the part that slips:
- Nudges you never have to send. A quiet estimate gets a follow-up email at 3 and 7 days, then stops. An unpaid invoice reminds at 3, 7, and 14 with a pay link. A wrapped job asks for the review once and reminds once. Email only, plainly worded, every one a toggle you own.
- Truck stock that speaks up early. GFCI receptacles, the common breakers, wire nuts, a roll of 12/2 — each with its own reorder point in inventory. Bill a part from stock and the count drops by itself, so you find out you're low before the supply run instead of standing in the aisle guessing.
- A page that shows the work. Your public page carries the gallery, reviews, services, and a quote form. Electrical work photographs quieter than a paint job — but a labeled, tidy panel next to the tangle it replaced is its own kind of before-and-after.
All of it runs on a seeded electrical business in the live demo — free, no signup.
Price it now
Two kinds of math run this trade. The job math — what the work should cost — is the calculator below, the same free one the electrician page runs:
The field math — what the circuit needs — has its own free set: wire size, voltage drop, conduit fill, and box fill. Worth running while it's still a quote, because run length and box space change what a job needs before they change what it costs.
The paper worth keeping
The records list above says what the app captures on an electrical job. This is why each line earns its place:
- The property record. Label, service address, panel and service size, and whether the owner lives there. That last answer isn't trivia — a permit pulled by the homeowner is typically limited to their own residence, so it shapes who can even pull the paper. Ask once, keep it on the record.
- The permit, start to finish. Most residential electrical work needs a permit from the local building department and inspection — rough-in and final — and in most states a licensed electrician; your local authority is the word that counts. The app tracks the arc: status from needed to closed, the permit number and issuing authority, each inspection with its own date, and the fee riding the estimate as its own line at cost. The permit number prints on the estimate and invoice, tying the inspection back to the bill.
- The license and the code line. Your electrical license number is entered once and prints on every document, next to the plain-English notice that work is performed to the locally adopted edition of the NEC — and that any AFCI or GFCI protection noted is as reported, because an invoice is not an inspection certificate. On bigger tickets the app also reminds you that home-improvement work generally wants a written contract; the contract itself stays yours to bring.
- April, without the shoebox. Numbered invoices, payments, breaker-aisle receipts — the year-end wrap-up turns them into category totals, CSVs, and a printable summary a preparer can actually use.
SideWRK is a documentation tool, not legal advice — it doesn't determine or guarantee compliance with any licensing, permit, or electrical-code requirement. The records are yours; the rules are your state's.