Priced the way Handyman work is billed
A general repair and a drywall patch don't get quoted the same way, so why would every trade? SideWRK prices Handyman the way the work is really billed: by the hour + materials (default rate ~$75/hr). 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 Handyman jobs actually run
These are the starting numbers SideWRK loads for common Handyman 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.
Shelving install, 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 $135 of labor is what you clear, not a marked-up parts total dressed up as profit.
What moves a Handyman price
Two Handyman 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:
- Scope creep — 'while you're here' is where handyman jobs bleed, so price each add-on instead of folding it in for free.
- The license line — anything crossing electrical, plumbing, gas, or your state's dollar cap changes who can legally do it and what you can charge.
- Materials and trips — a mount with a stud finder is one price; one that needs anchors, a brace, and a run to the store is another.
What a Handyman job puts on the record
Every trade documents something different, and Handyman is no exception. SideWRK captures a pre-1978 lead-paint flag and the rest of what your work needs on the record — the details that protect you and make the invoice stand up:
- a pre-1978 lead-paint flag
- a needs-a-permit or licensed-trade flag
- a live dollar-threshold banner (California caps unlicensed minor work at $1,000 under AB 2622)
Example note on a job: "Customer-supplied materials — no warranty on supplied items."
How to price a Handyman job in SideWRK
- 1
Start the job and add your work
Open a Handyman job and tap a suggestion like "General repair" or "TV mount" — the common work is already loaded, so you tap instead of type.
- 2
Price it by the hour + materials
Enter the numbers and the line prices itself, by the hour + materials (default rate ~$75/hr). Put parts on at your cost so what you clear is real profit, not just the Handyman ticket total.
- 3
Note the details
Add a plain-English note — for example, "Customer-supplied materials — no warranty on supplied items." — and a photo of the work.
- 4
Log what the job needs
Capture the Handyman-specific records: a pre-1978 lead-paint flag, and a needs-a-permit or licensed-trade flag.
- 5
Send it and get paid
Send the Handyman 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 Handyman work — it doesn't make you licensed, and it says so plainly. What to know: the trickiest one — the app defaults to protective 'casual work' framing and warns you when a job crosses the license threshold or hits electrical, plumbing, gas, or structural work that needs a licensed contractor. The app flags the permit and license triggers so they never surprise you mid-job.
Handyman pricing — common questions
How do I price a Handyman job in SideWRK?
You bill by the hour + materials (default rate ~$75/hr). Add the work — General repair, TV mount, Furniture assembly — 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 Handyman job cost?
It depends on the work, but as a realistic starting point a common job like shelving install runs about $160 in the app — roughly $135 of that is your labor and about $25 is parts at your cost. Common Handyman work ranges from about $90 to $160. Those are defaults you can change — you always set your own prices.
What does SideWRK document on a Handyman job?
The records Handyman work actually needs: a pre-1978 lead-paint flag; a needs-a-permit or licensed-trade flag; a live dollar-threshold banner (California caps unlicensed minor work at $1,000 under AB 2622). 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 Handyman work?
That depends on your state and the job, but here's the shape of it: the trickiest one — the app defaults to protective 'casual work' framing and warns you when a job crosses the license threshold or hits electrical, plumbing, gas, or structural work that needs a licensed contractor. 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 Handyman?
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 what to charge. Where the first jobs come from is a different problem, and the lead sites are the wrong answer to it. How to Get Your First Handyman Customers is this trade's find-work deep-dive — a hypothetical launch run as a 90-day ledger, with the texts, the flat-quote stance, the door hangers, the review engine, and every dollar billed and kept. Read it before you spend anything on leads.
Repeat business — the house list
A handyman's real customer isn't the job, it's the house. Houses don't stop breaking. The customer who handed you a six-item list in April has a new one by October, and the only question is whether that list comes back to you:
- One text, one person, next season. "It's [your name] — hung the shelving in March. Lining up fall work in your neighborhood, anything on the list?" From your own phone, to one person, under a minute. The job record holds what you did and when, so the message writes itself — and never a blast; a text written for one house reads like it.
- Put the regulars on a standing visit. Some houses generate enough work for a seasonal walk-through. Set one up as a recurring plan — the work, the price, the cadence — and the app creates a pre-filled job each cycle, dated for that visit with the lines already on it. The season's list gets caught because something remembers to ask for it.
How handyman work bills
Handyman is one of only five trades SideWRK bills by true hours — most trades price per square foot, per window, or off a flat menu, but here the math under every ticket is hours at your rate plus parts at your cost, and the menu prices up top are prefills built on exactly that. What the menu can't show is where the trade gets profitable, because the unit of handyman work isn't the task. It's the visit.
Stop Pricing Handyman Jobs One Task at a Time is the punch-list pricing deep-dive — the whole list priced as one estimate against what the same list gets quoted for over the phone, where hourly still protects you, and what a job floor has to cover. The handyman app is built for the visit, not the task: tap each job off the menu, every one lands as its own priced line on the same ticket, and the list goes out as one estimate — one approval, one payment.
Multiplying jobs
Past the first month, growth is mostly follow-through — and follow-through is what falls off the back of the truck by Thursday. The app runs it for you:
- The quiet estimate gets a nudge. An estimate nobody answered gets a friendly follow-up email at 3 and 7 days, two at most — the customer who meant to say yes usually just lost the thread. Sent automatically, worded plainly, and it's a toggle you own.
- The unpaid invoice reminds itself. A wrapped job with money owed gets a reminder at 3, 7, and 14 days with a pay link — card or Apple Pay, or a payment request you send yourself — so you're not the one writing the awkward text.
- The finished job asks for the review. After a job wraps, the app emails the customer a review request on its own, with one reminder a few days later. Reviews are the flywheel this trade runs on, and asking is the step everyone forgets.
- The wall you patched sells the next one. Pair the before and after from a job's own photos into the gallery on your public page. A homeowner choosing between two handymen picks the one whose work they can see.
All of it is running on a sample business in the live handyman demo — free, no signup.
Price it now
Your hours, your rate, the materials — with a working job minimum built in. The same free calculator the handyman page runs, right here:
The paper worth keeping
The records list above says what the app captures on a handyman job. This is why each one earns its keep:
- The job site, on the record. The label, the address, the pre-1978 answer, the permit question, the gate code in the notes. When "same as last time" comes back in the spring, you read a record instead of squinting at memory — and the quote goes out the same day.
- The pre-1978 flag. Disturbing paint in a home built before 1978 can put the work under the federal lead-paint rules: lead-safe practices, firm certification, and the EPA "Renovate Right" pamphlet in the owner's hands before work starts. The flag on the job site keeps the question asked before the sander comes out. Confirming what applies stays your job.
- The license line. Most states set a dollar limit on unlicensed work — a few require a contractor license at any amount — and electrical, plumbing, gas, HVAC, and structural work generally belongs to a licensed trade regardless of price. When no license number is entered, the app's paperwork frames the work as small casual jobs under the local limit and says so plainly. Splitting one project across two invoices doesn't duck a cap, and where your state draws the line is yours to check; the app's job is keeping the question on the paper, with a permit, when one is needed, as its own line on the estimate.
- April, already done. Numbered invoices, payments, parts receipts — it all rolls into a year-end wrap-up: rows, category totals, CSVs, and a printable summary your preparer can actually use. The shoebox, retired.
SideWRK is a documentation tool, not legal advice — it helps you keep the records; the rules stay your state's, and meeting them stays yours.