Parts cost
Start with what the part really costs you, delivered, including any postage or import costs and the cost of parts that arrive faulty. If you buy parts of different quality, treat each quality as a separate line with its own cost and its own price, so that you are not selling a premium part at a basic price.
Count three things in the cost of a part: the price you pay the supplier, including carriage, a share of parts that arrive faulty and are not refunded, and the small consumables you use on every job. Keep every part's cost recorded against the repair it was used on. If you cannot say what the part cost, you cannot know whether the job made money. Parts you use up in repairs, such as adhesive or screws, are small, but over a month they add up, so spread them across jobs.
Labour and time
Time is the cost shops most often leave out. Time the repairs you do most often, from taking the device to testing it and cleaning it, and be honest about the slow ones. A screen that takes twice as long as another model is not the same job at the same price.
A practical way to get honest numbers is to note the start and finish time of every repair for a couple of weeks, including testing and cleaning, and the time spent at the counter on each one. Average the times by repair type, and keep the slow models separate. Decide what an hour of your technician's time is worth to the business, and include the time spent at the counter, on the intake and on handing the phone back. If a second person does the repair, their pay counts too.
Warranty and returns
Every repair carries a chance it comes back. A fair price includes a small allowance for the cost of fixing that, in time and in parts. The allowance is higher for repairs that fail more often, and for parts of lower quality.
Be clear with customers about what your warranty covers and what it does not, and put that in writing at intake. A warranty that you honour quickly is part of what customers pay for. A longer warranty may justify a higher price, but only if you keep your promises.
Margin you need
Margin is what is left after parts, time and the warranty allowance, and it pays for rent, tools, insurance, software, your own wage and the quiet days. Work out the monthly cost of running the shop and compare it with the number of repairs you realistically do. That tells you what each repair has to contribute.
Then build the price: parts cost, plus the cost of time, plus the warranty allowance, plus the margin you need. The example below shows this with invented figures. It is an illustration, not a price list.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Part, delivered | £35 |
| Technician time | £15 |
| Counter time, intake and handover | £5 |
| Allowance for warranty returns | £5 |
| Margin the shop needs on this job | £20 |
| Price to the customer | £80 |
Check what each repair really earns
A price built on paper has to be tested against what really happened. For each repair, you want three numbers: the price the customer paid, the cost of the parts and any outside work, and the difference. Look at them by repair type and by technician. Some repairs will earn much less than you assumed, and a few will earn more. Look first at the repairs at the bottom of the list: either the price is too low, the part costs too much or the job takes too long, and each has a different fix.
This is where a repair record that links the job to its parts pays for itself. If the parts used are recorded on the job, profit per repair can be read from a report rather than worked out from receipts at the end of the month. Gadgets POS attaches parts from lab stock to each repair and shows cost and profit per job. See phone repair shop software.
When to change a price
Prices should move when your costs move. Review them when a supplier changes what they charge, when you change the quality of part you use, when a model becomes older and the part gets cheaper, or when your reports show a repair type earning less than the margin you set.
Change them for new work rather than for jobs already quoted, and write the price list down so everyone gives the same quote. Check a few local competitors now and then as a sense check, but let your own costs decide the number. How to start a phone repair shop in the UK covers the rest of setting up the business.
How Gadgets POS helps with repair pricing
Gadgets POS records the repair price, the parts attached from lab stock and any extra costs on each job, so you can see cost and profit per repair, and a Sales by Repair report. It does not set prices for you or compare you with competitors. Details are on repair management software.
About this guide: it is written by the team that makes Gadgets POS, a POS system for phone, gadget and repair shops. It is general guidance, not legal, tax or financial advice, so check your own position with your accountant, your insurer and gov.uk. It contains no invented statistics, and any worked example is an illustration with made-up numbers. Last reviewed 10 October 2026.