Daywork is billed by the hour or day worked, while price work is billed at an agreed fixed rate for a defined piece of work regardless of how long it takes. Most disputes over pay and invoicing come down to one side assuming daywork rules applied when the other assumed price work — or neither side having a proper record of which was agreed.
Daywork, in practice
Daywork means you’re paid for time spent, not output. It’s the right approach when:
- The scope isn’t fully known in advance (unforeseen ground conditions, variations mid-job)
- A client asks for extra work outside the original quote
- You’re covering odd jobs that don’t fit neatly into a priced package
The risk with daywork is entirely about record-keeping. If hours aren’t logged on the day, on site, by the person doing the work, you’re reconstructing a week’s worth of hours from memory on a Friday afternoon — which is where arguments start.
Price work, in practice
Price work means an agreed sum for a defined piece of work — “£X to strip and re-point the east wall” — paid regardless of whether it takes two days or four. It rewards efficiency and gives the client cost certainty, but only works cleanly when the scope was actually clear at the point of pricing.
The risk with price work is scope creep. If “strip and re-point the east wall” quietly becomes “and also sort the guttering while you’re up there,” that extra work needs to be logged separately — usually as daywork — or it becomes unpaid.
Where the arguments actually come from
Almost never from the choice of daywork vs price work itself. They come from:
- No record at the time. Hours written down two days later from memory are always disputable.
- No approval trail. A worker logging their own hours with nobody else confirming it invites pushback, fairly or not.
- Mixing the two without saying so. Extra daywork tacked onto a price-work job needs to be flagged as its own line, not absorbed silently.
What good hour-logging looks like
- Logged on site, on the day, by whoever did the work
- Marked clearly as daywork or price work at the point of entry
- Reviewed and approved from the office before it goes anywhere near an invoice
- Exportable — straight to payroll, the accountant, or the client, without re-typing anything
Banksman logs daywork and price work on site in seconds, reviewed and approved from the office — try the live demo, no card required.
FAQ
Can a job be both daywork and price work?
Yes — it's common for the main job to be priced and any variations or extras to be logged as daywork on top. The key is keeping them clearly separated in the record.
Who should approve daywork hours?
Someone other than the person who logged them, ideally from the office — not because workers can't be trusted, but because a second set of eyes on the record heads off disputes before they start.
What's the simplest way to avoid arguments about hours?
Log them on site, on the day, against the specific job — not in a notebook that gets transcribed later, and not from memory at the end of the week.