A call-out fee is what a trade charges to attend a job and assess it. It pays for the trip there and back, the fuel and running costs of the vehicle, the time spent arranging the visit on the phone and the first inspection. Some businesses fold a set amount of labour into it, commonly the first quarter or half hour on site. Others treat it purely as the cost of arriving and charge labour from the moment work begins. Either way, it is charged per visit rather than per hour, and it is different from a minimum charge, which sets the least a whole visit can cost, and from a travel charge, which grows with the distance driven.
In practice
The fee causes trouble only when the customer meets it for the first time on the invoice. Said on the phone and written on the quote, it is rarely questioned.
Consider a plumber whose call-out fee is $130 and includes the first 30 minutes of work. A dripping tap takes 20 minutes and a $14 washer kit, so the bill is $144. At the next house a blocked drain takes 90 minutes: the fee covers the first half hour, and the remaining hour is charged at $110, so the bill is $240 before any parts. Both customers were told the same rule before the van left the yard, and both bills follow from it.
Two choices are worth making on purpose and stating plainly. First, whether the fee is credited against the job if the customer goes ahead with the quoted work. Second, what the fee is outside business hours, and which hours count. A separate after-hours figure, named as such, is far easier to defend at eleven at night than a surcharge the customer did not expect. The guide to explaining call-out fees to customers covers the wording.
In Quote Desk
Add the fee to your price list as an item priced per visit, with an after-hours version as a second item. Every quote then picks it from the drop-down, so it is never forgotten on a busy day. Whether it is credited, and what it includes, belongs in the note under the lines.