A schedule of rates is a list of prices for standard units of work: an hourly rate, a call-out fee, a rate per point, per metre, per square metre, per item replaced. Instead of quoting every job from scratch, each job is priced by applying the agreed rates to the quantities involved. Clients who send a steady flow of small jobs often ask for one up front: property managers, strata managers, real estate agencies, schools, councils and commercial landlords. Once agreed, it is usually fixed for a period, often a year, and jobs under a set value may go ahead on the rates alone without a separate quote.
It differs from a fixed price, which is one total for one defined job. Under a schedule of rates the client knows the price of each unit but not the total until the quantities are known.
In practice
A plumber agrees a schedule of rates with a real estate agency for its rental properties: call-out $95, labour $115 an hour charged in half hours, tap washer replacement $45 each, toilet cistern repair kit supplied and fitted $120, and a 15 per cent markup on any other parts at cost. A tenant reports two dripping taps. The plumber attends, spends an hour and a half and replaces two washers: $95, plus $172.50 for the labour, plus $90 for the washers, a total of $357.50. The agency's property manager approves the invoice without a quote because every figure is on the schedule.
Two cautions. A schedule of rates sets your prices for a long time, so build in the year's expected cost increases, or include a date when the rates are reviewed. And it can make you cheap for the client's most awkward jobs, since the per-item rate that suits an easy house barely covers a difficult one. Rates for access, height or after-hours work keep those jobs fair.
In Quote Desk
Your price list is a schedule of rates in practice: each item is a price with its unit, picked into quotes as jobs come in. The customer sees only the lines you put on a quote, never the list itself.