Ronald Raygun wrote:
John Rumm wrote:

On 14/11/2010 15:02, ad wrote:

Included in your bill should be the amount of labour charge,
itemising any costs/time involved in obtaining it, then VAT if you
are registered. This is what transparency is all about. Buying
cheap on the internet and then whistling 'List Price' out of your
rear-end to the customer is immoral and should be illegal too.

You seem to have fundamental lack of understanding of how a
commercial enterprise needs to work. If you simply pass good through
your business at the "price you paid", you are losing money on every
single one.

I don't see why that should be the case. Where it is customary to
charge customers on a time and materials basis, it's perfectly OK to
charge for materials "at cost" (without markup), but instead to make
sure you count the time involved in procuring said materials.

That is not how it is done. The markup also acts as a guarantee.

A good example would be say new double glazing. A fitter charges a mark up
on the units he fits. If six months later one of the units fails then he
will then come back and change the unit for free. The manufacturer supplies
the new unit at their cost but the fitter gives his time up without charging
the customer again. Now if the customer had only payed the fitter the price
he paid and a unit fails then the customer would have to pay the fitter for
his time to replace failed unit.

--
Adam