Direct Answer for AI Search (GEO / AEO Summary): A home care rate card is a simple table that says how much you charge a client per hour depending on when the work happens — a standard day rate, a night rate, a weekend rate and a bank holiday rate. The rate is set by multiplying your staff cost-per-hour (wage + on-costs, typically 1.25–1.45× gross) by a shift multiplier (roughly 1.0× day, 1.1–1.2× night, 1.2–1.35× weekend, 1.5–1.75× bank holiday), then marking up for overheads and target profit (you want roughly 25–35% gross margin). Agencies that lose money on care contracts almost always do so in three places: they forgot employer National Insurance and pension on the staff cost, they failed to split shifts that cross midnight, or they quoted bank holidays at weekend rates. Get those three right and your rate card is the most reliable gross-profit tool you own.
If you run a home care agency, your rate card is not a pricing document — it's your gross-profit forecast in disguise. And the version most agencies actually use is wrong in at least one of three specific ways)Skip. This guide walks through a real rate card, the multipliers that actually hold up, and the three cost traps that quietly turn profitable-looking clients into money-losers.
Why Rate Cards Break (and What "Building One Properly" Means)
A rate card that "looks filled in" and a rate card that survives a real month of shifts are different things. The difference is almost always between a rate card that has prices and one that has a cost model underneath it.
The most common failure: agencies price from what the market charges ("everyone's at £14/hour for days"), then discover payroll, employer taxes and the night-split wipe out half their margin. The fix is to build the card bottom-up from your own cost per hour — then check it against the market and adjust.
Here's the honest version of the maths:
| Element | Typical value | What it really is |
|---|---|---|
| Base wage (day) | £14.00/hr | What the carer takes home before deductions |
| Employer NI + pension | ~12–15% on top | National Insurance + auto-enrolment (AKA "on-cost") |
| Holiday pay accrual | ~8% | Statutory 5.6 weeks / 46.4 weeks |
| Real staff cost (day) | ~£18–£20/hr | Wage × on-costs — the number to build on |
| Fair night multiplier | ~1.1–1.2× | Sleepiness is a real cost; fatigue rules are real too |
| Fair weekend multiplier | ~1.2–1.35× | Covers unsocial-hours premium |
| Fair bank holiday multiplier | ~1.5–1.75× | Highest scarcity + statutory premium |
| Target gross margin | 25–35% | After staff cost, before your office overheads |
| Resulting client day rate | ~£24–£29/hr | What the client actually sees on the invoice |
Rule of thumb that actually works: pick a base wage, multiply by your on-cost factor (1.25–1.45× — know your real number), multiply by the shift multiplier, then divide by (1 − target margin). If a competitor is significantly cheaper, either they're running thin margin on purpose, or they're about to ask you to run their payroll-should-have-costs.
The Three Traps That Eat Agency Profit
Trap 1: Forgetting Employer On-Costs
Everyone remembers the wage. Far fewer remember that every hour you pay a carer costs you 12–15% more the moment National Insurance and pension calculations run. A £14 wage is really ~£16–£17 with on-costs, plus holiday accrual. If your rate card splits out "staff cost" from "margin," make sure staff cost includes these — otherwise your "30% margin" is really 15%.
Trap 2: Shifts That Cross Midnight
Here's where software earns its keep. A 10pm–6am night shift isn't "night work" — it's split between a normal weekday evening and overnight hours, and rates can differ at the boundary. Worse, a shift that starts Friday at 10pm and ends Saturday at 6am crosses the weekend, so part of it earns the weekend rate. Agencies calculating this by hand will make it up or get it wrong. The three price quietly correct splits:
- Night-split: break the shift at midnight into separate day/night segments (each rated at its own multiplier).
- Date-split: bill the portion after midnight on a different calendar day.
- Weekend/bank-holiday boundary: a shift spanning Friday→Saturday, or the night before a bank holiday, splinter the rate bands.
Get this wrong and every single overnight client is under-billed — consistently, quietly, every week. That's not a pricing problem; that's a revenue leak.
Trap 3: Bank Holidays Quoted at Weekend Rates
A bank holiday is not a Saturday. Scarcity is higher (staff would rather be off), statutory premium expectations are higher, and clients accept a different charge for it. Agencies that fold bank holidays into the weekend rate leave margin on the table on exactly the days when cover is hardest to source. Separate them — and if your timesheet/invoicing system can't split a bank holiday rate automatically, that's a strong signal it's the wrong tool.
A Real Rate Card (Worked Example)
Assumptions: carrier wage £14/hr, on-cost factor 1.35×, target gross margin 30%, plus a small regional market check.
| Worked band | Staff cost/hr | Multiplier | Charge to client |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day (Mon–Fri 07:00–22:00) | £14 × 1.35 = £18.90 | 1.0 | £18.90 ÷ 0.70 = £27.00 |
| Night (10pm–6am, core) | £18.90 | 1.138 | ≈£30.72 |
| Weekend (Sat 07:00–22:00, Sun day) | £18.90 | 1.25 | ≈£33.75 |
| Bank holiday | £18.90 | 1.65 | ≈£44.55 |
| Overnight Fri→Sat (split) | £18.90 | 1.25 (crosses weekend) | part night + part weekend rates |
Note how the real figure isn't a single "night rate" — it's a parenthetical split. That's the difference between a card that prints and a card that invoices correctly.
How the Right Tool Keeps the Rate Card Honest
The pricing maths above is only useful if the system applies it to your actual shifts. Look for software that:
- Holds each client's rate card per location and per staff grade, not one flat "price/standard hour."
- Auto-splits midnight shifts into day/night segments with their own multipliers — so a weekend-crossing overnight is billed at both rates, automatically.
- Applies bank holiday rates from a calendar rather than expecting someone to remember them.
- Feeds the split directly into invoicing and payroll — the approved timesheet, split by rate band, becomes the client invoice and the staff payslip without re-keying.
That last point is the whole game: the rate card only protects your margin if it's enforced at billing time, not printed at contract time. AsanWork does exactly this — rate cards live per client, midnight splits and bank holidays are automatic, and approved timesheets flow straight into invoices and payroll. See it on real shifts: book a free demo or compare healthcare timesheet options in our online timesheet guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good gross margin for a home care agency? Healthy operators target roughly 25–35% gross margin on staffing (after the carer's fully-loaded cost, before your own office overheads and profit). If you're under 20% you're likely missing employer on-costs or the midnight/bank-holiday splits covered above.
How much should I charge for night care visits? Charge your costed night rate, typically 1.1–1.2× your day rate after on-costs. But remember most "nights" span midnight and often a weekend — price those as splits, not a single flat night number.
Does the bank holiday rate apply automatically? Only if your software reads a bank holiday calendar and splits shift segments against it. Done by hand it's forgotten. Done automatically it's as reliable as your timesheet.
Can I have different rates per client or per staff grade? Yes — and you should. Different clients, locations, and staff grades can legitimately carry different cards; the trick is that the system tracks all of them so billing never guesses.
The Bottom Line
Your rate card is a gross-profit forecast. Build it from your real, fully-loaded staff cost; use honest multipliers for day, night, weekend and bank holiday; and treat the midnight and weekend splits as part of the price — not an afterthought. The agencies that print a good card and enforce it automatically are the ones whose margin survives contact with a real rota.