Trades software
Job management software for trades, built by people who run one
Quoting in a spreadsheet, scheduling in a diary, job sheets on paper in a van, invoicing typed up again on a Sunday evening. That is how most trades businesses run, and it works until it does not. We build the system that replaces it, and TradeyHub is the proof rather than the pitch.
- TradeyHub replaced 5+ sheets
- Works on a phone in a van
- Fixed price, quoted first
Where the hours actually go in a trades business
The work is not the problem. Most trades businesses we speak to are good at the work and busy enough. What is eating the margin is everything either side of it: writing the quote, chasing the quote, arranging the visit, rearranging the visit, writing up what was done, turning that into an invoice, and chasing the invoice.
Nearly all of that involves typing the same information more than once. The customer's details on the quote, again on the job sheet, again on the invoice. The job description written in a van and typed up that evening. The parts used, noted on paper and reconciled a week later if at all.
For a one-person business that is an evening a week. For a firm with four or five vans it is somebody employed largely to do re-entry, plus the jobs that get invoiced late or not at all because the paperwork never surfaced.
This is the most common starting point for custom software development.
Proof
TradeyHub: five spreadsheets, one system
TradeyHub is a job management platform for trades businesses that we designed, built and still run today. The business behind it was tracking jobs, quotes, scheduling, customer records and invoicing across separate spreadsheets, retyping between them, with no reliable way to see the state of the work.
It is the clearest evidence we can offer that this is work we do rather than work we would attempt. When we talk about replacing the paperwork in a trades business, we are describing something we operate rather than something we have read about.
Read the TradeyHub case studyWhat a trades system needs to do
Chosen from what actually breaks, rather than from a feature comparison.
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Quote once, properly
Quotes built from your own rates and materials, sent while the detail is fresh, and chased automatically when nobody replies. Most trades businesses lose more work to unchased quotes than to being too expensive.
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Schedule that survives a bad morning
Jobs assigned to people and days, moved when the first call of the day overruns, and visible to everyone without a group chat. Travel between jobs counted rather than assumed.
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Job sheets from the van
What was done, what was used, photographs before and after, and a signature, captured on a phone at the job rather than written on paper and typed up later. This is the single biggest saving in most firms.
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Invoice from the job sheet
The invoice is generated from what was actually recorded, so it goes out the same day rather than at the weekend, and it matches what happened rather than what somebody remembers.
Buy a product first, if one fits
There are good off-the-shelf job management products aimed at trades, and for a business running a fairly standard operation one of them will be cheaper and quicker than anything we could build. We will say so, and name one, rather than sell you a project you did not need.
Where a build earns its place is when the work has a shape the products do not handle. Pricing driven by a calculation nobody else uses. Compliance certificates that have to be produced in a particular form. Jobs that belong to a property or a landlord rather than to a person. Subcontractors who need part of the system and not the rest. Or the position plenty of firms reach, where a product is being held in shape by three integrations and a spreadsheet.
The other trigger is per-user pricing. Products that cost a manageable amount for two vans cost a great deal for eight, and the value rarely scales at the same rate as the fee.
The arithmetic for deciding is set out in our comparison of off-the-shelf against custom software.
Start with the evening job
Whatever you or somebody in the office does on a Sunday evening is where to begin. It is usually invoicing, and it is usually caused by job sheets arriving on paper.
The free review maps that end to end, counts what it costs across a year, and gives you a written plan and a fixed quote. You keep both whether you go ahead or not.
Get in touch
Talk to us about software for trades
A few lines is enough. We will tell you straight whether we can help, what it would cost and how quickly we can be there. No hard sell, and no follow-up sequence if you decide against it.
- We reply within one working day
- A straight answer, including when it is no
- Free process review available, before any money changes hands
Would rather just ring? 01623 354250, Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm.
Frequently asked questions
If the answer is not here, ask us. You will get a straight one, from someone who does the work.
Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm
What is job management software?
One system holding quotes, scheduling, job sheets and invoicing, so a job is entered once and moves through stages instead of being retyped between a spreadsheet, a diary and an accounts package. For most trades businesses the biggest single gain is job sheets captured on a phone at the job rather than written on paper and typed up later.
Should we buy a product or have one built?
Buy, unless you can name the specific thing the products will not do. Where your pricing rules, certificates, property records or subcontractor arrangements genuinely do not fit, or where per-user pricing has outgrown the value, a build starts to make sense. We will tell you which side of that you are on.
How much does it cost?
A focused first system replacing one process end to end typically lands in the low thousands, with a fixed price agreed before work starts. Building everything at once costs far more and is a worse idea, because a system that arrives complete tends not to get adopted.
Will it work on a phone with no signal?
It has to. Job sheets get filled in in plant rooms, lofts and basements. Anything built for site use has to hold what was entered and send it when the signal returns, and that gets tested rather than assumed.
Will the lads actually use it?
Only if it is faster than paper for them personally, which is a design problem rather than a training one. A job sheet that takes four taps and a photograph gets used. One that asks fourteen questions gets filled in badly in the van park at five o'clock, which is worse than paper.
Can it connect to our accounts package?
Usually, and it is worth doing. Invoices raised from job sheets landing in accounts without re-entry removes the last piece of double typing, and it is normally the second thing we connect after the first version is running.
