Interactive example · Trades
A job management app for tradies, built around how your business already runs
Most trade businesses we talk to run on an off-the-shelf app and a pile of workarounds: a spreadsheet for margins, a group chat for the schedule, someone re-typing invoices into Xero on Friday. Below is a working version of the alternative. It's a fictional Ballarat plumber with sample jobs, and you can use all of it.
In short
A custom job management app takes a trade business from enquiry to paid invoice in one system: quotes built from your own price book and margin rules, a schedule the office and the techs share live, job cards with photos and customer sign-off on a phone, and invoices that sync straight to Xero or MYOB.
Interactive demo: Job management for tradies
Live demo · Kerr Plumbing & Gas, Ballarat is a fictional business with sample data. Nothing you do here is saved or sent.
- Quote the new enquiryA website enquiry lands a few seconds in. Build a good-better-best quote and send it.
- Schedule the accepted jobThe customer accepts online. Pick the right tech; the app suggests who's nearby and licensed.
- Finish a job on the phoneOn the tools view, tick the checklist, add a photo and get the customer's signature.
- Invoice it into XeroTurn the completed job into an invoice and sync it. Watch the office numbers move.
One shared job list. Change it on either side.
Kerr Plumbing & Gas
Ballarat · 3 techs
- Jobs this week
- 11
- Invoiced
- $4,775
- Quotes awaiting
- 2
- Ready to invoice
- $310
This week
Crew schedule
- Scheduled
- In progress
- Complete
- Invoiced
Dean
Senior plumber
2 jobs
Priya
Gasfitter
1 job
Liam
Apprentice
0 jobs
Free all day
What you just used
Every screen is a decision about how the work runs
Quotes from your price book, with your margin rules
Line items come from your own price list, with good, better and best options so customers choose rather than haggle. The margin guard is a rule you set: drop below it and the quote needs sign-off. Off-the-shelf tools can't encode that, so it ends up living in the owner's head.
Customers accept online
The quote goes by SMS and email with a link to accept. Acceptance moves the job straight into the scheduling queue, so nothing waits on someone noticing an email.
Scheduling that knows who can do the job
Gas work goes to a licensed gasfitter. Jobs cluster by suburb. The suggestion you saw came from rules like those, and yours would carry your own: licences, van stock, apprentices who can't work alone.
One job, two screens, always in step
The office board and the tech's phone read the same record. A job completed in Wendouree shows as complete in the office before the van leaves the kerb. No end-of-day ring-around.
Proof of work on the job card
Checklists, photos, materials used, time on site and a customer signature, all captured where the work happens. When a dispute comes up six months later, the evidence is attached to the job.
Invoices that reach Xero by themselves
Labour and materials from the job card become the invoice, with GST handled, and it syncs to Xero or MYOB with a payment link. Friday's re-typing session disappears.
Built for you
Your rules, not a template's
The demo is one plumber's version. Built for you, the rules are yours:
- Your price book imported, with supplier cost updates if your wholesaler offers a feed
- Your quoting logic: call-out rules, after-hours rates, minimum margins, deposit thresholds
- Your crew structure: licences, apprentices, subcontractors, multiple vans or depots
- Your job types, each with its own checklist, photos and compliance forms (certificates of compliance included)
- Your customers' channels: SMS, email, a customer portal, or all three
- Your data brought across from ServiceM8, Tradify, simPRO or spreadsheets
Connects to what you already use
Where a tool offers an API or a calendar feed, the build talks to it directly. Your data stays in accounts you own.
- Xero
- MYOB
- Stripe
- Square
- Google Calendar
- Outlook
- SMS
- Google Maps
- Your website forms
Custom build or off-the-shelf app?
ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus and simPRO are good products that thousands of Australian trades run on happily. The question is whether your business fits their shape.
| Criteria | Off-the-shelf app | Custom-built | Spreadsheets and group chats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to start | Days | Weeks to a couple of months | Already running |
| Up-front cost | Low | A fixed-price build | None |
| Ongoing cost | Per user, per month, rising as you hire | Hosting and support, flat as you grow | Hidden in admin hours |
| Fits your quoting rules | If they match the template | Exactly, because they're written in | Only in someone's head |
| Who owns the data and the code | The vendor holds it; exports vary | You do | You do, scattered |
| Best when | You're under about ten people and your process is standard | You've outgrown the template or the per-seat bill | You're a one-person operation just starting out |
How we'd build yours
Fixed price, agreed before we start
Map one real job, start to finish
A two-hour session with you and whoever runs the office. We follow an actual job from enquiry to payment and write down every step, workaround and rule.
Fix the scope and the price
You get a written scope: what's in the first version, what's deliberately left out, and one fixed price. Nothing starts until you've approved it.
Build in fortnightly slices
Quoting first, usually, because it's where the money is. You use each slice on real jobs while the next is built, so the edge cases surface early.
Move your data and switch over
Customers, job history and price lists come across from your current system. We run both side by side for a week or two, then switch.
What moves the price
Custom work is quoted individually, at a fixed price, once the scope is written down. These are the things that make the biggest difference.
- Number of job types
- Each with its own checklist, forms and pricing logic.
- Integrations
- Xero is standard. Supplier feeds, GPS tracking or a customer portal add to it.
- Data migration
- Clean exports are quick. Years of messy spreadsheets take longer.
- Offline use
- Techs working in rural areas without signal need the phone app to work offline.
When you shouldn't build this
If you're under about ten people and your process looks like everyone else's, stay on ServiceM8 or Tradify. They're cheaper, proven, and you'll be running tomorrow. Custom starts to make sense when you're paying for a lot of seats, fighting the software every day, or your quoting and scheduling rules are part of why you win work. We'll tell you on the first call which side of that line you're on.
Want this, with your name on it?
Tell us how the work runs today. We'll reply within one business day with what we'd build first, what we'd leave out, and whether an off-the-shelf tool would serve you better.
Common questions
Software that runs the life of a job in one place: the enquiry, the quote, the schedule, the work on site and the invoice. The office and the techs in the field see the same live record, so nobody chases paperwork or re-types it into the accounts at the end of the week.
Not by default. Off-the-shelf apps are cheaper and faster to start, and they suit most small trade businesses. A custom build wins when your quoting or scheduling rules don't fit their templates, when per-user fees across a growing team add up, or when you want to own the system outright.
Yes. Completed jobs become invoices in Xero or MYOB automatically, with GST handled, and payment status can flow back so the office sees what's paid without logging into the accounts.
The field view is built for a phone first. Where techs work in areas with patchy coverage, it can be built to work offline and sync when signal returns. That adds to the build, so we only include it where it's needed.
Usually, yes. Customers, sites, price lists and job history can be exported from most systems and spreadsheets and imported, so you start with a full database rather than an empty one.
It depends on how many job types and integrations are in the first version. We scope a deliberately narrow first release, quote it at a fixed price, and build it in fortnightly slices you can use on real jobs as they land.
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Last reviewed . The business in the demo is fictional; names, prices and bookings are sample data.