Quoting software for handymen.
Most maintenance work is priced in a doorway and confirmed by text. That is fine until the job is bigger than it looked, or the customer remembers the number differently. TradeDraft is for putting a proper document behind a small job without turning it into an afternoon of admin.
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How to price a call-out
Work it out from what a day has to earn. Say a day needs to bring in £280, and once you count the driving, the parking and the gaps between jobs, four call-outs is a realistic day. Each one is then worth £70 before materials. That is your call-out charge, and it should include the first hour on site, because most small jobs are done inside it.
Time after the first hour goes on at your hourly rate. Evenings and weekends carry an uplift, agreed before you set off rather than added to the bill. A minimum charge covers the visit that turns out to be five minutes’ work, because the drive cost you the same either way. Use your own day rate in place of the £280.
The rate book keeps each of those as its own item: callout with the first hour, additional time on site, half day, full day, minimum charge, and out-of-hours or weekend rate. Change the starting figures to your own and every quote is priced from them.
Materials ship with no price on purpose — you put in what you paid.
A small job still deserves a document
A quote with the work listed, the exclusions named and the terms attached is built from the same rates as a big job, and it is the difference between “you said fifty quid” and a page with a number on it. The customer accepts it on their phone, and the date and time are recorded against that version.
When the little job turns out not to be
A tap that needs the whole valve. A shelf into a wall with nothing behind it. Work you find once you are there becomes an Additional Works sheet with its own price, agreed before you carry on — which is a far easier conversation standing in the room than it is on the invoice.
Getting paid the same day
On domestic work the customer can pay by card the moment they accept, straight into your own Stripe account, or by bank transfer from the details on the document. For a trade whose jobs are small and frequent, being paid on the day rather than at the end of the month is most of the problem solved. More in getting paid. Whether a small job needs a written contract is in written contracts for small jobs.
What it has nothing to do with
It does not schedule or dispatch, hold a diary, or track your van stock. It does not register you as a waste carrier; if you take waste away, that licence is yours to hold. What it gives a small job is the paperwork a big one gets: a priced quote, a recorded yes, a priced extra if the job grows, and an invoice the same day.
Questions worth asking first
Is it worth it for small jobs?
Once your callout, hourly and day rates are in the rate book, a small job is priced from them like any other, and the customer accepts it on their phone with the date and time recorded. The value is in the small jobs that turn into arguments, not the ones that go smoothly.
Can I set a minimum charge and a weekend rate?
Yes. Both are items in the starter rate book — a minimum charge and an out-of-hours or weekend rate — so the uplift is on the quote rather than something you have to ask for afterwards.
How much is it?
£45 a month or £450 a year, flat, with no per-user charge. Start by 5 April and it’s £22.50 a month for your first 12 months.