Quoting software for landscapers.
Groundwork is the trade where the biggest numbers are the ones that leave site. Muck away, plant hire, sub-base by the tonne. TradeDraft is built so those are priced as lines on the quote, not carried on your own account until the end.
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The lorries and the plant, on the quote
Muck away by the grab load. Digger and dumper by the week. Skips, and the licence if the road is involved. These are the costs that make a garden job a real job, and they are all separate items in the rate book so they can be priced and seen.
Protecting and making good the access route has its own line too — because the neighbour’s drive is somebody’s, and putting it right is work.
Driveways, and what needs permission
A driveway is one of the few garden jobs where drainage can turn into somebody’s planning question. The rate book carries a permeable surface as its own priced option, and the quote can name permissions as an exclusion so it is clear before anyone digs who is arranging what.
TradeDraft does not check planning and does not give advice on it. What it does is put the point on the document while there is still time to raise it.
Long jobs get paid in stages
A full garden runs for weeks and you are buying materials the whole way through. Set the payments against milestones in the work — excavation complete, sub-base down, surfaces laid — so the money moves as the job does. How to set the stages is in stage payments.
If a contractor is holding retention, the document shows the amount held and its release date. It stays off unless you turn it on.
What you find when you dig
Old foundations, a soakaway nobody mentioned, services in the wrong place. The standard terms already deal with what nobody could have seen at quote stage: the work pauses, you tell the customer what is there, and you price it before going any further. That price goes on an Additional Works sheet, signed before the digger moves again.
What it has nothing to do with
It does not design gardens, produce planting plans or drawings, and it does not check planning or drainage requirements. It handles the money side: the quote with the plant and the lorries on it, the acceptance, what turns up when you dig, and an invoice for each stage.
Questions worth asking first
Can I price muck away and plant hire separately?
Yes. Grab loads, digger and dumper hire, skips and the skip licence are already their own items in the starter rate book, so the biggest costs on a groundwork job are priced and visible rather than absorbed.
Does it deal with driveway drainage or planning?
No. TradeDraft does not check planning or drainage requirements and gives no advice on them. It lets you price a permeable surface as its own item and name permissions as an exclusion on the quote, so the question is on the document before work starts.
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.