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Joiners and carpenters

Software for joiners and carpenters

The money goes out before it comes in. Materials are ordered, cut and paid for weeks before anybody signs anything off, and a job that runs long is a job financed out of your own account — so when the money arrives matters as much as how much of it there is.

What is different about this trade

The last payment stage is the remainder, never a percentage. Twenty, forty and forty per cent of £999.99 rounds to a penny more than the job, and a customer whose invoices total more than their quote does not conclude there is a rounding bug — they conclude you are at it. The balance absorbs the difference, always.

How it handles your day

A deposit before anything is ordered

The deposit is stage one of the schedule rather than a second mechanism bolted beside it, so what has been taken and what is left are the same arithmetic the quote used.

Stages that cannot drift

What has already been invoiced cannot be rescheduled — the stage is pinned to what it went out at and the balance takes the difference. Stages go out in order.

Your price list, priced your way

Stored net, always, with a straight question about VAT when you import your supplier's file — because a gross price file loaded into a net field overcharges by the VAT on every quote from then on, silently.

Margin off the lines, not the total

Profit is worked out from the line items, because the lines are net and the invoice total includes VAT, and mixing them flatters the margin by twenty per cent. A line with no cost is counted as unknown rather than free, and the report prints how much of the work it actually speaks for.

Year end, without the shoebox

Everything the year needs is already recorded as you go, and there is a records pack to hand over rather than a weekend of digging. Your accountant can have their own sign-in instead — the money and none of the operation.

Second-fixing for a builder

CIS is handled where it belongs, on the invoice: labour only, off the net, with the total unchanged and the deduction printed on the document the contractor is holding. An uncategorised line is refused by name rather than deducted on a guess.

A fit that takes a fortnight

One job with as many visits as it takes, each one a block of somebody's time. The job is the work; the diary entries are not the job.

Questions, answered

Can I take a deposit before ordering materials?

Yes, and it is the first stage of the payment schedule rather than a separate thing to reconcile later.

Do the stages always add up to the quote?

Yes. The final stage is whatever is left rather than a percentage, so rounding can never make the invoices total more than the job.

My supplier's price file includes VAT. Will that break anything?

You are asked on import. The price list stores net, so a gross file has to be converted — and the cost column is never converted, because it is already net and converting it would understate every margin on your reports.

Can I price by margin rather than typing a sell price?

Yes, though be aware the figure is markup on cost, which is a different number from an accountant's margin on the sale price. The calculator below shows both against the same money.

What does my accountant actually get?

Their own sign-in, which shows them the money and none of the operation — invoices, payments, credits and costs, not your customers' addresses or who is on what tomorrow. It runs for twelve months and does not renew itself, so an accountant you stop using stops being able to sign in without anybody having to remember.

Does it talk to Xero or QuickBooks?

Invoices, credit notes and refunds reconcile to Xero, QuickBooks and Sage. The figure that reaches the books is the one printed on the document your customer is holding, rather than a second engine working it out again and disagreeing by a penny.

I second-fix for builders. Does it handle CIS?

Yes. The deduction comes off labour only and off the net, the total on the invoice does not move, and a line nobody has marked as labour or materials is treated as unknown — it refuses by name rather than guessing at your tax. Statements run on HMRC tax months, the 6th to the 5th, and a deduction counts when they pay rather than when you invoiced.

What if the customer changes their mind halfway through?

Extra work is priced and authorised on its own before it is done, and what has already been invoiced is left alone. An issued invoice's total never moves — what is no longer owed is carried by a credit note.

How much is it?

£29.99 a month for the whole business — every feature, every person, no add-ons. 60 days free and no card to start.

Before you start

When you sign up you are asked what the business does. Pick Joinery & Carpentry — the app uses it to decide what to show you, so the screens arrive already suited to the work rather than needing switching off one at a time.

The arithmetic behind this is free to use without an account — try the markup and margin calculator, which runs the same code the invoices do.

See it being done

Step-by-step guides with a short recording of each one, free to read without an account.

Take the money in stages

A deposit, then materials, then the balance — each one dated, each one its own invoice, always adding up to the quote.

Price a line by its markup or its margin

Put in what it costs you and the percentage you want, and let the price follow.

Import a price list from a spreadsheet

Four hundred parts in one go, with the VAT question asked rather than assumed.

All the guides and videos →

Also worth a look

Most businesses on this list do more than one of these. It is the same product and the same price either way.

Builders and main contractors

Months, stages, subcontractors and retention — with money held back recorded properly so it never reads as an overdue invoice.

Painters and decorators

Priced by the day more often than by the job. Days counted from the diary rather than estimated, part days rounded up, and never to zero.

All trades and field teams →

Try it on your own work

60 days free with everything switched on, and no card to start. If you would rather ask something first, there is a person on the other end.

Start your 60-day free trialCheck what you could be missingTalk to a person07976 748850

£29.99 a month for the whole business after the free 60 days.

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