A tradie app should take a job from the first phone call to the money in the bank without you typing the same thing twice. Most of them cover the middle well: quotes, jobs, invoices. Where they differ is at the edges: what happens when you miss a call, how they price extra users, whether they talk to your accounting software, and how much setting up they need before they're useful.
The best-known names in Australia include ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus, Jobber, simPRO and AroFlo, and there are plenty of others, Galaxera included. This guide is about how to choose between them without relying on anyone's sales pitch, ours included.
What a tradie app has to do
Start with the job's life, in order. A good app handles every step, and passes the details from one step to the next.
- Enquiry: capture the caller or the web form as a customer, with the address and what they want
- Quote: priced from your own rates, sent by email or text, accepted online
- Schedule: a calendar for you and the crew, with the job details one tap away
- Job: notes, photos, materials, checklists and time on site
- Invoice: made from the job, with your bank details and payment terms
- Get paid: reminders on overdue invoices, and payments marked off
- Accounting: invoices and payments synced with your accounting software
If an app makes you re-enter the customer or the materials anywhere along that line, you'll feel it every day.
The questions to ask before you sign up
Does it work the way your phone works?
You'll use it on site, in the ute and on the couch. Open it on your own phone during the trial and do a real quote standing up. If it only feels right on a laptop, it will end up being a laptop job you do at night.
Does it talk to your accounting software?
Find out exactly which accounting systems it connects to, and what moves in each direction. "Integrates with Xero" can mean invoices only, or invoices and payments both ways. It makes a difference: if payments don't come back, you still have to mark invoices paid by hand.
How is it priced?
Look at what you'll pay with your crew in a year's time, not today. Common models:
| Model | How it works | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Per user | A price for each person who logs in | The bill grows with every apprentice |
| Flat plans | A set price for a set number of users | What the next plan up costs |
| Usage | Charges per job, per text or per minute | Busy months costing more |
| Feature tiers | More features on dearer plans | The one feature you need sitting two plans up |
Do the sum for your own business. A price per user that looks cheap for one person can cost more than a flat plan for a crew of five.
Is everything on the plan you can afford?
Read the plan table, not the feature list. Many apps put scheduling for a crew, progress invoicing, or the accounting integration on higher plans. Make a list of the five things you need and check each one against the plan you'll actually buy.
What happens to your calls?
Most job apps start at the quote. But the job starts at the phone, and a missed call is often a lost job. Ask whether the app does anything about calls you can't answer, or whether you'll still need a separate answering service. More on that in how to stop missing calls.
How long does setting up take?
Ask what you have to enter before the first quote goes out: services, rates, templates, staff. An app that needs a week of setup tends to stay half set up. One that's useful the first afternoon tends to stick.
Can you get your data out?
Check you can export customers, jobs and invoices if you leave. You should never be locked in by your own records.
Run a fair trial
A free trial is only useful if you use it on real work. In two weeks, try to do the following inside the app:
- Load your ten most common services and their prices
- Quote three real jobs and send them to customers
- Turn an accepted quote into a job and schedule it
- Invoice a finished job the same day
- Let one overdue invoice be chased by the app
- Connect your accounting software and check the invoice landed correctly
- Have one crew member use it for a day
Then ask two questions. Did it save time this fortnight? And would you be happy if your customers saw everything it sent?
Moving from paper or another app
Switching is less painful than people expect if you do it in this order:
- Export your customer list as a spreadsheet and import it
- Set up your rates and services before anything else
- Start all new quotes and jobs in the new app from a set date
- Finish existing jobs and collect existing invoices in the old system
- Run both for a month, then close the old one
Where Galaxera fits, and where it doesn't
Galaxera is a job management app for tradies built in Australia, and it starts earlier than most: at the phone. It answers the calls you miss, works out what the job is and texts you the details. Then it drafts quotes and invoices from what you tell it, runs jobs and crew, chases overdue invoices on your schedule, and syncs invoices and payments with Xero. Every plan has the trade features, from the receptionist to Xero, and plans differ by seats and phone minutes. The Projects plan adds progress claims, retention and project reporting for staged work.
It isn't the right fit for everyone, and it's better to know that before a trial:
- It connects to Xero. If you use MYOB or QuickBooks, it doesn't sync with them.
- It's a web app that runs in your phone's browser. There's no app to download from the App Store or Google Play.
- It produces payslips, but it does not lodge Single Touch Payroll. You would still do that through your payroll or accounting software.
The short version
Write down the life of a job and check the app handles every step without retyping. Ask how it works on your phone, what it syncs with your accounting software, how the price grows with your crew, and whether the features you need are on the plan you'll buy. Then trial it on real jobs for two weeks before you decide.
Questions
The one that matches how your business runs. A sole trader who loses work to missed calls needs different things from a crew of ten running long projects. Write down the steps a job goes through, then trial two or three apps on real jobs and keep the one that saved the most time.
Per-user pricing is often cheaper for one person and dearer for a crew. Work out the yearly cost for the size you expect to be in twelve months, including any features you would need to move up a plan to get.
Xero handles your accounts. A tradie app handles the work before the invoice: enquiries, quotes, scheduling, jobs, photos and timesheets. The two work best connected, so the invoice is entered once.
A small business can usually switch in a few weeks. Import customers, set up rates first, start new jobs in the new app from a set date, and finish old jobs in the old system.