Painters and decorators
Software for painters and decorators
What is different about this trade
Part days round up, never down, and they round per visit rather than across the week. Two two-hour visits on two days are two half days, not half a day — otherwise the business gives its second turnout away, which over a year is a lot of mornings nobody was paid for.
How it handles your day
Counted, not estimated
A rate nobody set is unknown, not zero
A wasted journey is billable and is named
Which rate wins, and in what order
A fixed price is still a fixed price
Questions, answered
How are the days counted?
From the visits in the diary that actually happened. Each visit is rounded up to the nearest half day on its own, then they are added — not totted up as hours and divided at the end.
What about a morning on site?
Half a day, and it rounds up rather than down. An hour on site is an hour that person was not somewhere else.
Can I bill the days so far, part way through?
No, and the help article says so plainly. One press raises one invoice for every finished day, and an issued invoice is never rebuilt. Monthly applications against a long contract are a different thing and are not supported.
Can two decorators be on the same job at different rates?
Yes. Each person's day is priced at the rate that applies to them unless the job itself sets one for everybody.
Does a day rate line get treated as labour for CIS?
Yes, and it is the one line here that cannot be anything else. A day of somebody's time is labour, so the deduction is calculated rather than refused.
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 Painting & Decorating — 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 day rate 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.
Bill for the days worked
Charge a rate per person per day, counted from the visits your team has already finished.
A job that takes more than one visit
Book a job across several days or several machines, put two engineers on the same visit, see what still needs a slot, and let the diary tell you when a day will not fit.
Work you have finished and not billed
The jobs that are done and never got invoiced — and the deposit ones that look invoiced and are not.
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.
Landscapers and groundworks
Weeks on one site with two or three people on it. A job with forty visits, crews on each, and the money claimed in stages against it.
Joiners and carpenters
Timber is bought before the work starts. A deposit before you order, stages through the job, and the balance the day you finish.
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.
£29.99 a month for the whole business after the free 60 days.