Running a trade business is one thing. Running the paperwork that comes with it is another.
You finish a job, put your tools away and think you’re done.
Then you remember you’ve got to write the invoice.
And chase yesterday’s invoice.
And find the certificate a customer wants.
And enter the receipt you put in the van.
And update the spreadsheet.
The job might be finished. The admin isn’t.
You have quotes in one place, expenses in another, certificates somewhere else and a spreadsheet keeping track of mileage.
Then a customer asks:
“Can you send me that certificate again?”
And you spend 15 minutes looking for it.
Or you realise you’ve forgotten to chase an invoice.
Or January arrives and you’re trying to work out what you’ve actually earned, what you’ve spent and how much tax you’re going to owe.
The work isn’t necessarily the problem.
It’s the admin around the work.
So the question is: how much of that admin could you get rid of by having your business information in one place?
How much business admin are you actually juggling?
Even a one-person business can have a surprising amount of administration.
You might need to manage:
- Customers
- Jobs
- Quotes
- Invoices
- Payments
- Expenses
- Receipts
- Mileage
- Certificates
- RAMS
- Subcontractors
- CIS deductions
- VAT
- Tax
- Job documents
- Timesheets
The traditional approach is to use a mixture of:
WhatsApp + Excel + paper + email + accounting software + folders on your phone.
It works — until it doesn’t.
The problem isn’t necessarily that any individual system is bad.
It’s that nothing is connected.
What if it was all in one place?
That’s the idea behind TradeyUK.
Instead of quotes being in one place, expenses somewhere else and job information scattered across your phone, email and spreadsheets, TradeyUK brings the core administration of your trade business together.
That includes:
Quotes and invoices
Create professional quotes, send them to customers and convert accepted quotes into invoices.
You can also track what’s been paid, what’s outstanding and what’s overdue.
Expenses
Record business expenses, attach receipts and categorise them for your records.
Mileage
Keep a mileage log and calculate the tax claim using HMRC’s approved mileage rates.
Certificates
Upload your trade qualifications and other certificates and receive alerts before they expire.
That can include certificates such as Gas Safe, NICEIC, CSCS, PLI and IPAF.
Jobs and documents
Keep job information, RAMS, photographs, drawings and compliance documents together rather than searching through your phone or email.
CIS
For businesses operating under CIS, TradeyUK includes tools for calculating deductions and keeping subcontractor information and records together.
Getting the price right is where the money starts
One of the biggest problems in the trades isn’t actually getting work.
It’s getting the price right.
If you underestimate the materials, forget the waste, underestimate labour or don’t properly account for your margin, you can end up working hard for very little profit.
TradeyUK’s Job Pricer is designed to help with this.
You can enter labour, materials, quantities and wastage, apply your margin and then push the resulting figures into a quote or invoice. Tradeyuk
That’s more than simply keeping your admin tidy. It’s helping you make a better commercial decision before you commit to the job.
And when it comes to your accountant?
This is another area where having everything together becomes useful.
TradeyUK can bring together information such as:
- Sales invoices
- Expenses
- Mileage
- CIS deductions
- VAT information
- Customer records
The platform also provides accountant exports in PDF and CSV formats, with Xero integration available.
So instead of handing your accountant a collection of receipts, spreadsheets and emails at the end of the year, your records can already be organised.
How much does TradeyUK cost?
TradeyUK currently costs £20 per month, with a 28-day free trial and no card required to start.
That’s less than the cost of many individual business subscriptions — but the important question isn’t whether £20 is cheap.
It’s whether TradeyUK saves you more than £20 worth of time, mistakes or missed opportunities each month.
There are no separate add-ons for the core tools.
You can try the platform first and decide whether it actually makes your business easier to run.
Is TradeyUK actually worth it?
That’s the real question.
If you’ve already got a system that works brilliantly, there’s probably no reason to change it simply for the sake of changing.
But if you’re currently:
- Creating quotes manually
- Chasing invoices
- Keeping expenses in a spreadsheet
- Searching for certificates
- Forgetting mileage
- Storing job documents in different places
- Trying to keep track of CIS
- Doing your business admin late at night
then it’s probably worth looking at how much time your current system is costing you.
Because your time has a value.
If a system costing £20 a month saves you even a couple of hours of admin, it doesn’t take much to make the maths work.
And if it helps you avoid one missed invoice, one lost certificate or one badly priced job, the potential value is considerably greater.
Don’t take our word for it. Try it.
The best way to find out whether TradeyUK suits your business isn’t to read another sales pitch.
Put it to work on your own business.
You can start with a 28-day free trial with no card required and explore the platform before deciding whether to continue. Tradeyuk
START YOUR FREE 28-DAY TRADEYUK TRIAL
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