One tenner 
the whole app two weeks free 
no contract 
For carpenters
Quote the wardrobes before you leave.
You send the quote or invoice straight to their phone by text or email. It opens as a proper document with your name and colours on it, and they pay however you take it: card, bank transfer or cash. Easy for you to send, easy for them to pay.
Quotes · Invoices · Reminders · Bookings ·
Expenses · Certificates · Payments · Mileage ·
Wardrobes,staircases,secondfix.YourPAkeepsthediarystraight,warnsyoubeforeyoupromiseTuesdaytotwopeople,andfilesthesupplierreceiptagainstthejob.Nothingwaitingforyouafterwork.Youcanputyourfeetupknowingthateverythingistakencareofforyou.
What TradePA is, and what it costs
TradePA is an app for UK trades, including carpenters and joiners, that does your admin while you talk. Say the job and it writes the quote, drafts the invoice, books it in the diary and writes the reminder when someone hasn’t paid. It gets the finished work signed off on your phone too. £10 a month, two weeks free.
The whole app. Every feature, no add-ons, and it does not go up when the work does.
No card, no contract. Put a real job through and see how TradePA can change your business.
A Job Completion Sign-off the customer puts their name to on your phone, so the snagging is agreed before you invoice.
Say it with your hands full
What you say, and what you get back
You say
“Quote Helen Marsh two thousand four hundred for fitted wardrobes in the back bedroom at 5 Ash Grove.”
A £2,880 itemised quote with VAT and your logo on it. You preview your quote to make sure you are happy, before sending to your customer by text, WhatsApp or your own custom branded email.
You say
“What should I be charging for the staircase at 11 Fairview Road?”
Quote Helper shows what the job costs you and what your expected profit would be, allowing you to quote with ease based on your own cost and pricing data. Timber, ironmongery, finish, labour, each with your costs versus what you charge your customer. You see the margin before you send it, not after the job is done.
You say
“Ash Grove wardrobes are in and she has signed them off. Invoice the balance, twelve hundred plus VAT.”
Your PA updates that job and drafts the £1,440 balance invoice, ready for you to preview and send.
You say
“Who still owes me?”
Your PA already knows. Every invoice you have sent, what has landed and what has gone past its date. Your Trade PA writes the reminder and you tap send. Nothing goes to your customer that you have not okayed.
The paperwork
First fix, second fix, and the snagging list
A carpentry job is rarely finished in one go. First fix, then somebody else is in, then you are back for second fix, then there is a list of three small things. Every one of those is a chance for the price to drift. Put each on the quote as its own line, and get a sign-off at the end so the snagging is agreed before the invoice goes out.
2 visits
What most carpentry jobs actually take, once second fix and the snagging are counted. Put both on the quote as their own lines and nobody is surprised by the second invoice - and every version of that quote stays on the job.
The sign-off
You talk to your PA, it writes the job sheet. Ready for them to sign.
01
It fills itself in
Your PA already has half of it
Pick the job and the customer, and the address and the work you logged come straight off it. Your PA asks you for whatever is missing and you answer as you would to a real person. The job sheet fills itself in as you talk.
02
Signed both ways
You sign it, then your customer does
You sign the job sheet where it needs it. Your customer can sign in person on your phone, or you email them a copy to sign on theirs. Once they have signed, the signed copy comes back onto the job for your records.
03
Kept for next time
It all stays on the job
Every quote, every invoice, every photo and the signed sheet all hang off that customer and that address. When they ring next year about the thing you did, it is one search, not a rummage through your camera roll.
The questions carpenters ask us
First fix, second fix, and the snag list that turns up three weeks later.
Sign-offs
There’s no certificate for a stud wall. There is evidence, dated, sat on the job.
Is there a carpentry certificate in there?
No. The certificates TradePA holds are electrical and gas: EIC, EICR, Minor Works and CP12. It doesn’t pretend to do yours. The one you’ll use is Job Completion Sign-off, which needs no scheme membership. You sign, hand the phone to the customer, they sign on the screen, and the PDF lands on the job ready to email or text.
Fire doors. Does it certify those?
No. If you’re on a third-party scheme for fire door installation, that scheme’s paperwork is yours and it stays with them. What TradePA keeps is the job: the address, the notes, and photos of every leaf, gap, hinge and intumescent strip before somebody paints over the lot. In a dispute that’s usually what gets asked for anyway.
Can I keep the snag list on the job?
Add notes as you go. “Add a note to the Wilson job: bathroom door binding, ease it once the plaster’s dried.” The PA can add notes but it deliberately can’t edit or delete them, so nothing quietly changes after the fact. If you do need to change one, that’s done in the app.
Do photos actually stick to the right job?
Yes. Send a photo in chat and it works out what it is: finished work goes on the job, a receipt becomes an expense with the merchant, amount and VAT read off it. If it genuinely can’t tell, it asks instead of guessing. Photos are resized before they upload, so a full day on site doesn’t eat your data.
Where does the job history live?
On the job page. Every status change, quote sent, quote re-sent, invoice sent, payment in and chase out, dated and in order. When a site manager tells you second fix was three weeks ago and you know it was last Tuesday, that’s the screen you open.
Quoting
Price them apart. It’s the only way the variations stay honest.
Can I quote first and second fix separately?
Quote them as separate lines, then invoice them as separate stages on the same job. First fix invoiced when it’s done, second fix when it’s done, and the job doesn’t close until both are settled. Nobody should be waiting on a plasterer’s drying time to get paid for the studwork.
How do I price per door, per metre, per stud wall?
However you already price. A line item is description, price and quantity, so eight doors hung and ironmongery fitted at your rate per door is one line, and skirting by the metre is another. Tell your PA: “quote the Wilson job, eight doors hung at ninety-five each, and forty-two metre of ogee skirting at eleven a metre.” Then read it before it goes.
Timber prices move. My quote doesn’t.
Put a valid-until date on the document, it’s a field you can set. Then price off your own list rather than memory: Your Materials holds what a length of CLS or a sheet of 18mm ply costs you and what you charge, and when you add it to a job it asks what that cost covers, so a pack of six prices as one. Update it the day the merchant puts it up and every quote after that is right.
Can I do it from the van?
That’s the whole idea. Say “Hey Cara” and talk: the customer, the job, the price. The quote gets written on your own template with your logo while you’re driving. The speech side is tuned for how trades actually talk, which is why “three grand” comes out as £3,000 and not as three dollars.
Does it send the quote for me?
Yes. You tap send and it goes out by text, WhatsApp or email — in your branding, right down to the colours on the email itself. You read it first and decide when it goes, so nothing leaves without you. Sending flips the quote to sent and moves the job along, and you get told when the customer opens it.
Money & the day
Second fix is where the money hides. Here’s the part that helps.
The job’s done bar two snags. Can I invoice?
Mark it part done and you get “Invoice for work done”, with the rest going on “Invoice next stage” later. The customer’s invoice page shows them the whole picture: job total, invoiced, paid, still to pay, plus a line saying more will be invoiced as the work goes on. That’s a few fewer phone calls about whether that was the final bill.
Who’s late, without me going through it all?
Ask it, “who owes me money”, or open your task list. It works out who’s past their due date, whose payment lands in the next three days, which finished jobs have no invoice and which quotes have gone quiet. One at a time, full screen, each with the button that sorts it: send the reminder, mark it paid, skip.
Half the job’s cash and half’s on the card.
Both, and part-payments are proper first-class here. “Marigold paid half by bank transfer” goes on the ledger as its own row, and the invoice only flips to paid when the running total gets there. Cash, card, bank transfer and cheque all record properly, and a double-tap won’t log the same payment twice.
Card payments. What do they actually cost me?
1.5% plus 20p on standard personal credit and debit cards, taken out of the payment so your customer is never charged extra online. Business and company cards are 2.8% plus 20p, and cards issued outside the UK cost more. It runs on your own Stripe account, so the money goes straight to your bank. TradePA never holds it.
Do I have to keep the diary in my head?
Book it by voice: “book second fix at the Wilson job Tuesday at eight.” It checks for clashes before it saves, including tight gaps under half an hour where you’d never make the drive, and it won’t book in the past. Book a customer in and they get a confirmation from your business name, then a reminder 24 hours before, with replies coming to you.
One plan. The whole app.
TradePA
£10/mo
- Two weeks free, no card needed
- Every feature switched on, day one
- A tenner a month. That’s the whole price list.
- Cancel any time. No phone call needed.
