Trades software · New Zealand
Job management software built around how your crews actually work.
When Fergus, simPRO or Tradify almost fits but forces your team to work around it — or the whole operation still runs on a shared spreadsheet and a whiteboard — the fix is software shaped to your workflow. Tally Digital builds custom quoting, scheduling and job-management systems for electrical, plumbing, building, HVAC and civil firms, wired to Xero and your suppliers, and yours to own.
In short
Custom job management software for builders and trades in NZ
Custom job management software for builders and trades means a quoting, scheduling and job-tracking system built around your workflow instead of one you bend your business to fit. In practice that is quote-to-job-to-invoice in one flow with your own pricing and markup rules, a schedule your office and field crews both trust, live job costing against the estimate, and the integrations that stop anyone re-keying a number into Xero or a supplier order. For most trades businesses an off-the-shelf product like Tradify, Fergus or simPRO is the right call and cheaper — custom is for the firm whose process no product fits, or who needs a customer portal, a pricing engine or a system link the product simply cannot do.
What we build
What we build for trades businesses
Most trades projects are one of these, or a few of them joined up. If it touches a quote, a job, a crew or an invoice and your current tool fights you on it, it is in scope.
Custom quoting & estimating
Your real pricing logic in software — labour rates, material markups, prelims, PC sums and provisional items, assemblies you reuse across jobs, and variations tracked against the original. Quotes that come out consistent whether it is the estimator or a project manager pricing them.
Scheduling & dispatch
A board the office and the field both trust: crews and subbies assigned to jobs, day and week views, recurring maintenance visits, and changes that reach the person on the tools instead of living in someone’s head or a group chat.
Job tracking & live costing
Every job from lead to sign-off with its own timeline, photos, site notes, timesheets and materials — costed live against the estimate so you see the margin slipping while you can still do something about it, not at invoice time.
Field capture for crews
A phone-first job view for the people on site: today’s work, site details, health-and-safety and pre-start checks, photos and hours logged from the van — reliable on a rural signal and syncing when it drops back into coverage.
Xero, supplier & freight integrations
Invoices, bills and contacts flowing to Xero without re-keying; purchase orders and pricing pulled from suppliers; freight booked and tracked. The plumbing that makes a quote, a PO and an invoice agree with each other on their own.
Client & subbie portals
A login where a homeowner, builder or main contractor sees quote status, progress photos, variations and invoices — or where subcontractors pick up work, submit hours and upload their dockets — instead of it all landing in your inbox.
In depth
How to think about custom software for a trades business
When Tradify, Fergus or simPRO is the right choice — honestly
For most trades businesses an off-the-shelf job-management product is the right answer, and the honest one. Tradify, Fergus, AroFlo, ServiceM8 and simPRO are mature, well-supported, and cheap next to a custom build — they handle quoting, scheduling, timesheets and Xero out of the box, and someone else maintains them. If one of them fits how you work, use it, and any decent developer should tell you so rather than sell you a build. Custom earns its place only when a product genuinely cannot bend to your process: a pricing model it will not represent, a workflow across trades or entities it was never designed for, a portal or integration it does not offer, or a licence-per-user cost that has quietly grown past what a system you own would cost. If the product fits, that is the cheaper win — full stop.
The signs you have actually outgrown the product
The tell is not that the software is imperfect — every tool is. It is that your team has built a second system around it: quotes still priced in a spreadsheet because the estimating engine cannot do your markups or assemblies, a whiteboard or a separate calendar because the scheduler does not match how you dispatch, exports re-keyed by hand because two systems will not talk, or workarounds that a new hire needs a week to learn. When you are paying per seat for a product and also paying someone to paper over its gaps, the product has stopped being the cheap option. That is the point where software shaped to your workflow — one source of truth from quote to invoice — starts costing less than the licences plus the manual labour plus the errors.
The workflow across quoting, scheduling and job costing
A trades build usually lives or dies on one flow: a quote becomes a job, the job gets scheduled and worked, materials and hours land against it, and it invoices — with variations and margin visible the whole way. The hard parts are the trade-specific ones. Estimating that carries your labour rates, supplier pricing, markups, prelims and provisional sums, and reuses assemblies you price again and again. A schedule that survives contact with reality — reassignments, weather days, callbacks and recurring maintenance. Costing that compares committed and actual against the estimate in real time. Get that spine right and the rest — timesheets, POs, dockets, sign-offs — hangs off it cleanly instead of scattering across a spreadsheet, an inbox and a group chat.
Integrations: Xero, suppliers and freight
Most of the value in a trades system is in the integrations, because that is where the double-entry and the errors live. Xero is almost always the first one — invoices, bills, contacts and payments syncing both ways so a job that closes in the system shows up correctly in the accounts without anyone re-typing it. Supplier links matter nearly as much: pulling live pricing and raising purchase orders against a job so your quoted cost and your actual cost are the same numbers, whether that is an electrical or plumbing merchant, a building supplier or a trade account with catalogue pricing. Freight and courier booking, payment providers, and health-and-safety or compliance tools slot in the same way. The goal is that a quote, a PO and an invoice reconcile on their own, and nobody is the human API between two systems.
Who you actually work with
Not an account manager fronting an offshore team — Isaac Vicliph, a senior software engineer with a decade shipping software in financial services, doing the scoping, design and code himself. That means someone who will sit with how you actually price a job and dispatch a crew before writing a line, one accountable person from the first call to launch, and direct contact throughout. It is a deliberately small operation on purpose: fewer projects, no junior hand-off, and the person who understands your system is the person who built it. NZ-based, priced in NZD, GST-registered, and comfortable working around a trades day rather than expecting you at a desk.
How a project runs, and how it is priced
We scope before we quote. The first step is a conversation about the real bottleneck — the quoting that takes an evening, the schedule nobody trusts, the numbers re-keyed into Xero — followed by a written plan: what gets built, which integrations, what you own at the end, and a fixed price for that scope. No hourly meter, no estimate that drifts. A focused quoting tool is a smaller job than a full quote-to-invoice platform across multiple crews, so rather than publish a number that is wrong for your job, we give you a firm one once we understand it. We build in stages so you see working software early and can put it in front of a crew before it is finished. Tell us the workflow that is slowing you down and you get a straight plan and a straight price back.
Reviewed July 2026 · written by Isaac Vicliph, Tally Digital
Questions
Frequently asked
What is custom job management software for a trades business?
A quoting, scheduling and job-tracking system built around your workflow instead of one you bend your business to fit — quote-to-job-to-invoice in one flow, your own pricing and markup rules, a schedule the office and field both trust, live costing against the estimate, and integrations to Xero and your suppliers so nobody re-keys a number.
How much does custom trades software cost in New Zealand?
It depends entirely on scope — a focused quoting tool is a very different job from a full quote-to-invoice platform across multiple crews, so a blanket price would mislead. We scope your actual workflow first, then give you a fixed price for that scope before any work starts: no hourly meter and no open-ended estimate. Tell us the bottleneck and you get a firm number back.
We already use Tradify, Fergus or simPRO — should we go custom?
Probably not, and we will say so. Those products are excellent and cheap next to a custom build, and for most trades businesses they are the right answer. Go custom only when the product genuinely cannot bend to your process — a pricing model it will not represent, a workflow across trades or entities it was never built for, a portal or integration it does not offer, or a per-seat cost that has grown past what a system you own would cost.
How do we know we have outgrown our current trades software?
The sign is that your team has built a second system around it: quotes still priced in a spreadsheet, a whiteboard beside the scheduler, exports re-keyed by hand, or workarounds a new hire needs a week to learn. When you are paying per seat for the product and also paying someone to paper over its gaps, it has stopped being the cheap option.
Can you build custom quoting and estimating for our trade?
Yes — estimating is often the core of the build. We put your real pricing logic in software: labour rates, material markups, prelims, PC and provisional sums, reusable assemblies, and variations tracked against the original quote — so pricing comes out consistent whether the estimator or a project manager does it, for electrical, plumbing, building, HVAC or civil work.
Can it integrate with Xero, our suppliers and freight?
Yes — the integrations are most of the value. Xero for invoices, bills, contacts and payments both ways; supplier links for live pricing and purchase orders against a job; freight and courier booking; payment and compliance tools. The goal is that a quote, a PO and an invoice reconcile on their own instead of someone being the human API between two systems.
Will it work in the field with poor signal?
Yes. The crew-facing view is phone-first — today’s jobs, site details, pre-start and health-and-safety checks, photos and hours — and built to stay usable on a weak rural signal, holding what a crew enters and syncing it back when coverage returns rather than losing it.
Are you a software developer or a digital agency?
A senior software engineer. Custom quoting, scheduling, job-management software and integrations — not templates, not a monthly marketing retainer. You talk to the person who sits with how you price and dispatch, then designs and writes the code, every time.
Tell me the workflow your trades software keeps fighting you on.
The quoting that eats an evening, the schedule nobody trusts, the numbers re-keyed into Xero and back — tell me where the job-to-invoice flow breaks down and I’ll scope the smallest build that fixes it, then come back with a clear plan and a fixed price.