What you actually need, in order
| The job | Do you need it? | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Quoting and invoicing | Yes — first | Priced on site in minutes, GST handled, a way to pay on the invoice |
| Job management | Yes, once you juggle more than a few jobs | Every job in one list with its photos, notes and history |
| Accounting / BAS | Yes, at tax time | Whatever your accountant will actually accept |
| Getting paid | Built in, not separate | Payment on the invoice; automatic reminders you approve |
| Payroll | Only once you employ someone | Payslips, super timing, records kept |
| Safety / compliance paperwork | Only if a site asks for it | Drafts you review and sign, never "done for you" |
| Measuring, takeoff, plans | Trade-specific | Usually a tool your trade already knows about |
| Time tracking, GPS, fleet | Rarely, for a solo | Skip until a crew makes it a real problem |
The order matters. Quoting and invoicing is first because it is the one that decides whether money arrives; everything else is admin around it.
1 · Quoting and invoicing — start here
What it has to do
Turn a job into a priced quote while you are still standing in front of it, then turn the accepted quote into an invoice without retyping anything. The bar is low and most tools clear it — what separates them is how many taps the on-site path takes, and whether the invoice carries a way to pay.
- Quote on site, not from memory at 9pm — the quote written in the driveway wins far more often.
- GST handled correctly, and the right document type. See what a tax invoice must contain.
- A payment method on the invoice. Every extra step the customer has to take is another week.
- Follow-up, because most quotes are not lost, they are forgotten.
Go deeper: best quoting apps · best invoicing apps
Free, right now, no sign-up: a quote template and builder for your trade, and a tax invoice generator.
2 · Job management — once the jobs pile up
What it has to do
Hold every job in one place with its photos, notes, quote, invoice and history, so nothing lives in your head or a text thread. For a crew it also means scheduling — who is where, tomorrow.
This is the crowded category. The established Australian options are ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus, and for bigger contracting businesses simPRO and AroFlo. They do not charge on the same axis, which matters more than any feature list — some charge per person, one charges by how many jobs you do a month, and two do not publish a price at all.
Go deeper, with every price read at the vendor's own page and dated: best job management software in Australia.
3 · Accounting and BAS — the one you do not skip
What it has to do
Keep the books your accountant will accept and get your BAS lodged. This is a genuinely different job from running your work, and it is the most common category confusion in the trades — a job management app is not accounting software and does not pretend to be.
The practical rule: ask your accountant what they want before you pick. Being handed books in a format they already work in is worth more than any feature you will compare online.
Free help here: your first BAS · cash vs accrual GST · GST calculator · tax set-aside calculator
4 · Payroll — only once someone works for you
What it has to do
Pay people correctly, produce a payslip within one working day, get super to the fund inside the window, and keep the records. Since 1 July 2026 super timing is much tighter than it used to be, which is the part that catches new employers out.
Before you hire: the ordered checklist · what a first employee really costs · payday super due date calculator
5 · Safety and compliance paperwork
What it has to do
Produce the safety documentation a site requires — most often a SWMS for high-risk construction work — and keep your licences, tickets and insurance dates somewhere you will see them before they lapse.
6 · The trade-specific ones
Measuring and takeoff, cable calculators, fall-height apps, paint coverage, plan markup — these are worth having and nobody can recommend them generically, because a sparky's and a landscaper's lists have nothing in common. The ones that stick are usually the ones other people in your trade already use, so ask.
What you can skip, at least for now
- Separate time tracking, as a solo. You know what you worked. It becomes real with a crew.
- GPS and fleet tracking, until you have vehicles you are not driving.
- CRM. Your job list is your customer list at this size.
- A separate quoting tool and a separate invoicing tool. If they do not talk to each other you will retype every job twice, which is how the second one quietly stops getting used.
- Anything you would only open once a quarter. It will not become a habit, and an unused app is worse than none because you will still half-trust it.
How to choose without losing a weekend
- Work out your charge-out rate first. No app fixes underpricing, and it is the single biggest number in your business — the calculator takes about five minutes.
- Shortlist two, never six. Comparison is where weekends go.
- Trial with a real job, not the demo data — quote it on site, invoice it, chase it. Every product looks fine in a webinar.
- Count the taps on the on-site path. That number is what you will live with.
- Check what it costs at your size, not at the headline. Per-person pricing and per-job pricing diverge fast.
- Ask your accountant before you commit to the books half.
Yamate is the first category on this page and part of the second: quoting on site, invoicing with a payment method attached, chasing late payers, and your GST, tax and profit per job shown as estimates as you earn rather than at year end. It is built for solo tradies and small crews, and it does not do inventory or multi-crew project management — if that is your business, the job management page above is the honest place to start. Sign up before 30 September 2026 and lock in the Founder plan at $19/mo — forever. It's $29/mo after that, three people included. No lock-in, cancel anytime. Prices in AUD.
FAQ
How many apps does a tradie actually need?
Most solo tradies run well on two — one for the work, one for the books. A third arrives when you take on people, and a fourth only when a specific job forces it, such as safety paperwork for a commercial site.
What's the difference between a job management app and accounting software?
Job management runs the work: quotes, jobs, invoices, photos, scheduling, chasing. Accounting runs the books: BAS, profit and loss, year end. Most trade businesses use one of each and connect them, rather than expecting either to be good at both.
Do tradie apps work without internet?
It varies, and the detail matters more than the claim — check each vendor's current documentation. Whatever the app does locally, anything that leaves your phone (a text, a card payment, a lookup, a sync) needs a connection.
Are the free ones any good?
At low volume, a free tier can genuinely be enough to start on. The limits are usually jobs per month or number of users rather than features, so the real questions are whether your volume fits and what moving costs once it does not.
Should I use my accountant's software or my own?
Usually both, connected: theirs for the books, yours for the work. Trying to run jobs out of accounting software is where most of the frustration in this category comes from.
What should I set up first?
Quoting and invoicing, on day one. It is the only category that directly decides whether you get paid, and every other app is admin arranged around it.
Go deeper
General information for Australian tradies, not financial, legal or purchasing advice. Yamate makes one of the products described here and says so wherever it appears. Other products are named without any affiliation; their features and prices change, so check each vendor's own page before deciding. This page describes what was true in August 2026.