- A plumbing business has five software jobs: the diary and job cards, quotes, invoices and payments, the accounts, and the phone. Most job management tools cover the first three; accounts and the phone are separate purchases.
- Job management: Tradify (from £34 a user), ServiceM8 (from £25 by job volume), Powered Now (from £28), Commusoft (quote-led, larger firms). Accounts: Xero or QuickBooks, which all of them sync to. Phone: an AI receptionist at £30–£100 a month in the general market.
- The fewer systems the better: every hand-off between tools is where a quote or an invoice goes missing. MyTradeBuddy's CRM covers jobs, quotes, invoices and the phone in one, with no per-user fee, as part of the booked-survey system.
The five jobs software does for a plumber
Before comparing brands, name the jobs. One: the diary and the job card, so the engineer knows where to be and what to do. Two: the quote, built quickly and accepted online. Three: the invoice and the payment, with VAT right. Four: the accounts your accountant sees. Five: the phone, answered when you are under a floor. Most "plumbing software" covers jobs one to three. Four is always a separate accounts package. Five is usually nobody's job, which is why it is where the work leaks.
| Job | Tools | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diary, job cards, scheduling | Tradify, ServiceM8, Powered Now, Commusoft, Jobber | £25–£34 a user a month, or by job volume | See the full comparison |
| Quoting | Same tools; price book, online acceptance | Included | Check the customer can accept and pay a deposit on their phone |
| Invoicing and payments | Same tools plus Stripe or GoCardless | Included plus card fees | VAT handling and deposits matter more than templates |
| Accounts | Xero, QuickBooks | Separate subscription | Every job tool above syncs to both |
| The phone | AI receptionist or answering service | £30–£100 a month general market; IONOS £39–£99; Hey Jodie £49–£199 | The job most plumbers leave undone; see best AI receptionists for trades |
| All of it | MyTradeBuddy CRM + AI receptionist | No per-user fee; included with booked surveys | One record per customer with the calls on it. How it works |
Job management and CRM
Tradify is the most common pick for UK plumbers: quoting from a price book, job cards, invoicing, Xero sync, per-user pricing from £34. ServiceM8 charges by jobs a month with unlimited users, from free to £119, which suits a firm with several engineers and a modest job count. Powered Now, UK-built from £28 a user, is the simplest start for a sole trader and does gas certificates. Commusoft is for heating firms with service contracts and ten-plus staff. The job management comparison goes tool by tool.
Whichever you pick, test the mobile app on a real job first. Engineers decide whether software gets used; a beautiful office dashboard nobody updates from the van is a spreadsheet with a subscription.
Quoting and invoicing
Every job tool above quotes and invoices, so a separate quoting or invoicing app is rarely worth a second subscription. What to check: can the customer open the quote on their phone and accept with one tap; can they pay a deposit there and then; does the invoice build from the accepted quote so nothing is typed twice; is VAT handled per line. The last one matters more than the template, because getting VAT wrong on a boiler install is a real cost.
The step almost nobody automates is the follow-up. A quote that goes quiet is usually lost to a firm that rang back, not to price. Tools that chase quotes automatically by text and email earn their keep on that alone; the quote follow-up maths is here.
Accounts
Xero and QuickBooks are the two the whole industry syncs to; your accountant will have a preference, and that preference should win. The job software pushes invoices and payments across, and the accountant sees the same numbers you do. Do not buy job software that does not sync to at least one of them.
The phone
A plumber loses more work to missed calls than to competitors' software. Ring your own number at 5.30pm from a friend's phone and see. An AI receptionist answers every call, asks the qualifying questions, books the survey into the diary and writes the transcript to the customer record. General-market prices run £30–£100 a month; IONOS publishes £39–£99 by call volume, Hey Jodie £49–£199 flat. The trade-specific comparison covers six providers; the virtual receptionist page covers human versus AI.
Fewer systems, not more
The failure mode is five tools that do not talk: a quote in one app, the job in another, the call in a notebook, the invoice typed again. MyTradeBuddy's CRM for trades puts jobs, quotes, invoices, payments, the diary and the phone transcripts on one customer record, with no per-user fee, and comes as part of a system that also generates the work and chases the quote. If you only want software, one of the tools above plus Xero and a receptionist will do it; if the diary is the problem, start with the work.
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Frequently asked questions
Most commonly a job management tool (Tradify, ServiceM8, Powered Now or Commusoft) for jobs, quotes and invoices, synced to Xero or QuickBooks for accounts. Fewer use an AI receptionist for the phone, which is where most work is lost.
The invoicing inside your job management tool, provided it builds the invoice from the accepted quote, handles VAT per line, takes card payments and syncs to your accounts. A separate invoicing app adds a hand-off for little gain.
ServiceM8's free tier covers one user and 30 jobs a month. Most other tools offer a trial. Xero and QuickBooks are paid.
Yes, in the trade sense: one record per customer with the jobs, quotes, invoices and calls on it. A general sales CRM is the wrong shape; job management software with a good customer record is the right one.
A one-van firm can run on £30–£60 a month plus accounts; a five-engineer firm on per-user tools pays five seats, so £150 or more before the receptionist. MyTradeBuddy's CRM has no per-user fee and is included with booked surveys.