https://tradeyoke.net/blog/author/assemblysoft-business The business team behind TradeYoke: pricing, getting paid, and running a trade business. en-gb https://tradeyoke.net/blog/how-to-pay-a-window-cleaning-canvasser-fairly https://tradeyoke.net/blog/how-to-pay-a-window-cleaning-canvasser-fairly Tue, 20 Oct 2026 09:30:00 GMT Paying someone to knock doors for your round sounds simple until you ask what they actually won. Three ways to pay a canvasser, the trap in each, and how to see what they brought in. AssemblySoft Business Window cleaning Guides Product https://tradeyoke.net/blog/canvass-a-new-window-cleaning-round-without-paper-lists https://tradeyoke.net/blog/canvass-a-new-window-cleaning-round-without-paper-lists Mon, 19 Oct 2026 09:30:00 GMT Knocking doors is still the cheapest way to build a window cleaning round, and paper lists are where it leaks. How to canvass a street so every yes, not-home and call-back turns into a booked clean. AssemblySoft Business Window cleaning Guides Product https://tradeyoke.net/blog/what-to-do-when-a-visit-gets-missed-done-replan-or-skip https://tradeyoke.net/blog/what-to-do-when-a-visit-gets-missed-done-replan-or-skip Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:30:00 GMT A booked visit's day has come and gone and nothing was recorded. Was it done, does it need a new day, or is it dead? How to decide, why a repeating job makes it trickier, and a five-minute routine that keeps the diary honest. AssemblySoft Business Window cleaning Guides Product https://tradeyoke.net/blog/what-building-for-tradespeople-has-taught-us https://tradeyoke.net/blog/what-building-for-tradespeople-has-taught-us Tue, 13 Oct 2026 08:32:00 GMT Looking back from the start of 2024 to now, seven ideas kept proving themselves. They apply to running a trade business as much as to building software. AssemblySoft Business Our story Guides Building TradeYoke https://tradeyoke.net/blog/how-we-priced-tradeyoke-four-plans https://tradeyoke.net/blog/how-we-priced-tradeyoke-four-plans Sun, 27 Sep 2026 10:31:00 GMT Pricing is part of the product. We looked back at the build to decide what belongs on each plan: a free start, a working core, getting paid, and the business as a whole. AssemblySoft Business Pricing Product Building TradeYoke https://tradeyoke.net/blog/getting-more-local-jobs-as-a-tradesperson https://tradeyoke.net/blog/getting-more-local-jobs-as-a-tradesperson Fri, 25 Sep 2026 08:26:49 GMT Word of mouth and a van sign only grow as fast as your existing customers talk about you. Here's what actually gets a trade business found locally, what turns a search into a booked job, and how to tell which of it is really working. AssemblySoft Business Guides Product https://tradeyoke.net/blog/best-invoicing-software-for-uk-tradespeople https://tradeyoke.net/blog/best-invoicing-software-for-uk-tradespeople Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:33:16 GMT Every invoicing tool claims to be the answer. Here's what actually matters for a UK trade business — branded PDFs, a pay link, an accounting sync you can trust — what the current crop of tools gets right and leaves out, and where TradeYoke fits, gaps included. AssemblySoft Business Payments Accounting Guides https://tradeyoke.net/blog/choosing-job-management-software-uk-trades https://tradeyoke.net/blog/choosing-job-management-software-uk-trades Sun, 06 Sep 2026 11:15:11 GMT Speed on the phone, money you can see, books that never need re-typing and UK compliance built in. Here is the checklist we would use, and what it should cost. 💡 Book a job in the app while you are on the phone to the customer. If you cannot get from who to what to where to when before the call ends, the app is too slow for your trade. ### Can you see the money without a spreadsheet? The second question is about visibility. Open the app on a Monday morning and it should tell you who owes you, which quotes are waiting on a decision, what you earned last month and what you spent. If you have to export to Excel to learn any of that, the software is a diary, not a business tool. Look for an invoice that is generated from the job rather than typed again, payments that settle against the right invoice automatically, and a report you can trust for any period or tax year. Look for expenses too. A receipt photographed in the van with the supplier and VAT read for you is worth an hour a week to most sole traders. Our guide to getting paid the same day covers the pay-link side of the same story. ### Does it talk to your accountant's software? Ask exactly what "integrates with Xero" means. Some tools export a CSV. Some push invoices one way and hope. The useful version pushes invoices and payments as they happen, reads them back to confirm they landed, and shows you a log of what went where so a missing entry is a five-minute fix rather than a January mystery. If you are not on accounting software yet, do not let a job app force the choice. Pick the app first, then choose the books to suit your size. We compare the three big names in Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent for a trade business. ### Compliance: VAT, Making Tax Digital and the paperwork of your trade If you are VAT registered you already file through Making Tax Digital. From April 2026 MTD also reaches sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, with quarterly updates sent from software; the threshold falls to £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028. Your job app does not have to file those updates itself, but its records need to be clean enough that whoever does can do it without re-keying a year of invoices. Check the dates that apply to you with your accountant or on gov.uk. Then there is the paperwork of your trade. Gas engineers issue a landlord gas safety record every 12 months. Electricians issue EICRs that private landlords need at least every five years. Good software knows about expiry dates and turns them into next year's booking, which is why our compliance trades are built around certificates that file themselves against the job. [Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/use-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax): HMRC's guidance on who has to use MTD for Income Tax, from when, and what a quarterly update contains. ### What it should cost A sole trader should expect to pay roughly £15 to £30 a month and a small team £30 to £50. Anything much above that needs a reason: online payments, bookkeeping sync, tracking. Watch for per-user pricing that doubles when you take on an apprentice, and for "from" prices that hide the module you actually need. We break the bands down in how much job management software should cost a sole trader, and our own plans are on the pricing page with nothing hidden. See also: what actually makes on-site quoting fast > The right app is the one you stop noticing. If you are thinking about the software on site, it is the wrong software. — TradeYoke ### The 2026 checklist - ✓ Fast on a phone, on site — Book a job in four taps. Mark it done in one. No spinner between them. - ✓ Works with no signal — Changes queue and sync later; nothing you typed is lost. - ✓ Shows the money — Who owes you, quotes waiting, earned and spent for any period, profit per job. - ✓ Invoices from the job — Numbered, branded, emailed, and settled automatically when a payment lands. - ✓ Real accounting sync — Pushes to Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent and reads back to confirm. - ✓ Knows your trade's paperwork — Certificates with expiry dates that become next year's booking. - ✓ Honest pricing — Per business, not per seat; a free plan to start, and a 30-day trial of Essentials with no card. [Image: Jobs on the phone: the list you work from, not a cut-down version of the desktop.] ### Questions people ask **Do I need job management software as a sole trader?** Not on day one. But the moment you have more than a couple of dozen regular customers, a diary and a notebook start costing you money in missed visits and unchased invoices. The right time is before you lose a customer to a forgotten booking, not after. **Should I pick the app or the accounting software first?** Pick the job app first because that is where you spend your day. Then choose accounting software to suit your size, and make sure the two talk to each other properly, with read-back rather than a one-way export. **What about CIS and VAT?** If you are VAT registered, the app should produce VAT-correct invoices and, ideally, file your MTD VAT return. CIS deductions are usually handled in the accounting software. Check the specifics with your accountant before you rely on either. **How long should a trial take?** One working week. Use it on real jobs, with real customers, on your own phone. If you have not moved your customer list in by the end of day one, the import is too hard, which is a finding in itself. ### Try it on a real week Thirty days of Essentials free, no card. Import your customers, book tomorrow, and see whether it earns its place in the van. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> AssemblySoft Business Guides https://tradeyoke.net/blog/how-much-does-job-management-software-cost https://tradeyoke.net/blog/how-much-does-job-management-software-cost Tue, 01 Sep 2026 13:15:11 GMT Sole traders typically pay £15 to £30 a month, small teams £30 to £50. Here is what you should get for that, and the per-user fees that quietly double it. ⚠️ Watch for "from £X" prices. The "from" is usually a plan that lacks the one feature you came for, and the plan you actually need is on a different page. ### What sits outside the subscription Some costs are transaction fees rather than subscriptions and they are worth understanding rather than fearing. Taking a card payment through Stripe costs a small percentage of each payment. Collecting by Direct Debit through GoCardless is around 1% on a typical clean, so about 12p on a £12 window clean. Sending SMS costs pence per message. None of these are the software's fees; they are the price of not driving round on a Friday evening to collect cash. Set them against what they replace. If a pay link by text gets you paid the same day instead of three weeks later, the pence per message is the cheapest credit control you will ever buy. We go into the mechanics in how UK tradespeople get paid the same day. [GoCardless pricing](https://gocardless.com/pricing/): The current per-transaction fees for collecting Direct Debit payments in the UK. ### Does it pay for itself? The honest test is admin hours. Most sole traders spend three to five hours a week on the diary, the invoices, the chasing and the receipts. If software gives half of that back, it has paid for a £9.99 plan several times over at any reasonable hourly rate. Add one missed visit a month that you no longer miss, or one invoice you no longer forget to send, and the maths stops being close. The second test is the accountant's bill. Clean records, two ready-made CSVs and a bookkeeping sync that has already posted every invoice can take real hours off year-end, and those hours are charged at your accountant's rate, not yours. [Image: Reports: earned, collected, expenses and profit for any period or tax year, plus the accountant CSVs.] ### What a free trial should look like A trial should show you far more than the diary, and it should not ask for a card. A trial that only shows you the diary tells you nothing about whether the paperwork and the chasing are worth the money. Ours gives you 30 days of Essentials with no card required; emailing and texting customers and online payments unlock when you choose a plan, and the pricing page says plainly which plan adds what; there is more on how to spend that week in our checklist for choosing job management software. Whatever you choose, make the decision on your trade's real week. A window cleaner's costs are dominated by collections; an electrician's by certificates and rebooking. Have a look at what each trade gets on the trades page before you compare prices. See also: how we approached our own pricing > Price the software against the hours it gives back and the invoices it stops you forgetting, not against the cheapest diary on the market. — TradeYoke ### Questions people ask **Is free job management software any good?** Free tiers usually cap customers, users or invoices, and the useful features sit behind an upgrade. They are fine for a look around, but for a trade with regular customers a paid plan in the £15 to £30 band is the realistic floor. **Why is one plan twice the price of another?** Usually because the dearer plan carries features that cost the vendor money to run: card and Direct Debit processing, bookkeeping sync, HMRC filing and tracking. If you will not use them, stay on the cheaper plan and move up when you need one. **Do I pay VAT on the subscription?** Software subscriptions from UK suppliers carry VAT. If you are VAT registered you can normally reclaim it; if not, the advertised price is what you pay. Check with your accountant if you are unsure. **Can I pay yearly to save money?** Many vendors discount an annual payment. Take it only after a full month on the software; the discount is not worth being locked to a tool your team will not use. ### See the whole price list Four plans, per business, no per-user fees. Start with 30 days of Essentials, no card, and pick a plan when you know what you use. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> AssemblySoft Business Guides Pricing https://tradeyoke.net/blog/making-tax-digital-for-vat-plain-english https://tradeyoke.net/blog/making-tax-digital-for-vat-plain-english Fri, 03 Jul 2026 09:15:11 GMT What MTD for VAT actually asks of a VAT-registered trade business: digital records, the nine boxes, obligations, and a guided filing that talks to HMRC for you. ⚠️ TradeYoke files the return you confirm. It does not decide what is VATable, which scheme you are on, or whether an expense is reclaimable. Those are questions for your accountant, and the wizard is built so an accountant can review the numbers before you press submit. ### Fraud-prevention headers, and why HMRC insists on them Every submission to HMRC's MTD API must carry a set of fraud-prevention headers: technical details about the device, connection and software that made the request. HMRC uses them to detect submissions that are not what they claim to be. They are mandatory, and a submission without them is rejected. You never see them. TradeYoke gathers what HMRC requires from the app and the browser and sends it with the return. The reason it is worth mentioning is that "HMRC-recognised software" means exactly this: software that talks to HMRC the way HMRC specifies, including the parts nobody enjoys. ### After you file: liabilities and payments Once the return is in, the same connection shows what you owe HMRC and what you have paid, straight from HMRC's records. It closes the loop: the who-owes-me report tells you what customers owe you, and the liabilities view tells you what you owe the taxman. Both come from the same ledger. HMRC VAT filing is part of TradeYoke Premium at £19.99 a month, alongside the bookkeeping sync and online payments; the pricing page has the split. It works the same across every trade on the platform, from electricians to window cleaners who have crossed the threshold. ### Questions people ask **Do I have to use Making Tax Digital for VAT?** If you are VAT-registered, yes. All VAT-registered businesses have been required to keep digital records and submit through software since April 2022, regardless of turnover. If you are not VAT-registered, MTD for VAT does not apply to you. **Can I still type my return into the Government Gateway?** No. Under MTD the return must be submitted by recognised software through HMRC's API. TradeYoke connects to HMRC with your Government Gateway login and submits from the guided wizard. **What are the nine boxes?** Boxes 1 to 5 are VAT amounts: VAT on sales, VAT on EU acquisitions (Northern Ireland only), the total, VAT reclaimed on purchases, and the net to pay or reclaim. Boxes 6 to 9 are the underlying values of sales, purchases and EU goods. Software fills them from your records. **Does TradeYoke do MTD for Income Tax as well?** Not today. TradeYoke files VAT returns; MTD for Income Tax quarterly updates are something to plan with your accountant, and TradeYoke's records, reports and accountant CSVs feed that. We wrote a separate post on MTD for Income Tax and who it affects from April 2026. Related: MTD for Income Tax from April 2026 and the trades TradeYoke supports. ### File VAT from the same place the invoices live Connect HMRC on the free trial and see your obligations before you decide anything. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> AssemblySoft Business Tax Accounting https://tradeyoke.net/blog/mtd-for-income-tax-2026-sole-traders https://tradeyoke.net/blog/mtd-for-income-tax-2026-sole-traders Sun, 28 Jun 2026 11:15:11 GMT The thresholds, the dates, the quarterly updates and the first-year soft landing on penalties, in one page a self-employed tradesperson can act on. ⚠️ Thresholds and dates come from HMRC and can change at a Budget. The figures here are correct as we publish; check gov.uk and your accountant before you plan around them. ### What to do this year The businesses that find MTD easy are the ones whose records were already digital. If every invoice, payment and receipt is in an app, a quarterly update is a report your accountant runs. If they are in a diary and a shoebox, the quarter is a bad week. So the preparation is mostly about the records. Send invoices from software rather than a pad. Record cash on the phone. Photograph receipts on the day, which receipts in the van walks through. Pick an accounting package that HMRC recognises for MTD for Income Tax, or agree with your accountant that they will file the updates from your records; Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent helps with the choice. [Image: The How am I doing reports show earned, collected, expenses and profit for any period or tax year, and export the two accountant CSVs.] ### Where TradeYoke fits, and where it does not TradeYoke does not send MTD for Income Tax quarterly updates to HMRC today. What it does is keep the records those updates are built from: numbered invoices, payments settled against them, expenses with receipt images and VAT, mileage from the day's stops, and profit by period. Two accountant CSVs, one for income and payments and one for expenses, cover a quarter in one export. If you use the bookkeeping sync, invoices and payments push to Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent with read-back verification, and those packages are where the quarterly update is filed from. The platform overview shows how the ledger, reports and sync fit together, and the pricing page shows which plan includes the sync. > Quarterly updates are not a new job. They are the old job done every three months instead of once in January. — TradeYoke ### Before April 2026 - ✓ Check your 2024 to 2025 gross income — Self-employment plus property. Over £50,000 means April 2026. - ✓ Get every invoice into software — Sent from the app, numbered, with the payment recorded against it. - ✓ Photograph receipts on the day — Supplier, total and VAT read for you; attached to a job or vehicle. - ✓ Agree who files the updates — Your accountant, or an MTD-recognised accounting package fed by the sync. - ✓ Run a practice quarter — Export the accountant CSVs for one quarter and see how long it takes. ### Questions people ask **When does MTD for Income Tax start for sole traders?** 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, then 6 April 2027 for over £30,000 and 6 April 2028 for over £20,000. Qualifying income is gross self-employment and property income combined, based on the tax return from two years earlier. **What is a quarterly update?** A summary of your business income and expenses for the quarter, sent to HMRC from software. Quarters follow the tax year and each update is due a month and a week after the quarter ends. It is not a tax calculation and no payment is due with it; the tax is worked out in the final declaration after the year ends. **Will I be fined if I miss a quarterly update in the first year?** HMRC has said the April 2026 cohort will not receive late-submission penalty points for quarterly updates during their first 12 months. The final declaration and the tax payment deadlines still apply as normal. **Does TradeYoke file MTD for Income Tax updates?** No. TradeYoke keeps the digital records and exports the accountant CSVs, and its bookkeeping sync pushes invoices and payments to Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent. The quarterly update is filed from your accounting package or by your accountant. TradeYoke does file MTD for VAT returns. Every trade on the platform keeps the same records, whether you run a plumbing and gas business or one of the other supported trades. ### Get the records digital before the quarter arrives Start the free trial, import your customers, and run a practice quarter's export. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> AssemblySoft Business Tax https://tradeyoke.net/blog/xero-quickbooks-freeagent-which-one https://tradeyoke.net/blog/xero-quickbooks-freeagent-which-one Tue, 23 Jun 2026 13:15:11 GMT Which bookkeeping package fits a sole trader, a small team or a business with an accountant, what syncing from your job app really means, and why read-back matters. ✅ Connect once with the provider's own login screen. TradeYoke never sees your accounting password; the connection is an authorised token you can revoke from either side. ### How to choose in ten minutes ### Choosing the package - ✓ Ask your accountant first — If they have a preference, that is your answer. - ✓ Check your bank — Some UK business accounts include FreeAgent. - ✓ Count the hands in the books — One person: FreeAgent. A team with VAT: QuickBooks. An accountant doing the work: Xero. - ✓ Start the trial from the same week — Run TradeYoke's trial and the package's trial together and watch the sync. - ✓ Read the event journal after the first week — Every invoice pushed, every read-back confirmed. ### Questions people ask **Which one is cheapest for a sole trader?** Usually FreeAgent, because several UK business bank accounts include it at no extra cost. Otherwise all three publish UK pricing and change it often, so compare the current pages rather than a blog post. **Does TradeYoke replace my accounting package?** No. TradeYoke owns the jobs, invoices and payments and pushes them to Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent. Your accounting package owns the bank feed, the year end and the accountant's work. The split is deliberate. **What exactly gets synced?** Invoices as you raise them and payments as they settle against those invoices, pushed through each package's official API. TradeYoke reads each record back to verify it landed and lists every event in a journal. **Can I switch packages later?** Yes. Disconnect one and connect another from Settings. Existing invoices stay in the old package; new ones sync to the new one. Talk to your accountant about the cleanest date to switch, usually the start of a VAT quarter or tax year. Bookkeeping sync is in TradeYoke Premium; the pricing page has the details. It works the same for every one of the trades on the platform, and receipts in the van covers the expenses side of the books. ### Pick the package, connect it once Connect Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent on the free trial and watch the first invoice land. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> AssemblySoft Business Accounting https://tradeyoke.net/blog/expiry-dates-and-certificates-never-miss-a-renewal https://tradeyoke.net/blog/expiry-dates-and-certificates-never-miss-a-renewal Tue, 29 Apr 2025 09:22:00 GMT Insurance, an MOT, a competence certificate: the paperwork that runs out is the paperwork that costs most when you miss it. April 2025 added expiry dates to the library. AssemblySoft Business Guides Product Building TradeYoke https://tradeyoke.net/blog/the-quotes-board-and-what-happens-after-sent https://tradeyoke.net/blog/the-quotes-board-and-what-happens-after-sent Tue, 08 Apr 2025 09:18:00 GMT Most quotes are won or lost in the days after they are sent. April 2025 added a board that shows where every quote stands, and the means to revise and follow up. AssemblySoft Business Product Guides Building TradeYoke https://tradeyoke.net/blog/quotes-from-the-same-record https://tradeyoke.net/blog/quotes-from-the-same-record Tue, 11 Feb 2025 10:16:00 GMT February 2025 started quoting. A guided quote built from your trade's catalogue and your own prices, sent as a branded PDF, and turned into the job when it is accepted. AssemblySoft Business Product Guides Building TradeYoke https://tradeyoke.net/blog/pay-links-cards-and-direct-debit-how-customers-pay https://tradeyoke.net/blog/pay-links-cards-and-direct-debit-how-customers-pay Tue, 14 Jan 2025 09:15:00 GMT January 2025 was about getting paid faster: a pay link on the invoice, cards through Stripe, Direct Debit through GoCardless, and every payment settled back onto the ledger automatically. AssemblySoft Business Payments Product Building TradeYoke https://tradeyoke.net/blog/part-payments-receipts-and-who-owes-me https://tradeyoke.net/blog/part-payments-receipts-and-who-owes-me Tue, 10 Dec 2024 09:14:00 GMT December 2024 was about the end of the invoice: part payments, receipts, and a clear view of who owes what and how old the money is. Here is what we built and why. AssemblySoft Business Payments Product Building TradeYoke https://tradeyoke.net/blog/why-invoicing-came-next https://tradeyoke.net/blog/why-invoicing-came-next Tue, 08 Oct 2024 10:12:00 GMT With customers, jobs and a diary working, the next question was money. October 2024 started the invoicing work: why it followed the visit, and the three things it had to get right. AssemblySoft Business Payments Product Building TradeYoke https://tradeyoke.net/blog/publishing-our-terms-and-privacy-notice https://tradeyoke.net/blog/publishing-our-terms-and-privacy-notice Tue, 11 Jun 2024 09:07:00 GMT In June 2024 we first published TradeYoke's terms of service and privacy notice. Why we think a software business should write its rules down early, and how they are kept up to date. AssemblySoft Business Our story Product Building TradeYoke