https://tradeyoke.net/blog/author/carl-randall Founder of TradeYoke. Builds the platform end to end — web, mobile and the bits in between. en-gb https://tradeyoke.net/blog/stop-no-shows-appointment-reminder-texts https://tradeyoke.net/blog/stop-no-shows-appointment-reminder-texts Fri, 25 Sep 2026 03:33:16 GMT A missed appointment costs a trade business the travel time, the slot another customer could have had, and the awkward call to rebook. Here's what actually cuts no-shows, and how TradeYoke automates it. Carl Randall Messaging Guides Product https://tradeyoke.net/blog/website-for-a-window-cleaning-or-gardening-business https://tradeyoke.net/blog/website-for-a-window-cleaning-or-gardening-business Thu, 24 Sep 2026 02:33:16 GMT Most window cleaning and gardening businesses grow by word of mouth and a van sign — until the phone stops being the fastest way for a new customer to book. Here's when a website earns its keep, and what to put on it. Carl Randall Guides Window cleaning Gardening 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. Carl Randall Payments Accounting Guides https://tradeyoke.net/blog/how-to-plan-a-window-cleaning-round https://tradeyoke.net/blog/how-to-plan-a-window-cleaning-round Sun, 20 Sep 2026 23:33:16 GMT A round that looks full on paper can still waste an hour of driving if it isn't planned properly. Here's what actually makes a window cleaning round efficient, what dedicated round-planning tools get right, and how TradeYoke's Plan my day automates the decide-order-go routine every morning. Carl Randall Window cleaning Guides Product https://tradeyoke.net/blog/keeping-a-lone-working-tradesperson-safe https://tradeyoke.net/blog/keeping-a-lone-working-tradesperson-safe Sun, 20 Sep 2026 23:33:16 GMT A scaffolder on their own on a roof, an electrician alone in a plant room, a solar installer working a rural site — lone working is normal in these trades. Here's what genuinely reduces the risk, and how TradeYoke gives the office real visibility without a box wired into the van. Carl Randall Compliance Product 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. Scaffolders inspect at intervals not exceeding seven days. 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. > 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) ]]> Carl Randall Guides https://tradeyoke.net/blog/one-app-four-platforms https://tradeyoke.net/blog/one-app-four-platforms Sat, 05 Sep 2026 21:15:11 GMT TradeYoke's web app and native apps are the same code. Here's what that buys customers — and the rules we follow to keep it true. Carl Randall Engineering 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 £19 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. > 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) ]]> Carl Randall Guides Pricing https://tradeyoke.net/blog/why-offline-first-matters-for-trades https://tradeyoke.net/blog/why-offline-first-matters-for-trades Tue, 18 Aug 2026 21:15:11 GMT Every field app claims to 'work on mobile'. Very few keep working when the signal drops behind a house, in a basement or halfway up a valley. Here's why we built TradeYoke the other way round. Carl Randall Product Mobile https://tradeyoke.net/blog/get-paid-same-day https://tradeyoke.net/blog/get-paid-same-day Sat, 18 Jul 2026 10:15:11 GMT A pay link by text, a card on the doorstep, a Direct Debit for the regulars. The three ways UK trades get paid the same day, and when to use each. ✅ Every payment method ends in the same place: the invoice marked paid, the ledger updated, and the bookkeeping sync pushing the payment to Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent. You choose the method per customer; the paperwork is identical. ### Which method for which work | Method | Best for | Customer effort | Cost model | |---|---|---|---| | Pay link (card) | One-off jobs, reactive callouts | Tap the link, enter a card | Per transaction (Stripe) | | Card on the doorstep | Jobs where the customer is home | Tap or insert | Per transaction (Stripe) | | Direct Debit | Rounds and monthly contracts | Authorise once, never again | Around 1% per collection (GoCardless) | | Customer portal | Customers with several invoices | One page, one button | Whichever method they choose | | Cash | Customers who insist | Hand it over | Free, but record it on the phone | ### What it costs and what you need Online payments and the bookkeeping sync are in TradeYoke Premium at £39 a month, and the customer portal comes with Ultimate at £55; see the pricing page for what sits in Essentials. Stripe and GoCardless are your own accounts with their own per-transaction fees, connected from the Payments tab in Settings. The 30-day trial is Essentials with no card; online payments unlock when you choose Premium or Ultimate. If you want to see what the money looks like once it starts arriving on time, the morning who-owes-me email is the other half of this story. ### Questions people ask **Do my customers need an app to pay a link?** No. The pay link opens a normal web page in their phone's browser. They enter a card and the invoice marks itself paid. The customer portal works the same way and shows every invoice they owe on one page. **Which is cheaper, card or Direct Debit?** For small regular amounts Direct Debit is usually cheaper: GoCardless charges around 1% on a £12 clean. For a one-off £400 job a card fee is simpler and the customer expects it. Both providers publish their fees; TradeYoke connects to your own accounts and adds no per-transaction fee of its own. **What happens to cash payments?** Record them on the phone against the invoice. Cash settles against the ledger exactly like a card or Direct Debit payment, so the customer's balance, your reports and your accountant file all agree. **Does a payment need re-typing into Xero or QuickBooks?** No. With the bookkeeping sync connected, invoices and their payments push to Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent and TradeYoke reads them back to confirm they landed. An event journal shows what went where. ### Get paid while the job is still fresh Connect Stripe or GoCardless in a few minutes on the free trial and send your first pay link today. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> Carl Randall Payments 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 £39 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) ]]> Carl Randall 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) ]]> Carl Randall 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) ]]> Carl Randall Accounting https://tradeyoke.net/blog/offline-first-why-it-matters https://tradeyoke.net/blog/offline-first-why-it-matters Thu, 21 May 2026 08:15:11 GMT Signal drops in basements, plant rooms and country lanes. An app that keeps working there, and syncs honestly when the signal returns, is the one you'll actually use. Offline is not a mode. It is the ordinary condition of a working day, and the app should be built for the ordinary condition. — TradeYoke ### Why the web app is different, and why we say so TradeYoke runs on web, iOS, Android and Windows from one codebase. The installed apps, on the phone and on a Windows laptop, are offline-first in the sense above: local store, queued changes, sync with conflict rules. The web app in a browser is the always-online office front door. It is where the office plans the week, sends the invoices and reads the reports, and it assumes a connection. We say that plainly because "works offline" on a website usually means very little, and because the split is deliberate. The phone is where the signal drops, so the phone is where offline lives. The platform page sets out what each surface does. > ✅ Offline mobile is included in every TradeYoke plan, including Free. It is not an add-on, because a phone app that stops in a basement is not a phone app. ### What it looks like on a wet Tuesday A window cleaner working a rural round loses signal at the third stop and does not notice. The stop is marked done, the customer pays cash and it is recorded against the visit, the next customer's gate is locked so the visit is skipped with a note, and the rain sets in at stop nine. The undone stops are moved to Thursday in one go, as described in the rain days post. None of that needed a connection. When the van reaches the main road, the queue sends: the done, the cash, the skip, the carry-over. The office sees the round's state, the owed figure updates, and the "we're coming Thursday" texts can go out. The cleaner did not think about signal once. [Image: Plan my day on the phone: the morning decisions are made once and sent to the phone, so the day runs from the local copy.] ### How we built it, briefly Every change is a small, self-describing operation with its own id, so sending it twice does nothing and sending it late still works. Each record carries a version tag; a change made against an old version is detected, not silently applied. The phone pulls a feed of what changed on the server since it last asked, rather than re-downloading everything. Conflict rules are declared per kind of change, and the ones that cannot be resolved automatically are surfaced to a person. That is the substance behind the marketing phrase. It applies to every trade on the trades page, because the sync layer does not know or care whether the record is a window cleaning visit or a gardening one. The live monitoring described in the tracking post rides on the same connection logic. ### How to test any app's offline claim - ✓ Put the phone in flight mode before opening the app — If it will not open, the claim is about cached pages, not work. - ✓ Mark a job done, take a photo, record a cash payment — All three, with no signal. Then book the next visit. - ✓ Change the same job from another device — Then turn the signal back on and see which change survives, and whether the app tells you. - ✓ Close the app, reopen it, still offline — The queued changes should still be there. - ✓ Reconnect and check the office view — Everything should arrive, in order, once. ### Questions people ask **Does the app work with no signal all day?** Yes, on the phone and installed apps. The day's data is on the device, changes queue on the device, and the queue sends when a connection is available, whether that is at the next stop or back at the yard that evening. **What if the phone dies before it syncs?** The queue is stored on the device, not in memory, so it survives the app being closed or the phone being restarted. Charge it and reconnect and the changes send. If the phone is lost, unsynced changes on it are lost with it, which is a reason to let it sync at the next opportunity rather than at the end of the week. **Does the web app work offline?** No, and we say so. The browser app is the always-online office surface for planning, invoicing and reporting. Offline lives in the installed apps on iOS, Android and Windows, which is where the signal actually drops. **Does offline cost extra?** No. Offline mobile on all four platforms is part of every plan, Free included, and plans are per business rather than per user. See the pricing page for the four plans. ### Take the round somewhere with no signal and see TradeYoke's phone apps work offline and sync honestly when the signal returns, on every plan. Start a 30-day trial of Essentials with no card. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> Carl Randall Mobile Product https://tradeyoke.net/blog/van-tracking-without-the-hardware https://tradeyoke.net/blog/van-tracking-without-the-hardware Sat, 16 May 2026 10:15:11 GMT You do not need a box wired into the van to know where the team is. The app on the phone is the tracker, and the map shows customers, jobs, vehicles and people together. 💡 Send the on-the-way text from the visit, not from a personal phone. It goes from your business number or address, it is recorded on the customer's record, and the reply comes back to the office, not to whoever happened to be driving. ### Privacy with the team: tracking people, not vans A box in the van tracks a vehicle. An app on a phone tracks a person, and that difference is where trust is won or lost. The Information Commissioner's Office publishes guidance on monitoring workers, and the principles are straightforward: be clear about what is collected and why, collect it only when it is needed, and tell people before you start. In practice that means tracking during the working day, for the purposes above, and saying so in writing. The team should know what the map shows, who can see it, and that it is off when they are not at work. Covert tracking is a fast way to lose good people and a slow way to lose an employment tribunal. Check the ICO's guidance and, if you employ people, your HR adviser before you switch anything on. [Employment practices and data protection: monitoring workers](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/employment/monitoring-workers/): The Information Commissioner's Office guidance for employers on monitoring, including location tracking: lawful basis, transparency and proportionality. ### Before you switch tracking on - ✓ Write down why — Dispatch, customer updates and safety are good reasons. Curiosity is not. - ✓ Tell the team, in writing, before it starts — What is collected, when, who sees it, and that it is scoped to the working day. - ✓ Give the map to the people it helps — A team that can see each other on the map understands what the office sees. - ✓ Keep it to working hours — The app is the tracker while the app is at work. - ✓ Review it after a month — Ask the team what it has been used for, and whether that matched what you said. ### When hardware still makes sense An app on a phone is not the answer to everything. If you need to recover a stolen van at three in the morning, a hidden hardware tracker with its own battery is the tool. If you want driver behaviour data for an insurance policy, or you need to track plant and trailers that never have a phone with them, the same applies. And a worker without a company phone is not on the map at all. For a business of two to fifteen people whose questions are the three above, the phone is enough, and the saving is the fitting cost and a fee per vehicle every month. It is honest to say the app solves dispatch and customer updates rather than theft recovery. ### App on the phone or a box in the van? | Need | Phone app | Fitted hardware | |---|---|---| | Where is the team right now | Yes | Yes | | Nearest person to a callout | Yes | Yes, if one person per van | | On-the-way texts to the customer | Yes, from the visit | Not usually | | Stolen vehicle recovery | No | Yes | | Driver behaviour for insurers | No | Yes | | Plant and trailers | No | Yes | | Cost | Included in Ultimate | Fitting plus a fee per vehicle | ### Where it lives in TradeYoke Live monitoring is part of the Ultimate plan, which is per business rather than per vehicle or per user; every plan is on the pricing page. The map runs on the web for the office and on the phone for the team, from the same data and the same connection logic described in the offline-first post. Because it is one map across every trade, a business running two trades sees both crews together, which is one of the small reasons one account for two trades works. See also: keeping a lone-working tradesperson safe [Image: The same map on the phone, so the team sees what the office sees.] ### Questions people ask **Does it drain the phone battery?** Location sharing while the app is at work uses some battery, as any navigation app does. It is scoped to the working day rather than running permanently, and a van charger removes the question for most teams. Test it for a week before deciding. **Can a team member turn it off?** It is their phone, so yes. The app makes clear when location is being shared, and tracking is tied to the working day. The right approach is an agreement about when it is on, written down, rather than a technical lock nobody trusts. **Is it worth it for a one-person business?** Less so for the map, more so for the on-the-way texts, which a sole trader benefits from as much as anyone. Texting customers is part of Essentials and every plan above it; the live map is Ultimate. **Do I need the Ultimate plan?** Live monitoring is in Ultimate, with your own website and the customer portal. Essentials includes the diary, customers, branded quotes and invoices, reminders, emailing and texting customers, and offline mobile. The 30-day trial is Essentials with no card, so the live map is something you switch on by choosing Ultimate. ### Put the team on the map this afternoon TradeYoke's live monitoring uses the app as the tracker, with on-the-way texts sent from the visit. Start a 30-day trial of Essentials with no card. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> Carl Randall Product https://tradeyoke.net/blog/two-trades-one-account https://tradeyoke.net/blog/two-trades-one-account Mon, 11 May 2026 12:15:11 GMT Plenty of trade businesses do two things: windows and gutters, gardens and fencing, solar and the electrics. One account, one diary, one customer list, one invoice run. The diary knows when, who, where and which trade. It does not need to know what a conservatory roof is. — TradeYoke ### One customer list, two kinds of job The customer record is generic. It holds the name, the addresses, the notes, the documents, the communications history and the balance. Jobs attached to it are trade-specific. So a customer who has windows cleaned every four weeks and the garden done fortnightly in summer has one record, two recurring series, one balance and one place where both are visible. That matters most for money. The morning 'who owes me' email lists her once, with everything owed, and the customer portal shows her everything in one place to pay. Reminders and receipts go from one business identity, so she never gets two texts from two names on the same afternoon. A spreadsheet of customers imports once, with duplicate detection, as described in the move-over-in-an-afternoon post. [Image: One customer list across trades, with distance, balance and owing status, so the gardening customer and the window cleaning customer are the same row when they are the same person.] ### Projects: when a job needs more than one trade Some work is not two jobs for one customer but one piece of work with two trades on it. A solar installation with the electrical certification. A roof repair with the scaffold that makes it possible. That is what projects are for: a customer, a site, a status and the trades involved, with the visits from each trade on the diary and the quotes and invoices raised from the project. Projects came out of the scaffolding pilot, where almost every site carries another trade. The inspection discipline that goes with it is in the seven-day inspections post. ### Compatible trades: what works together today Window cleaning and gardening are live and have shared accounts since the start. Scaffolding, electricians, plumbers and gas, and solar installers are in pilot with real businesses, and the pilots include combinations, because that is how those businesses are shaped. The trades page has a page for each. ### Common pairings on one account | First trade | Second trade | What is shared | Status | |---|---|---|---| | Window cleaning | Gardening | Customers, diary, rounds, invoices, owed report | Live | | Solar installer | Electrician | Customer, project, certificates, handover pack | In pilot | | Scaffolding | Any site trade | Project, site, visits, documents, team | In pilot | | Plumber and gas | Electrician | Landlord portfolio, certificate expiries, agent contacts | In pilot | > 💡 Start with one trade and add the second when the first is running. Each trade can be switched on or off in settings, and the customers and diary you already have carry straight over. ### What stays separate Each trade has its own settings tab: its prices, its paperwork, its defaults and whether the guided job wizard is on for it. Each trade's certificates and documents are its own. Team members can be marked with the trades they work in, so the window cleaning crew and the gardening crew are distinct on the register even when they overlap on Fridays. Reports show the whole business and the value of each round, and the accountant CSVs cover the business as one; how two trades appear on your tax return is a question for your accountant. The Squeegee Rush arcade game, for what it is worth, belongs to the window cleaning module and stays there. The gardeners have asked. [Business records if you're self-employed](https://www.gov.uk/self-employed-records): What HMRC expects a self-employed business to keep: records of sales and income, expenses, VAT and PAYE where they apply, for the business as a whole. ### What it costs Plans are per business. Free is £0, Essentials is £19 a month, Premium is £39 a month and Ultimate is £55 a month, and none of them is multiplied by trades or by users. A window cleaning and gardening business pays the same as a window cleaning business. Pilot trades are priced with the pilot businesses while the pilots run. The pricing page has the detail, and the 30-day trial of Essentials lets you run every trade you need. ### Adding a second trade to an existing account - ✓ Switch the trade on in settings — It appears as a tab and in the job wizard's trade picker. - ✓ Set its prices and paperwork — In its own settings tab; the first trade is untouched. - ✓ Mark which team members work in it — On the team register, so the diary and Plan my day assign the right people. - ✓ Book the first job against an existing customer — No new customer record; the job is the new thing. - ✓ Check the owed report the next morning — One list, both trades, one balance per customer. ### Questions people ask **Do I pay twice for two trades?** No. Plans are per business. Every plan covers every trade on the account, and users are not charged separately either. **Can I switch a trade off again?** Yes. Trades are switched on and off in settings. Switching one off hides its screens and its entry in the job wizard; the customers and the history stay where they are. **Will my window cleaning customers see that I do gardening?** Only if you tell them. Invoices, texts and emails carry your one business identity. Many businesses use the customer list to offer the second trade to the first trade's customers, which is the cheapest marketing there is. **Can one person be in one trade only?** Yes. The team register records which trades each person works in, and the diary respects it when assigning. A person can be in both. ### One account, every trade you do TradeYoke runs compatible trades on one diary, one customer list and one invoice run, at one price per business. Start a 30-day trial of Essentials with no card. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> Carl Randall Product Guides