https://tradeyoke.net/blog/tag/guides Practical, step-by-step walkthroughs for getting set up. 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/invoices-and-texts-in-welsh https://tradeyoke.net/blog/invoices-and-texts-in-welsh Thu, 24 Sep 2026 02:33:16 GMT TradeYoke's message templates — every quote, invoice, receipt and text — now ship in English, Spanish, Welsh, German, Portuguese and French. Here's why that matters for a Welsh-speaking customer base, and exactly how the language your business posts in is chosen. TradeYoke team Messaging Product Guides 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/automatic-invoicing-and-pay-now-links https://tradeyoke.net/blog/automatic-invoicing-and-pay-now-links Wed, 23 Sep 2026 01:33:16 GMT TradeYoke can now raise and send a window cleaning, gardening or scaffolding invoice the moment the job's marked done, and every invoice carries a Pay now button — on the email, the PDF and the customer's own account page. 💷 Late payment costs UK small businesses real money in time and cash flow — HMRC's Making Tax Digital rules aside, an invoice that isn't raised on the day it's earned is an invoice that takes longer to collect. The fix that works, for every trade we've watched, is the same: shorten the gap between the job finishing and the ask to pay. ### What you can do about it today, TradeYoke or not Quick answer: raise the invoice the same day, put a way to pay by card on it, and stop sending an invoice that just states a total with no button to act on. ### Five habits that get you paid faster, whatever you use - ✓ Invoice same-day, not same-week — The longer the gap between the job and the invoice, the less the customer remembers why they're paying — and the easier it is for you to forget to send it at all. - ✓ Put a way to pay ON the invoice — A PDF with a bank sort code buried in the footer asks the customer to do the work of paying. A button that already knows the amount does not. - ✓ Make the link work more than once — A pay link that dies after a day just means a second, more awkward, message a week later. - ✓ Decide your default, and stick to it — Card payments by default with a manual option for the regulars who prefer bank transfer beats deciding case by case, tired, at 9pm. - ✓ Keep a debt book, even a rough one — Knowing who owes what and for how long is the difference between chasing early and chasing embarrassingly late. ### How TradeYoke does it: the job invoices itself Quick answer: turn on automatic invoicing for window cleaning, gardening or scaffolding and a job raises and emails its own invoice the moment it's marked done — off by default, with a per-customer override. TradeYoke's invoicing sits on an immutable ledger, so every invoice, payment and adjustment is a permanent entry rather than a field someone can quietly edit. On top of that ledger, a completed job can now raise its own invoice and send it — for window cleaning, gardening and scaffolding — the moment it's marked done. It's off by default for the whole business, so nothing changes until you decide it should, and it's off (or on) per customer too, for the accounts where a blanket rule is the wrong call — the regular who's always invoiced monthly, say, or the landlord who wants one statement for six properties. [Image: An invoice raised from a completed job, with the Pay now link already attached] ### Pay now, wherever the customer is looking Quick answer: a Pay now button now appears on the invoice email, on the PDF itself, and on the customer's own portal page — always for exactly what's still owed, and the link stays live. Getting the invoice out is only half of it; the other half is not making the customer hunt for a way to pay it. TradeYoke now puts a Pay now button in three places a customer is actually likely to be looking: the email the invoice arrives in, the PDF document itself (so it still works if they've saved or forwarded it), and their own portal page if you've set one up. Whichever one they tap, it charges exactly what's still owed — not the original total if part of it's already been paid — and a copied link keeps working, rather than quietly expiring after a day. You can turn Pay now off tenant-wide, or set an individual customer to always or never see it, for the accounts you'd rather handled by bank transfer. ### A Stripe set-up that doesn't need a technical co-founder Quick answer: Connect with Stripe now asks for one thing at a time and needs only your secret key to get going — no webhook key hunting required to start taking card payments. Card payments run through your own Stripe account — TradeYoke never holds your money — and the connection screen has been simplified so it shows only the next thing you actually need to do, with everything else ticked off or tucked away. If the connection ever gets into a stuck, technical-looking state, TradeYoke now clears it automatically and invites you to reconnect with a plain message instead of showing you a raw error. **Whose Stripe account is it?** Yours. You connect your own Stripe account in settings, and payouts go straight to your bank on Stripe's normal schedule — TradeYoke is never in the middle of your money. **Which jobs can invoice themselves?** Window cleaning, gardening and scaffolding today. It's off by default for the whole business and can be switched on — or overridden for one customer — in settings. **Does Pay now work without an online account?** Yes. Neither the pay link nor the customer portal need the customer to create a login or download anything. **Can I still take bank transfer or cash?** Yes — manual payments are recorded against the invoice the same way as card payments, and the ledger treats them the same for your reports. Related: Invoicing & payments · Customer portal · Getting paid · The who-owes-me morning report ### Stop chasing your own invoices 30 days of Essentials free, no card required. Import your customers and see the next invoice send itself. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Payments 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. Carl Randall Payments Accounting Guides https://tradeyoke.net/blog/document-library-that-finds-a-certificate-in-seconds https://tradeyoke.net/blog/document-library-that-finds-a-certificate-in-seconds Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:33:16 GMT "It's in here somewhere" is not a filing system. Here's what actually makes trade paperwork findable — and how TradeYoke searches inside the file, not just its name, to find the certificate that mentions a serial number or a customer's name. TradeYoke team Documents Compliance 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/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/getting-your-first-round-into-tradeyoke https://tradeyoke.net/blog/getting-your-first-round-into-tradeyoke Sun, 30 Aug 2026 21:15:11 GMT A practical walkthrough: import customers, set frequencies, order the day, and send the first 'we're coming tomorrow' texts — without retyping a single address. TradeYoke team Guides Window cleaning https://tradeyoke.net/blog/paper-to-app-in-one-afternoon https://tradeyoke.net/blog/paper-to-app-in-one-afternoon Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:15:11 GMT The fear of moving is worse than the move. Import the spreadsheet, let the app find the duplicates and geocode the addresses, book next week, and keep the notebook in the glovebox for a fortnight. 💡 Add a column called Notes and put access instructions in it: gate codes, which dog, where the key is, "park on the road not the drive". Those notes show up on the job when you are stood at the door. [Image: One customer list across trades, with balance, next visit and location on the map.] ### Hour two: duplicates and addresses Every hand-kept list has the same customer twice: once as "Jones, 14 Elm Rd" and once as "Mr Jones, 14 Elm Road". The import flags likely duplicates on name and address and offers a merge that keeps both sets of notes and history, so you resolve them in one sitting rather than finding them in June. Addresses are geocoded as they come in, which is what makes the map, nearest-first routing and the mileage log work later. A handful will not resolve because the postcode is wrong or the house has a name rather than a number. Fix those now while you still remember where the house is; the customer record shows the pin and lets you drag it. ### Hour three: the round and next week Recurring work is where a notebook really lets you down, because the pattern lives in your head. Whether you clean windows every four weeks or cut a lawn fortnightly, set the recurrence once per customer and the diary fills itself. Each visit gets its own record, so "done", "skipped" and "carried over" mean something a year from now. Then book next week exactly as the notebook has it. This is the moment the app becomes real: tomorrow's list on your phone, in the order you would drive it. From here on, the round runs from the app and the notebook is a backup. Window cleaners can see how a round looks on the window cleaning trade page; gardeners will find the seasonal version on the gardening page. [Image: Booking the first visit in the job wizard: today, tomorrow, next Monday, in a week or a date you pick — the round takes it from there.] ### Money owed today Finally, record what is outstanding. For each customer who owes you, raise the invoice or record the balance so the app's "who owes me" view is right on day one. This is the step people skip and regret, because a reminder system that thinks everyone is paid up cannot chase anyone. Once it is in, the morning owed report and pay links do the chasing for you. Do not chase the money the same afternoon. Give customers a week with a polite note that you have moved to a new system and they will be able to pay by link from now on. The tone of that note is covered in chasing late payments the polite way. ### The afternoon, in order - ✓ One spreadsheet — Name, address, postcode, phone, price, frequency, notes. Typed as it is. - ✓ Import and merge — Let the app flag duplicates; merge them while you remember which is which. - ✓ Fix the unplaced pins — Drag the handful of addresses that would not geocode. - ✓ Set the recurrence — Once per customer. The diary fills itself. - ✓ Book next week — Exactly as the notebook has it. This is your first real day on the app. - ✓ Record what is owed — So the owed report and reminders are right from day one. - ✓ Keep the notebook for a fortnight — In the glovebox. You will not open it, but it helps to know it is there. ### What about the old records? HMRC expects you to keep business records for a set number of years after the relevant tax year, so keep the old notebooks and files exactly as they are. You do not need to type history into the app for it to be valid; you need it to be findable if asked. gov.uk sets out how long to keep what. [Business records if you're self-employed](https://www.gov.uk/self-employed-records): What records HMRC expects a self-employed person to keep, and for how long. > Move the customers, the pattern and the money. Everything else can stay in the drawer. — TradeYoke ### Questions people ask **What if I get the prices wrong on import?** Prices live on the customer record, so you fix one and the next job picks it up. An import is not a commitment; it is a starting point you correct as you visit each customer. **Can I import from another app?** Yes, as long as it can export a spreadsheet or CSV. Map the columns, import, merge any duplicates and you are done. Our guide to choosing job management software suggests doing this on day one of a trial for exactly that reason. **Do my customers need to do anything?** No. They will notice a reminder text the day before, a tidier invoice and a link to pay, and that is all. Tell them once that you have moved to a new system so the first text is not a surprise. **How do I price the round once it is in the app?** The app will show you what the round is worth per week and per month. If that number is a shock, read how to price a window cleaning round in 2026 before you change anything. ### Bring the notebook, we'll do the rest Import the spreadsheet, merge the duplicates, book next week. Thirty days of Essentials free, no card. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Guides https://tradeyoke.net/blog/receipts-in-the-van https://tradeyoke.net/blog/receipts-in-the-van Thu, 18 Jun 2026 08:15:11 GMT The receipt is only a problem if it reaches the glovebox. Photograph it on the forecourt, let the app read it, attach it to the job, and the accountant file writes itself. 💡 Materials you buy for a specific job go on that job before you leave the merchant's car park. The receipt is in your hand and the job is on the phone; it never gets easier than that moment. ### Mileage from the day's stops Mileage is the expense sole traders most often under-claim, because nobody keeps the log. TradeYoke builds the day's mileage from the stops you actually visited, so the log is a by-product of doing the round rather than a separate job. If you use HMRC's simplified expenses, the approved rate for a car or van is 45p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p a mile after that. Whether simplified expenses or actual vehicle costs suits you better is an accountant question; either way you need the miles. [Simplified expenses: vehicles](https://www.gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-simplified-expenses/vehicles): HMRC's flat rates per business mile for cars, vans and motorcycles. ### The accountant file At the end of the quarter or the year, the Reports page exports two CSV files: one for income and payments, one for expenses. Between them they are the whole year in two attachments, with each expense line linked to its receipt image. Your accountant gets a file they can work from instead of a bag. If you sync to Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent, invoices and payments arrive there directly. Which package suits a trade business covers the choice. Either way, the expenses side is what feeds boxes 4 and 7 on a VAT return, which MTD for VAT in plain English explains, and it is what a quarterly update will need once MTD for Income Tax reaches you. ### What HMRC expects you to keep You do not send receipts to HMRC with a return, but you must be able to produce them if asked. Digital copies are fine as long as they are legible and complete. Keep the record of what the expense was for, which is why the category and the job attachment matter as much as the image. None of this is tax advice. What counts as allowable, and whether you claim actual costs or flat rates, is for your accountant. What the routine does is make sure that whatever they decide, the evidence exists. ### The receipt routine - ✓ Photograph at the till — Supplier, total and VAT read for you. Check the total. - ✓ Pick the category — Materials, fuel, tools, PPE, subcontractor. - ✓ Attach to the job or the van — Materials to the job; tyres, fuel and servicing to the vehicle. - ✓ Let mileage build from the stops — Review it weekly rather than reconstruct it yearly. - ✓ Export the two CSVs — Income and payments, expenses. Send both to your accountant. ### Questions people ask **Does HMRC accept photographed receipts?** Yes. Digital copies are acceptable as long as they are legible and you keep them for the required period: at least five years after the 31 January deadline for the tax year for Self Assessment, and six years for VAT records. Check gov.uk for your own case. **How accurate is the receipt reading?** Good on a clean receipt, less so on a crumpled or faded one. The supplier, total and VAT are pre-filled for you to check before saving, and the original image stays attached to the expense so you can always look at it. **Can I claim mileage as well as fuel?** Not both for the same vehicle. HMRC's simplified expenses use a flat rate per business mile that covers fuel and running costs; the alternative is claiming actual costs. Your accountant will tell you which suits you. Either way you need a mileage record, which TradeYoke builds from the day's stops. **What does the accountant file contain?** Two CSV exports from the Reports page: income and payments, and expenses. Each expense line links to its receipt image and its job or vehicle, so your accountant gets the evidence with the numbers. Expenses, mileage and the accountant CSVs are in Essentials; see the pricing page. The platform overview shows how expenses connect to jobs, vehicles and reports. ### Thirty seconds on the forecourt Start the free trial and photograph the next receipt before it reaches the glovebox. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Accounting Guides 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