The TradeYoke build timeline: every part of the build, in order

Part 39 of 39 of Building TradeYoke, the story of how the platform was built, from January 2024 to today. Previous: From passwords to passkeys: how sign-in and trust grew with TradeYoke. See every part on the build timeline.

Quick answer: Building TradeYoke is a month-by-month account of how the platform was built, from the start of development in January 2024 to October 2026, after an idea dating from around 2019. This page lists every part in date order, grouped by phase: the start, customers and jobs, invoicing, quoting, surveys and inspections, maps and directions, live monitoring, and the present.

• Development started at the beginning of 2024; the idea dates from around 2019.
• The order was: customers and jobs, invoicing, quoting, surveys and inspections, maps and directions, then live monitoring. The document library began in July 2024 and spread across the system in March and April 2025.
• Every part below links to the full article.
• The most recent work is on the phone experience, sign-in and passkeys.

The parts are in date order. Each phase has a one-line summary, and every entry links to the full article. If you only read one, start with the whole journey. For the same story by version and date, including the numbered releases from 0.2.2 to 0.3.45, see the release notes.

Where the idea came from and why we began.

• January 2024: Where TradeYoke began: an idea from helping run window cleaning rounds
• January 2024: Five years of the same idea, and why we finally started building

The problem, the round, the customer record, the repeating job, our terms and the early engineering decisions.

• February 2024: Why window cleaning rounds drift, and what a good one looks like
• March 2024: What is a round? Designing it in software
• April 2024: The customer record a window cleaner actually needs
• May 2024: Designing a job that repeats: every four weeks, for years
• June 2024: Why we published our terms and privacy notice from the start
• June 2024: One codebase and offline-first: the early engineering decisions

Window cleaning customers and jobs working end to end, the document library for the paperwork, the diary, and getting a round in.

• July 2024: July 2024: customers and jobs working end to end for window cleaning
• July 2024: July 2024: a library for the paperwork, filed where you will look
• August 2024: August 2024: a diary that fills itself from the round
• September 2024: September 2024: getting an existing round in without retyping it

Invoices, the ledger, part payments and Who owes me, and how customers pay.

• October 2024: October 2024: why invoicing came next, and what it had to get right
• November 2024: November 2024: a ledger that cannot be quietly edited
• December 2024: December 2024: part payments, receipts and knowing who owes you
• January 2025: January 2025: how customers pay, with pay links, cards and Direct Debit

Guided quotes, the page customers accept on, what happens after a quote is sent, and the document library reaching every record, with search and expiry.

• February 2025: February 2025: quotes that start from the customer record, not a blank page
• March 2025: March 2025: the page a customer accepts a quote on
• March 2025: March 2025: documents on every record, for the job, the customer, the van and the company
• April 2025: April 2025: what happens after a quote is sent
• April 2025: April 2025: searching inside your documents, not just their names
• April 2025: April 2025: expiry dates, so a certificate never runs out unnoticed

Site surveys, inspection checklists with evidence and sign-off, and one signature pad.

• May 2025: May 2025: site surveys, because some jobs need looking at before you can price them
• June 2025: June 2025: inspections, checklists with pass or fail, evidence and sign-off
• July 2025: July 2025: one signature pad, used wherever a customer or an engineer signs

Addresses, directions to the door and one set of maps on Google Maps.

• August 2025: August 2025: getting the address right, with postcodes and map pins
• September 2025: September 2025: directions to the door, from the job or the customer
• October 2025: October 2025: one set of maps, built on Google Maps

Where is everybody, consent first, and trails and replay.

• November 2025: November 2025: where is everybody? Live monitoring begins
• December 2025: December 2025: consent first, and tracking a team fairly
• January 2026: January 2026: trails and replay, and what a day's route can tell you

Offline-first in practice, Plan my day, and one core for many trades.

• February 2026: February 2026: working with no signal, offline-first in practice
• March 2026: March 2026: Plan my day, decide, order, go
• April 2026: April 2026: one core, many trades

Pricing, sign-in and trust, lessons, and the whole journey.

• September 2026: How we thought about pricing TradeYoke: four plans, one price per business
• October 2026: What building for tradespeople has taught us: seven lessons from the build
• October 2026: From a 2019 idea to today: the whole TradeYoke journey
• October 2026: From passwords to passkeys: how sign-in and trust grew with TradeYoke

It shows the order, not the effort. Some months, such as the ledger and the consent work, took far more care than their length suggests. And it shows what we built, not everything we tried. We have kept the account to what is in the product and true today. Where a part is still in pilot, the article says so.

Window cleaning and gardening are in pilot, with a first release very soon. Electricians, plumbers and solar installers are in pilot with real businesses. The web app is available now and works on a phone. The Android, iPhone and Windows apps are in pilot and not yet in the app stores; email hello@tradeyoke.net if you would like early access.

Related: The platform · All features · Pricing · The build timeline