Getting paid faster, quoting jobs properly, the legal stuff that nobody on site explains. Written by people who've been on the tools, not SaaS marketers.
A carpenter in Leeds quoted a dormer loft conversion on one line and ate £3,200. How to split the quote by stage, handle steel, party wall and provisional sums, and take payments, with a worked £47,380 example.
Read the full guide →Retention is the slice of a job that gets paid last, if at all. What it is, the usual 3% to 5%, when each half falls due, how to invoice and chase it, and what the Late Payment Act adds, with a worked £16,000 example.
Read the full guide →The best invoice app for plumbers isn't the one with the most features, it's the one you'll actually open in the van. A plain comparison of TradeStash, Tradify, Powered Now, QuickBooks, Xero and Zoho with real 2026 prices, plus a worked example of what same-day invoicing is worth to your cashflow.
Read the full guide →Pay another trade to do construction work and you're a contractor under CIS, even with one subbie. Here's the scheme in plain English: the 20%, 30%, and 0% rates, what you deduct from (labour only), a worked example on a £2,500 invoice, the monthly deadlines that bite, and how subbies get the money back.
Read the full guide →VAT on building work isn't one number, it's three. Most repairs and extensions are 20%, new builds are 0%, and conversions and long-term empty homes drop to 5%. Here's the decision tree, plus a worked example where the right rate saves a customer £7,200 on a house-into-flats conversion.
Read the full guide →If you sub-contract to other VAT-registered firms, the Domestic Reverse Charge changed who hands the VAT to HMRC. Here it is in plain English: the five checks that decide if it applies, what an end user is, how to word the invoice, and the cashflow trap nobody warns you about, with a worked example on an £8,000 job.
Read the full guide →There is no legal cap on a builder's deposit in the UK, but a fair one covers your materials and sits at or under 25% of the job. Here's the CPA stance, the 14-day cancellation trap that catches trades out, and a worked example structuring a £2,000 deposit and stage payments on an £8,000 bathroom.
Read the full guide →The Late Payment Act 1998 gives UK trades an automatic right to charge 8% statutory interest plus fixed recovery costs on any overdue business invoice, no clause in your contract needed. Here's how the interest works, the costs you can add, and a full worked example on a £6,800 invoice that's 72 days late.
Read the full guide →Three letters that take a £4,000 overdue invoice from "we'll get to it" to "paid in 14 days". The Late Payment Act 1998 in plain English, when to charge interest, when to escalate to small claims, and the one thing most trades get wrong on the first letter.
Read the full guide →25 pages of UK trade templates: 4 quote forms, 1 invoice, 3 late payment letters with the Late Payment Act references, T&Cs, job sign-off, variation order, and the aftercare letter. Replaces around £400 of solicitor-drafted templates. No card needed.
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