You had work coming in. Calls from clients. Jobs to quote. A schedule to keep track of. At some point the whiteboard was not enough and the spreadsheet was getting messy. You needed something built for a trade business.

You searched for trade job management software. Tradify came up. Australian. Designed for small trade businesses. You signed up.

The quoting worked. The schedule made sense. You could see the jobs, track where they were up to, and invoice from the app. Then the add-ons started. Timesheets. Purchase orders. GPS tracking. Compliance checklists. Profit and loss reports. Features you signed up for because they were included and which you have never opened since.

The Three Things the Business Actually Uses

Quotes. The schedule. Invoices when the job is done.

That is the job most small trade businesses hired Tradify to do. Quote the work, see what is coming up, invoice when it is finished.

Tradify also does timesheet management and payroll preparation, supplier purchase orders and job costing, GPS location tracking, safety and compliance checklists, profit margin reporting, and integration with Xero and QuickBooks. A two-person electrical or plumbing business uses three of those features and pays for all of them.

What your Tradify subscription pays for
  • Timesheet management and payroll prep
  • Supplier purchase orders and job costing
  • GPS tracking and location management
  • Safety and compliance checklists
  • Profit margin and revenue reporting
  • Accounting software integrations
  • Client communication and status updates
What most small trade businesses actually open
  • Quote and estimate builder
  • Job schedule and calendar
  • Invoice when the job is done

Who Tradify Is Actually Built For

Tradify is well-suited for trade businesses with five or more operators who need to coordinate multiple crews. Businesses where a job manager tracks real-time GPS location of vans. Businesses with a full-time admin running timesheets and preparing payroll data. Businesses with enough job volume that profitability reporting matters month to month.

If your operation is two or three tradies doing solid work for regular clients, the job management problem is simpler. You need to know what jobs are on, when they are scheduled, and whether they have been invoiced. That is a job card tracker and a quote log.

Three Years of Paying for a Platform Your Team Does Not Use

Tradify charges per user. A team of three pays around A$105 a month. That is A$3,780 over three years.

Picture a small plumbing business with three staff that has been on Tradify for three years. They quote jobs. They check the schedule. They invoice when the job closes. They have never opened the GPS tracking screen. They have never used the purchase order module. They paid A$3,780 to access a quote, schedule, and invoice tool inside a platform built for a larger operation.

Tradify: 3 users over 3 years
A$3,780
A$35/user/month. Recurring. Forever.
Merebase Merebase job tracker
A$499
Once. No monthly fee after that.

What a Merebase job tracker Includes

A Merebase job tracker is built for the quote-book-invoice cycle your trade business actually runs. You describe the job fields you track, the status workflow from quote to invoice, and the schedule view that fits your operation. The app is built to do exactly that.

What a Merebase job tracker includes:

Quote and estimate builder with your pricing and line items. Job card with status tracking from quote to invoice. Schedule and calendar view by date and staff. Notes and photos per job. Invoice generation when the job closes. Data export at any time.

Note: this covers the quote, schedule, and invoice workflow. Award rate compliance and payroll processing are a separate job. Use a dedicated payroll platform for those.

A$499 once. You bring your own hosting. A basic plan runs A$5 to A$20 a month.

There is no GPS tracking module your team does not need. No compliance checklist builder for a large site crew. No profit and loss dashboard you will open once a quarter. The app manages the jobs from quote to invoice. That is the job.

If your business grows to the point where GPS tracking or multi-crew coordination becomes the priority, that is a different conversation. The scope covers what a small trade operation actually uses.

Common questions
Is there a cheaper alternative to Tradify for small trade businesses?
Yes. A Merebase job tracker built by Merebase does what most small trade businesses use Tradify for: quotes, job scheduling, and invoicing when the work is done. A$499 once. No subscription fee. No per-seat pricing. You bring your own hosting.
Can I move my Tradify jobs and client data to a Merebase app?
Yes. Tradify lets you export job records and client data. A custom Merebase app can be built to start from that data. Your job history and client list come with you. The scope for how your data transfers is agreed in writing before any payment.
What does a Merebase job tracker include?
A Merebase job tracker from Merebase includes a quote builder, job cards with status tracking from quote to invoice, a schedule view, notes and photo upload per job, invoice generation, and data export. It covers the quote, schedule, and invoice workflow. Award compliance and payroll are out of scope. A$499 once, agreed in writing before payment.
What if I need to add features later?
Additional features can be added as separate builds. Each change is scoped and priced in writing before any payment. You are never locked into a recurring fee or dependent on a platform's roadmap.