5 of the best apps for tradies to nail knocking off early

How many times have you dreamed about knocking off early… thinking ‘surely there’s an app for this’? Good chance there is. Crack open a coldie and check out the best apps for tradies in 2024. 

9 times out of 10 you’d rather be kicking back with your mates than allocating expense accounts. Actually, you’d likely prefer to pluck your eyeballs out with tiny pitchforks than be doing anything numbers-related. Lucky for you, there are a bunch of ripper accounting and job management apps designed to help tradies spend less time in the books (and more time in the surf). 

What are the best apps for tradies in 2024?

Wanna go get plussed with your mates? Here’s our roundup of the best apps for tradies to knock off early, save beer-drinking time (and in the long term, the beer drinking fund, too). 

1. Buildertrend

Time-saving rating: 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺

Buildertrend and tradies go together like sausage rolls and tommy sauce. It just makes sense. Manage pre-sales, projects, finances and customers in one space with one of the best apps for tradies in the construction field.

What it is: Project management app for builders. 

Why it’s sick: Integrates tenders and quoting, Xero, team progress, client job portal access and more to streamline your processes. From the moment you receive an enquiry, to sending progress claims, through to ordering materials and finishing jobs. 

Use it to:

• Track staff logs, timesheets, jobs and photos
• Quote, register and schedule jobs
• Share portal access with clients
• Track payments

Could be better: Okay, the estimating function could do with some work. Look at it as character building. Though if you’re running estimates elsewhere, the rest is honestly pretty seamless. 

Tip: We’re proficient in Buildertrend. When supplier invoices come through Buildertrend (like those from Bunnings), this is then sent over to Xero. Inside Xero, as your bookkeepers, we’ll then approve the transaction, check the ABN and reconcile. 

Pssst… (That’s not another beer opening. That’s us.) Think you might *not* be using Buildertrend to its full potential? It’s possible. Book a Virtual Beer to chat about how you can use one of the best apps for tradies in the building space to save time and create cheesy grins. 

Price: From $199 per month.

2. Tradify

Time-saving rating: 🍺🍺🍺

Whether you’re in electricals, HVAC, renovations or plumbing. Tradies of all kinds can give the Tradify app a crack for the ripe old price of zero dollars. Start your free trial here (no credit card required).

What it is: A fast and easy job management app trusted by 40k+ tradies.

Why it’s sick: Covers the basics for job management, note-taking, tracking, scheduling, quoting and pricing. Plus, allows you to receive credit card payments online, tracks your emails and even integrates with Google Docs. Sa-weet.

Use it to:

• Record staff timesheets from their phones
• Automate communication with customers
• Track jobs from quote to invoice
• Create a simple website
• Accept online payments
• Schedule jobs

Could be better: This app features limited accounting software for tradies. But we recommend you use Xero anyway, so it’s no biggie. You could say it’s (Biggie) *Smalls* in comparison to how many wins you’ll experience inside (we’re sorry for who we are).  

Price: From $45 per user/month [free 14 day trial]

3. Xero Me

Time-saving rating: 🍺🍺🍺🍺

Whether you’re late for your next job or just fanging for a Bunnings snag. You don’t have time to do every. Single. Thing. For your tradie biz. Nuh-uh. And whether you’re not at the stage of hiring yet, or reckon that double-handling is a waste of clock ticks. Xero Me is the best app for tradies who want their team to pick up some of the slack. 

What it is: A self-service app to arm staff with accounting tools.

Why it’s sick: Allows your employees to self-serve admin tasks. 

Use it to:

• Allow staff to create and submit timesheets and leave requests
• Store and show staff their payslips and leave balances
• Grant managers access to approve particular actions
• Capture and auto-fill expense claims
• Track mileage for reimbursement

Tip: Employees can only see their own information. So no need to spend your smoko side-eyeing their phone activity. 

Could be better: The success of this app for your tradie biz relies heavily on your staff following the right steps. Though it’s not exactly the app’s downfall, it is something to keep in mind. 

Price: Free with your Xero subscription.

4. Xero

Time-saving rating: 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺

What it is: An all-in-one accounting app 

Why it’s sick: She’s clever. She’s efficient. She’s a beauty to look at. As far as accounting apps for tradies go, Xero really is the best. You can also invite your friendly bookkeeping team (*cough* that’s us *cough*) in for a geezer so we can do things like prep your reports, run payroll and get you tax time ready. You little ripper. 

Use it to:

• Quote
• Pay bills
• Run payroll
• Store expenses
• Outsource to your bookkeepers 

You may also like: Xero Vs MYOB: What’s the best bookkeeping software for you?

Could be better: We’d be lying if we said that there *was* room for improvement. Because Xero really has so much covered and is our #1 pick of the best apps for tradesmen. There, we said it. 

Price: From $32 per month for the Starter Pack at time of writing (seeeee? So good!)

5. Bookkeeper

Time-saving rating: 🍺🌊🤠🤙🏽🌭

What it is: Okay, it might not be an ‘app for tradies’ but it is a (h)app(iness) booster for tradies. Right? Right! Plus if apps aren’t your thing, we can manage them for you. Noice. 

Why it’s sick: We might be biased, but we reckon having an epic number-crunching crew in your corner is a winning idea. Our goal? To help you swap bookkeeping for biz thinking or beer drinking (depending on your mood).

Use it to:

• Run payroll 
• Put a smile on your dial
• Chase up invoices and pay bills
• Get on top of your numbers
• Make smart decisions for the future

You may also like: Xero Vs MYOB: What’s the best bookkeeping software for you?

Downfall: You might never want us to leave and then you’ll have people who are all over your numbers like sunscreen on a crane driver’s schnoz so you’re damn sure of where you stand financially. Oh nooooo. 

Price: From $250 per month for ongoing bookkeeping. 

Wanna suss us out first? Fair. Book a Virtual Beer to see if we’re the bookkeepers for you. We won’t tell the boss if you legit bring beer 😉