Software for trades businesses — from the enquiry in the inbox to settlement between group companies
Enquiries arrive by email and are retyped. On-site measurements are taken on the building site and transferred in the evening. Scheduling lives in a calendar that one person keeps in their head. And as soon as several group companies work together, internal settlement runs on a spreadsheet. Attek Solutions develops the software for trades businesses that closes this chain — rented, with no upfront investment, from €500 a month.
Why trades businesses come to us
Rarely because their trades software is poor. Usually because the business has outgrown what that software was cut for. Three recurring situations:
From enquiry to quote, without retyping
Enquiries arrive by email, through the contact form, by phone, occasionally through portals. Today someone reads them, creates a job and transfers the details.
What a system of your own makes of this:
Enquiries are recognised and prepared
Sender, site, trade and request are extracted from an email and created as a job. The employee checks and completes it instead of entering it again. From that moment every enquiry has a status — nothing sits in a personal mailbox any more.
The quote is built from existing components
Line items, costing rates and text blocks per trade are held in the system. For recurring work, a draft quote is generated from the checked enquiry and the on-site measurement, which the master craftsman checks — rather than writes.
Following up runs by your rules
Anyone who has not responded after a week receives a reminder; you decide from which order value someone is called instead.
The effect lies less in the writing saved than in the speed: the quote that arrives first wins the order disproportionately often.
On-site measurements do not sit around on the building site
Today the measurement is taken on site — on paper, in a notebook, as a photo — and transferred to the office in the evening or days later. Errors happen during the transfer, and until then nobody can cost the job.
In a system of your own, the measurement is captured on site and flows straight into the job: rooms, dimensions, line items, photos, particulars. The office can start costing as soon as the field technician leaves the yard — not when they get back.
Two requirements decide whether the field technicians really work with it:
Basement, shell construction, underground car park, rural building site — capture happens without a signal, synchronisation happens as soon as there is a connection again. With a rule for what applies when two devices have changed the same job.
An on-site measurement in drywall looks different from one in heating installation. The screen reflects how your people actually measure — not a generic form.
Scheduling: who, when, where — by your rules
In many businesses the weekly schedule is the private knowledge of a single person. They know who can do what, who lives where, which customer never wants to see which field technician again and when which material arrives. If that person is away, scheduling stops.
A system of your own turns that knowledge into rules:
- Qualification and trade
- who is allowed to do what
- Travel
- routes that make geographical sense, instead of criss-crossing the region
- Availability
- holiday, sick leave, time already scheduled
- Dependencies
- material delivered, preceding trade finished, commitment given to the customer
- Your unwritten rules
- the regular customer the same person always drives to
The system proposes, the planner decides. Changes — an emergency, a sick note — are slotted in, and those affected are informed automatically instead of through a chain of phone calls.
When several group companies work together
The point at which every trades software ends: it knows one business. Trades groups that have grown consist of several — subsidiaries split by trade, acquired businesses, regional entities.
What happens today: each entity works in its own system, joint projects are coordinated by email, and internal settlement is put together on a spreadsheet at the end of the month.
One quote to the customer, three entities behind it — and the settlement flow between them
For steering the group by key figures — utilisation, quote conversion rate, contribution margin per entity — this is the same data basis: the CEO dashboard →
Does the existing trades software have to go?
Not necessarily. If individual businesses work well with their tool, it can stay and be connected — the new system then takes on the layers it does not cover: enquiry intake, on-site measurement, group-wide scheduling, settlement.
Often the workshop shows, however, that an end-to-end job from enquiry to invoice is worth more than keeping the individual tool. That is a trade-off, not a decision taken in advance — and we will tell you openly what we consider sensible in your specific case.
How it works
- 01Intro call, 30 minutes. You describe your problem. We tell you honestly whether custom software pays off for you or whether off-the-shelf software is the better choice.
- 02Personal demo. Instead of slides you get software: we take a problem you described in the intro call and show it to you as a working application. That way you judge from your own case whether the effort is worth it, before you sign anything.
- 03Requirements workshop. We go through your workflows until we have understood them completely. Free of charge.
- 04Signing the contract. After the requirements workshop you receive a fixed monthly price for your requirements, and we sign the contracts.
- 05First productive version after one to two months. This is when you start paying — not before.
- 06Operations and continued development. Your workflows now run automatically and your team gains time for the business. We take care of operations, maintenance and support.
The process in detail — including what you contribute yourself →
The alternatives compared
| Criterion | Trades software (plancraft, ToolTime, pds) | Trades software with a spreadsheet in between | Attek CSaaS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quote, order and invoice in a single business | good | good | built in |
| Recognising enquiries in the inbox | no | manual | built in |
| On-site measurement offline from the site into the job | partly, generic | manual | tailored to your trade |
| Scheduling by your own rules | calendar | calendar plus memory | built in |
| Several group companies, one data set | no | no | built in |
| Internal settlement between entities | no | spreadsheet at month end | part of the solution |
| Group-wide reporting | no | manual | part of the solution |
| Upfront investment | licence | licence | €0 |
| Ongoing costs | per user | per user plus working time | €1,000–1,500+/month, everything included |
When trades software is the better choice
Off-the-shelf trades software is the better choice when the budget is small and your process follows the standard: a single business, enquiry, quote, order, invoice, without a group structure and without special processes. Plancraft, ToolTime or pds are then faster and cheaper than we could ever be. Take one of those tools.
Talk to us as soon as you want to grow or have to cut costs. Manual work between digital steps costs time every day and grows with every order. Licences per user grow with every hire. And no off-the-shelf software maps a structure made up of several businesses — joint quotes and internal settlement then stay manual work. Our price is based on the scope of functionality, not on the number of employees: from €500 a month, typically €1,000–1,500.
Frequently asked questions
Who develops custom software for trades businesses?
Attek Solutions GmbH in Berlin develops custom trades software and provides it on a rental basis — with no upfront investment, and with operations and continued development included in the monthly price. The focus is the end-to-end path from enquiry to invoice and structures with several group companies.
Can enquiries be recognised automatically from the email inbox?
Yes. Sender, site and request are extracted from incoming emails and created as a job with a status. The employee checks and completes it instead of retyping. Enquiries no longer sit in personal mailboxes.
Does on-site measurement work without a signal on the building site?
Yes, that is a core requirement. Capture happens offline, synchronisation happens as soon as there is a connection again — with a defined rule for the case where two devices have changed the same job.
Can scheduling take travel routes and qualifications into account?
Yes. The system proposes assignments that take qualification, travel, availability and your own rules into account — the decision is made by your planner, not by the system. When changes come up at short notice, those affected are informed automatically.
We are a group of several companies. Can that be modelled?
Yes, that is one of the most common reasons why trades groups come to us. Joint quotes, the question of who delivers and who invoices, internal settlement with clean documents per entity and a shared data set with separate views are part of the solution. The settlement rules are set by your tax adviser; we implement them.
Does our existing trades software have to be replaced?
Not necessarily. It can stay and be connected while the new system takes on enquiry intake, on-site measurement, group-wide scheduling and settlement. Whether an end-to-end job without the legacy tool makes more sense is something we clarify in the workshop — and we tell you openly.
What does it cost?
Between €1,000 and €1,500 a month, with a lower limit of €500. For group structures with several companies, rather at the upper end or above, depending on scope. No setup fee, no upfront investment, no hourly rates.
How quickly can we work with it?
The first productive version is ready one to two months after the contract is signed and covers one process end to end — usually the path from enquiry to quote. Further areas follow based on actual usage.
Tell us where orders get stuck in your business.
In the intro call we follow a real order from enquiry to invoice — and tell you which part is worth doing first. 30 minutes, free of charge.
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