Top 3 Time Saving Apps for Electricians, Plumbers and Carpenters

With technology increasing in demand every day, there are a lot of benefits that come with it that are often overlooked. If you think about it, everybody these days use mobile phones to check emails and makes notes, which is where I can happily introduce apps. An app is pretty self explanatory, but for those unaware, they are applications on smart phones that provide a very helpful experience for almost anything you can think of.

There are many apps out there to help individual trades, take electricians for example, such as mobile certificates and electrical calculators. I want to give you some apps that will help all trades and your businesses by saving a huge amount of time, and time is money these days. The apps work for anyone self employed or small businesses who require quoting, invoicing, taking payments and keeping up to date with expenses and income for your accounts.

Easy Invoice

This app will not only save you a lot of paperwork, but it will also prevent you from losing quotes and invoices you’ve made as it’s all stored digitally. The app aims to provide you an extremely easy and efficient method of quoting and invoicing customers, which you can send via email and SMS. It also provides online syncing if you’d like to take a look at everything and manage it all on the big screen opposed to your mobile phones when you come home in the evenings from work. Seems good, right?

PayPal Here and Sumup

I have two different apps here due to both offering the same thing but with slightly different pros and cons. Both apps give you the opportunity of taking money on the spot, which I’m sure is a great relief to hear if you’re not already aware you could do this. There is nothing worse than being paid late or having cheques bounce, which is why these apps are fantastic. The painful process of catching up on late payments or invalid payments can come to an end. Below I’m going to explain both apps’ pros and cons and what to consider when deciding which app to use.

PayPal Here

Pros

• Instant Transfers
• Can be used as an e-wallet with unique debit card or be transferred to bank

Cons

• 2.75% transaction fee
• £99 purchase for the card reader that takes payment

Sumup

Pros

• 1.95% transaction fee
• £59 purchase for the card reader that takes payment

Cons

• Transfers take 3-6 business days
• There is no e-wallet like PayPal

Overall, if you’re willing to pay a slightly higher transaction fee and initial cost for the card reader, then you can ensure payment is made on the job with no exceptions due to the instant transactions. If the money goes through, you’ll see it straight away in your PayPal account. On the other hand, if you’d like to pay a slightly lower transaction fee and have a lower initial cost for the card reader, then you’ll have to be prepared for transaction times of 3-6 business days. However, you will not have to suffer with late payments due to being able to charge them on the spot.

Cashtraits+

Everybody that runs their own businesses know how time consuming  it is keeping up to date with their accounts, gathering receipts and managing your income/expenses. With CashTraits+ you can keep all of your income and expenses in one area and keep it up to date on the go. For all receipts you can add pictures of them, meaning everything can be stored digitally opposed to having a messy collection in your drawer. If you’re worried about something happening to your phone or not being able to send your digital copies to your accountant, you can sync everything up with iCloud, which means everything is backed up and exportable into documents that can be sent to your accountant.

If you enjoyed reading about these time saving apps for tradespeople, then check out our guide to see whether you should buy a van or lease a van!