Keep More of What You Already Earn
Most small trade businesses don't have a pricing problem. They have a paperwork problem: work that never gets invoiced, quotes nobody follows up, and money sitting with customers. Here's where it goes, a worked example you can check, and a calculator for your own figures.
In a small trade business, the money that goes missing rarely looks like a loss. Nobody steals anything and no job goes badly. A small extra doesn't make it onto an invoice. A quote goes out on a Thursday and nobody has time to ring on the Tuesday. An invoice sits in the drafts folder until the weekend.
None of that shows up on a bank statement as money going out. It's money that never arrives, which is why it's easy to miss. We run an installation business in Horsham ourselves, and HomeHub Office is the system we built to run it, so it's designed to catch exactly these things.
Seven Quiet Leaks, and What the System Does About Each
1. Work that's done but never invoiced
The extra radiator valve. The half-hour you spent on something "while you were there". The job that finished on a Friday and was meant to be invoiced Monday. In a firm where the person doing the work is also the person doing the paperwork, some of it never gets billed. This is pure margin: the labour and parts are already spent.
What HomeHub Office does All plans
- The review page lists every job marked finished more than two days ago with no invoice sent, with the quoted amount next to it.
- It also flags an accepted quote that never became a job, and an invoice left sitting in draft for more than three days.
- Each job page shows what was quoted, what's been invoiced, what's been paid and what's still left to invoice.
2. Quotes that go cold
Most people who don't reply to a quote haven't said no. They got busy, or they're waiting for a second price, or they forgot. A polite follow-up a few days later is often the difference, but it's the first thing to go when you're flat out.
What HomeHub Office does All plans
- A quote that's gone quiet for five days gets a polite follow-up, and a second one about twelve days after it was sent. A reminder goes two days before it expires.
- You can see whether the customer has opened the quote, and how many times.
- They can accept online by typing their name, or say no and tell you why, which is worth knowing too.
3. Quoting without knowing your margin
If you price from memory, the jobs that feel busy and the jobs that actually make money can be quite different. You can't tell which unless the costs sit next to the price.
What HomeHub Office does All plans
- Put a cost against each quote line and the quote shows profit and margin before you send it. It's for you only and never appears on the customer's copy.
- Sent quotes of £500 or more with no costs entered are flagged, so the big ones don't go out blind.
- On each job, the parts and mileage logged against it are set against what's been invoiced.
4. Waiting to be paid
Late payment doesn't usually cost you the invoice, but it costs you the use of the money, and the time spent chasing it. The government's own figures put the cost of late payment to the UK economy at £11 billion a year, and say 38 businesses close every day because they aren't paid on time.
Source: GOV.UK, "Time to pay up", 24 March 2026.
If your customer is a business, you can also add statutory interest at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, and a fixed sum of £40, £70 or £100 depending on the size of the debt (GOV.UK guidance). That doesn't apply to homeowners.
What HomeHub Office does All plans
- An overdue invoice gets a friendly email reminder with a copy attached, then a firmer one once it's ten days late. Homeowners get three days' grace before the first.
- The accounts page shows who owes what, how overdue it is, and an eight-week cash flow forecast.
- Every reminder is logged on the customer's record, so the phone call (if you need one) starts from the facts.
5. Software that charges per person
Many job management systems charge for every user, then add bundles for text messages or extra logins. That's fine for a big firm. For a team of three it can mean paying more for the software than it saves, and thinking twice before giving your apprentice a login.
What HomeHub Office costs
- Starter £29 a month for up to 3 users, Growth £59 for up to 8, Pro £99 for up to 20. Per business, not per person, with no VAT added.
- Extra users beyond your plan are £5 each a month. No contract: monthly, cancel any time.
- No free trial, but if you'd like to see it first, ring us and we'll show you on a real screen.
6. Repeat work nobody remembers to sell
Annual boiler services, landlord safety checks, gutter clears, maintenance visits. Customers are often happy to pay monthly for them, and that steady income takes the edge off a quiet month. The problem is remembering who's due, and billing them.
What HomeHub Office does Growth and Pro
- Service plans bill monthly, quarterly or yearly. On the billing date the plan raises its own invoice and emails it.
- One page shows what your plans bring in a month and a year.
- An offered plan sits as "pending", charging nothing, until the customer agrees.
7. Miles and receipts that never get claimed
If you drive your own car for the business, HMRC's approved mileage rate for 2026 to 2027 is 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p after that (GOV.UK rates). Miles you don't log are a cost you've paid and can't claim. The same goes for the receipt that's still in the van door.
What HomeHub Office does All plans
- Tick a visit as done and the round trip is logged as mileage at the approved rate, against that job.
- Expenses are recorded against jobs, and the accounts page flags expenses with no receipt attached before year end.
- At year end, one button bundles your invoices, expenses, mileage and receipts for your accountant.
Example: a 3-person heating firm
This is a made-up business, not a customer of ours, and every number below is an assumption chosen to be easy to check. Swap in your own figures with the calculator further down.
- The owner, one engineer and a part-time office manager: 3 people.
- About 60 jobs a month (services, repairs, the odd install) at an average invoice of £240: £14,400 a month.
- 12 quotes a month for bigger work, averaging £2,400 each.
- A gross margin of 35% on quoted work, meaning what's left after parts and the labour to fit them.
- Customers currently take 30 days on average to pay.
- The current software costs £35 per user for 3 users, plus £15 a month for text messages: £120 a month.
| Leak | Working | Kind | A year |
|---|---|---|---|
| One job a month slips through without an invoice | 1 × £240 × 12 months | Profit | £2,880 |
| Following up every quote wins one extra job every two months | 6 × £2,400 = £14,400 of work, at 35% gross margin | Profit | £5,040 |
| Swapping £120 a month of per-user software for HomeHub Office Growth at £59 | (£120 − £59) × 12 months | Profit | £732 |
| Extra profit a year in this example | £8,652 | ||
Three more things change, but they aren't profit in the same sense, so they're kept out of that total:
| Getting paid in 14 days on average instead of 30 | £14,400 × 30 ÷ 30 = £14,400 owed at any time now; £14,400 × 14 ÷ 30 = £6,720 after | Cash, once | £7,680 |
| 40 customers on a £12 a month boiler care plan | 40 × £12 × 12 months. Each includes a service visit, so it isn't all profit. | Revenue | £5,760 |
| The owner logs 3,000 business miles in his own car that he used to forget | 3,000 × 55p (HMRC approved rate, first 10,000 miles) | Tax-free repayment | £1,650 |
Notes: the cash figure is money arriving sooner, not extra money. If you don't pay for any software now, take the £708 a year cost of Growth (£59 × 12) off instead of adding £732. The mileage line only applies to a car you own personally, not a company van, so check with your accountant how it applies to you.
Margin Leak Calculator
Put in your own figures. It's simple arithmetic, the same as the example above, and nothing you type leaves this page.
What It Won't Do
Send email the minute you sign up
Reminders and invoices go by email, and a brand-new account can't send email until your sending address is set up. We'll help you connect it.
Give you a free trial
There isn't one. It's monthly with no contract, so you can cancel any time, and we're happy to show you the system first on a call.
Replace your accountant
The accounts page is for steering and setting money aside. Your accountant still prepares and files the real thing, and the year-end pack makes that quicker.
Draft your replies on Starter
AI-assisted drafting and service plans start on Growth. Everything on this page marked "All plans" is on Starter.
See It Running on a Real Screen
Have a look at the walkthrough, ring us for a demo, or start today on a monthly plan.