For small builders and renovators in South-East Queensland
Stop pricing renovations at midnight with every supplier shut.
Officehand builds small builders and renovators a business assistant with a brain: your rules, your categories, your margins. Your site walk-through becomes a draft quote in your format. Supplier and subbie prices are requested during the day. You approve at night, and Xero finally shows what each job made.
Best fit: builders and renovators with a small office and a crew of subbies, quoting bathrooms, kitchens, decks, extensions and small builds.
Your assistant
reads your business brain
“Ensuite, strip to frame. Moving the toilet about 300. Niche in the shower. Client's supplying tiles. Frameless screen. Measurements to follow.”
Before you leave the street
Is the floor timber or slab? Who's supplying the tapware?Illustrative example
Where building and renovation quoting hurts
The jobs that make the money are the ones that wait for you.
The work it’s built around
- Bathroom and kitchen renovations
- Decks, pergolas and patios
- Extensions and second storeys
- Insurance and strata repairs
- Small new builds, duplexes and townhouses
- Maintenance and fit-outs for property managers
- 01
Your helper can do 30% of the quote
The rest waits for you, because the know-how is in your head: what to check on site, what people usually miss, the order of trades.
- 02
Suppliers are shut when you're free
You get to the computer at night. Prices need phone calls in the day. So the quote waits another day, and another.
- 03
Job profit is a guess
You find out what a job made when the accountant tells you, months later. If then.
- 04
Variations and stage claims run late
Agreed on site, written up late, invoiced later. QBCC rules want variations in writing before the work starts.
How a job would flow
For example: an ensuite renovation in Caloundra
A made-up job, to show how the pieces fit. Your rules, your prices and your wording go in the business brain first.
- 1
On site
Walk-through by voice
Strip to frame, move the toilet 300 mm, a niche in the shower, client supplying tiles, frameless screen. Laser measurements typed in, photos of every wall.
- 2
Same visit
Your checklist, applied
"Missing: is the floor timber or slab? Who supplies the tapware?" The questions you'd ask, asked before anyone leaves.
- 3
Next morning
Prices requested
At 6:30am, scoped price requests go to your plumber, waterproofer, tiler and screen supplier, from your own email. Replies are filed against the quote.
- 4
That night
Draft quote, ready to check
Your categories: demolition, plumbing, waterproofing, tiling, fit-off. Tiles as a PC allowance at your rate per square metre. Every subbie price shows its source and date.
- 5
Accepted
Paperwork drafted
Contract details and the deposit invoice drafted from the accepted quote, with a flag if the deposit looks over the QBCC limit. A person checks and signs.
Ensuite renovation
Site: Caloundra · Drafted from the site voice note and photos
- Demolition and disposal, strip to frame$1,850Rate cardYour rate card
- Plumbing: relocate toilet, rough-in and fit-off$3,400Supplier replyPlumber reply, 6 Oct
- Waterproofing to standard, shower and floor$1,150Supplier replyWaterproofer reply, 6 Oct
- Tiles: PC allowance, 22 m²$1,210Your ruleYour rule: $55/m² PC
- Frameless screen, supply and installAskNo sourceWaiting on supplier reply
Every line shows where its price came from. The red line has no source yet, so the assistant leaves it blank and asks you.
Built in stages
What the assistant would do for builders and renovators.
Each stage is useful on its own, has a fixed price quoted up front, and is paid for once it's live. These are the stages that usually matter most in your trade.
Start
The Check
A$495, refund test, credited to the build
Stage 1Key
The business brain
Your rules, written down once
Stage 2Key
Quote builder
Site notes in, draft quote out
Stage 3Key
Supplier prices
Prices gathered while you work
Stage 4Key
Profit per job
Which jobs actually make money
Stage 5Key
Back office and the 7pm briefing
Paperwork drafted, you approve
Stage 1 · The business brain
Your categories, recipes, margins, payment stages and site checklist, written down once.
Stage 2 · Quote builder
Renovation quotes drafted from the walk-through, with PC and provisional sums marked.
Stage 3 · Supplier prices
Supplier and subbie price requests sent at opening time, replies filed against the quote.
Stage 4 · Profit per job
Each accepted quote becomes the job budget. Xero shows what each job is really making.
Stage 5 · Back office and the 7pm briefing
Contracts, stage invoices, variations and bills drafted for a person to approve.
From Your assistant to you and the office
Monday money: 3 things need you this week
Paid last week
$18,640
Also worth a look
Smith deck: timber 18% over budget
Books reconciled up to Fri 2 Oct · every line links to its job number
The Monday money email, with made-up figures. Every line links to a job number you can check.
Your tools stay
Keep the software you already pay for.
The assistant works around your job software and Xero, and prices from your trade accounts (Bunnings Trade, Mitre 10, your timber yard) and your subbies. No new platform to learn and nothing to migrate.
Software builders and renovators commonly use
- Buildxact
- Tradify
- WorkflowMax
- JACK
- Xero
Listed for compatibility only. Where your software allows a read-only key or exports, I work from those. Where it doesn’t allow outside tools, a person enters the approved quote. Officehand isn’t affiliated with, endorsed by or a certified partner of any of these companies.
The way in
See the dollars before you decide anything.
Most builders and renovators I talk to have no idea what's sitting in old quotes and unbilled jobs. Find out first.
Step one
Free 15-minute look
Free. Nothing to sign.
On your own screen, with you driving. No access key, nothing to sign. I'll point at two or three quotes that went quiet and any finished jobs with no invoice, and tell you straight whether the Check is worth it for you.
The way in
Quotes & Cash Check
A$495
Fixed price · No GST charged
A fixed-price look at the money sitting in your quotes and invoices. Dollar figures and job numbers, so you can check every line.
- Quotes that went quiet. Open quotes more than 14 days old, ranked by value, with job numbers.
- Finished jobs not invoiced. Work that's done but never billed, and how many days jobs usually wait for an invoice.
- Invoices running late. Overdue invoices by age, and where Xero and your job software disagree about what's been paid.
- Hours spent quoting. Roughly how many hours a week you and your team spend building quotes, and where it goes.
The refund test
If it doesn’t find at least three items of A$500 or more, or A$2,000 in total, you get your A$495 back. Credited in full to your first build stage if you go ahead within 30 days.
Ground rules
- You approve everythingNothing reaches a client, and nothing gets paid or signed, without a person saying yes. The assistant drafts. You decide.
- No price without a sourceEvery price traces back to a supplier list, a supplier reply, your rate card or a number you typed. If it can't trace a price, it stops and asks. It never guesses a price or measures from a photo.
- Your data stays yoursXero, the business brain, your price lists and your phone number stay in your name. Leave with 30 days' notice and take a full export.
- It doesn't talk to your customersThe assistant doesn't message or phone your customers. It drafts wording for you, and you send it from your own email or job software, when you choose.
Local
Built on the Sunshine Coast, for builders across SE Queensland
Renovations in Brisbane's older suburbs, coastal homes from Noosa to the Gold Coast, new townhouses across Moreton Bay and Logan, and acreage work around Ipswich. I'm a Sunshine Coast local and work with builders and renovators across South-East Queensland. I'll come to your office or site for the sit-down sessions.
- Based
- Sunshine Coast, QLD
- Phone
- 0420 535 327
- Areas
- Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Gold Coast, Logan, Ipswich, Noosa, Redlands
We use Buildxact, Tradify or WorkflowMax. Do we have to change?
No. Keep the tools that work. The assistant drafts and your system stays the record. Some software, Tradify for one, doesn't allow outside tools to log in without its permission, so a person enters the approved quote, which takes a few minutes a job.
Can it read plans or measure from photos?
No, on purpose. Measurements come from your laser, your site measure or your takeoff software. Photos are for reference. Guessed measurements are how quotes go wrong.
How does it handle PC items and provisional sums?
By your rules. Every line is marked as fixed, a PC allowance or a provisional sum, with the basis shown, so you can explain any number to a client.
What about contracts, deposits and the QBCC?
From Stage 5 it pre-fills contract details from the accepted quote and flags things to check, like a deposit that looks over the QBCC limit or a variation that isn't in writing yet. A person checks and signs. Contract and variation wording is checked by Master Builders, the QBCC or your lawyer before we rely on it. None of this is legal advice.
Will it replace my office person?
No. It gives them drafts to work from instead of blank pages, so they can do more of the quote and the paperwork without waiting on you.
How much does it cost?
The Quotes & Cash Check is A$495 (no GST charged), with a refund test: if it doesn't find at least three items of A$500 or more, or A$2,000 in total, you get your money back. It's credited to your first build stage if you go ahead within 30 days. Each build stage then has a fixed price, quoted after the Check, and you pay for a stage once it's live. My first three clients get founding client pricing. The free 15-minute look costs nothing.
No sign-up, no access key
Book a free 15-minute look for your building and renovation business.
On your own screen, with you driving. No access key, nothing to sign. If it won't pay for itself for you, I'll say so.