For fire protection businesses in South-East Queensland
Turn inspection defects into approved quotes, not a pile on the desk.
Officehand builds fire protection businesses an assistant that turns your technicians' defect notes and photos into draft defect quotes, in your format and priced from your own rate card and supplier lists. You approve them at night. The Monday money email shows which quotes are waiting on a body corporate or property manager, and for how long.
Best fit: fire protection businesses with 5 to 20 staff doing routine servicing plus defect and install work, often for strata and commercial clients.
Your assistant
reads your business brain
“Level two, exit light by the stairwell has failed. Two extinguishers on level three due for replacement. Hose reel three is missing its nozzle. Level four fire door isn't self-closing.”
Before you leave the street
Fire door: your rule says subcontract to the door contractor. Ask them for a price tomorrow at 7am?Illustrative example
Where fire protection quoting hurts
The jobs that make the money are the ones that wait for you.
The work it’s built around
- Defect quotes after routine servicing
- Fire alarm and detection installs and upgrades
- Sprinklers, hydrants and hose reels
- Extinguishers, fire blankets and signage
- Emergency and exit lighting
- Fire doors and passive fire, if you do it
- Install work for builders on new projects
- 01
Defects found, quotes not sent
Every service round turns up defects. Writing them up into quotes is the job nobody has time for, so they wait, and the defects stay on the site.
- 02
Waiting on the strata manager
The defect quote went to the body corporate manager five weeks ago. Nobody has looked at it since, including you.
- 03
Lots of small invoices
Hundreds of routine visits a quarter. A few never make it to an invoice, and nobody notices until the end of the year.
- 04
Every site is different
Access times, lift keys, site contacts and who approves what. It all lives in a technician's head.
How a job would flow
For example: a six-monthly service at a Maroochydore unit complex
A made-up job, to show how the pieces fit. Your rules, your prices and your wording go in the business brain first.
- 1
2:30pm
Defects by voice
Walking the floors, your tech records the defects as they go: a failed exit light on level 2, two extinguishers due for replacement, a missing hose reel nozzle, a fire door that won't self-close. Photos of each.
- 2
Afternoon
Defect quote drafted
Grouped by system, in your defect wording, each line priced from your rate card or supplier list, with photo references. The fire door line is flagged: your rule says subcontract it, and there's no price yet.
- 3
8:40pm
You approve
You check the wording and approve. The office sends it to the strata manager in the morning, from your own system.
- 4
Monday
Waiting on whom
Defect quotes awaiting approval, by site and by age, so the office knows who to call this week.
Defect quote, six-monthly service
Site: Maroochydore · Drafted from the site voice note and photos
- Replace failed exit light, level 2 stairwell$285Supplier listSupplier list, 26 Sep
- Replace 2 x extinguishers, level 3$340Supplier listSupplier list, 26 Sep
- Supply and fit hose reel nozzle, HR3$95Rate cardYour rate card
- Labour and attendance$210Rate cardRate card, 1.5 hrs
- Fire door L4: repair self-closerAskNo sourceWaiting on subcontractor 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 fire protection businesses.
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 5
Back office and the 7pm briefing
Paperwork drafted, you approve
Stage 1 · The business brain
Your defect wording, rate card, site rules, and who approves what for each client.
Stage 2 · Quote builder
Defect quotes drafted from the technician's voice notes and photos, grouped by system.
Stage 3 · Supplier prices
Price requests to subcontractors (doors, electrical) and suppliers, sent at opening time.
Stage 4 · Profit per job
Profit per contract and per site, and routine visits that never got invoiced.
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
Oldest defect quote: 41 days, Alexandra Headland
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 supplier price lists and your own rate card. No new platform to learn and nothing to migrate.
Software fire protection businesses commonly use
- Uptick
- simPRO
- AroFlo
- ServiceM8
- 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 fire protection businesses 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
From Gold Coast towers to Sunshine Coast unit blocks
South-East Queensland has a lot of strata: unit complexes on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, townhouses across Moreton Bay and Logan, commercial sites in Brisbane and Ipswich. That's a lot of defect quotes waiting on a manager's approval. I'm on the Sunshine Coast and work with fire protection businesses across the region, in person or on a call.
- Based
- Sunshine Coast, QLD
- Phone
- 0420 535 327
- Areas
- Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Gold Coast, Logan, Ipswich, Noosa, Redlands
We already use Uptick or simPRO. Do we need this?
Maybe not all of it. Where your system already does a job well, keep using it. The Check works from a read-only key or exports and shows, in dollars, where defect quotes and invoices are getting stuck. If your software already covers the fix, the report says so.
Can it decide what's compliant?
No. Compliance calls are made by your licensed people. The assistant uses your defect wording and your rules, and drafts. A person checks and approves every quote.
Will it contact strata managers or property managers?
No. It drafts the quote and any follow-up wording. Your office sends them from your own system, and the Monday email shows what's waiting and for how long.
We send hundreds of small invoices. Is the Check still useful?
Often more useful. Small routine visits are the easiest to miss. The Check lists finished jobs with no invoice and how long jobs usually wait to be billed.
Can techs really do defects by voice?
Yes, a voice note per defect or one walk-through note with photos. The assistant turns it into lines and asks about anything it can't place, such as which level or which device.
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 fire protection 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.