For plumbing and gas businesses in South-East Queensland
Hot water and bathroom quotes out the next morning. Not next week.
Officehand builds plumbing and gas businesses a back-office assistant that knows how you quote. Your tech sends a voice note and photos from site, and a draft quote in your format is waiting that night, priced from your own merchant lists and rate card. You check it, fix it and approve it. Nothing goes to the customer until you do.
Best fit: plumbing and gas businesses with 5 to 20 staff that quote installs, replacements and renovations, not only call-outs.
Your assistant
reads your business brain
“Old 135 litre electric in the garage, customer wants a heat pump. New isolation valve and tempering valve, about six metres of pipe. Unit can go on the side wall.”
Before you leave the street
Got it. Is there a power point within reach, and do they want the old unit removed?Illustrative example
Where plumbing and gas quoting hurts
The jobs that make the money are the ones that wait for you.
The work it’s built around
- Hot water replacements: electric, gas, heat pump and continuous flow
- Bathroom and ensuite renovations, rough-in and fit-off
- Gas appliance installs, conversions and new gas lines
- Blocked drains, CCTV inspections and pipe relining
- Backflow prevention testing and new devices
- Roof plumbing, gutters and downpipes
- New home rough-ins for builders
- 01
The big quotes wait for you
Call-outs run themselves. The heat pump swap, the ensuite and the reline need you at the computer, and that's 9pm.
- 02
Quotes go quiet and nobody notices
A bathroom quote sent three weeks ago. No reply, no follow-up, and it's slid off the bottom of the screen.
- 03
Finished, but not invoiced
The job's done, the tech's notes are still in the ute, and the invoice goes out ten days late. Sometimes not at all.
- 04
Merchant prices move
Your merchant changed a price last month. Your quote template didn't, and the margin quietly went with it.
How a job would flow
For example: a heat pump hot water swap in Buderim
A made-up job, to show how the pieces fit. Your rules, your prices and your wording go in the business brain first.
- 1
10:40am
On site
Your tech records a 90-second voice note and takes four photos: the old unit, the nameplate, the meter box and the space in the garage.
- 2
10:43am
The assistant checks for gaps
"Two things missing: is there a power point within reach of the new unit, and does the customer want the old one taken away?" The tech answers before leaving the street.
- 3
Afternoon
Draft quote built
Your categories, your wording. The unit from your merchant list with its date, labour from your rate card, your Form 4 line, disposal. One line is flagged: the electrician's circuit has no price yet.
- 4
8:15pm
You approve
One page on your phone. You fix one line and approve. Your office sends it from your job software first thing.
- 5
Day 7
Not forgotten
No reply yet, so it shows up in Monday's money email with a short follow-up drafted in your words, ready for you to send.
Heat pump hot water replacement
Site: Buderim · Drafted from the site voice note and photos
- 270 L heat pump unit, supply$3,190Supplier listMerchant price list, 2 Oct
- Remove and dispose of old 135 L electric unit$180Rate cardYour rate card
- Install, isolation valve, tempering valve, pipework$585Rate cardRate card, 4.5 hrs
- Form 4 notifiable work, paperwork$90Your ruleYour rule: every HWS swap
- Electrician: new circuit for the unitAskNo sourceNo source yet. Ask your sparkie or remove
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 plumbers and gasfitters.
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 job types (HWS, bathrooms, relines, gas), your margins, and the things a tech must check on every visit.
Stage 2 · Quote builder
Hot water, bathroom and reline quotes drafted from the tech's voice note, with your compliance lines added every time.
Stage 3 · Supplier prices
Price requests to your merchant and subbies (electrician, tiler, waterproofer) sent at opening time.
Stage 4 · Profit per job
Which job types actually make money, and the Monday money email for you and the office.
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
2 hot water quotes over 14 days
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 merchant price lists (Reece, Tradelink, Samios or your local merchant). No new platform to learn and nothing to migrate.
Software plumbers and gasfitters commonly use
- ServiceM8
- Fergus
- Tradify
- simPRO
- AroFlo
- 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 plumbers and gasfitters 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
For plumbers from Noosa to Coolangatta
I work with plumbing and gas businesses across South-East Queensland: the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Logan, Ipswich and the Gold Coast. I'm based on the Sunshine Coast, so the read-out can happen in your office or your yard, or on a call if that's easier. You deal with me directly, not a call centre or an offshore team.
- Based
- Sunshine Coast, QLD
- Phone
- 0420 535 327
- Areas
- Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Gold Coast, Logan, Ipswich, Noosa, Redlands
Will it work with ServiceM8, Fergus or simPRO?
Most likely. For the Check I work from a read-only key you create in your own software, or from exports if you'd rather not give a key. For the build, the assistant drafts the quote and it goes into your job software as the record. Some software doesn't allow outside tools in, and then a person enters the approved quote. I'll tell you on the free look what's possible with yours.
Does it text or ring my customers?
No. Nothing of mine messages or phones your customers. The assistant drafts wording, and you send it from your own account when you choose. Most job software has its own follow-up tools, and the Check tells you which settings are worth switching on.
What stops it getting a price wrong?
It can only use a price that has a source: your merchant list, a supplier reply, your rate card or a number you typed. Each line shows its source and date. If a line has no source, it's flagged and left blank. You still check every quote before it goes.
Can it add our compliance lines, like Form 4 paperwork?
Yes, as a rule in your business brain: if a job type always needs a compliance line or a reminder, it goes on every quote of that type. The assistant doesn't lodge, sign or certify anything. That stays with your licensed people.
We mostly do call-outs. Is this for us?
Probably not the quote builder. If most of your work is call-outs paid on the day, the Check won't find much sitting, and I'll tell you that on the free look. It suits crews that quote hot water, bathrooms, relines and gas installs.
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 plumbing and gas 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.