Luke Lange is no longer chasing his tail
South Australia-based All Areas Electrical is a prime example of how, with the right tools and work ethic, you can become a booming trades business.
The electrical company does residential and small commercial electrical work, and owner Luke Lange started as a sole trader in 2016. The company quickly grew to a team of three in just one year after winning a big job.
Since then, the business has continued to grow year-on-year. It now employs five full-time staff, has jobs booked weeks in advance, and regularly takes on new apprentices.
But for director Luke Lange, things weren’t always tracking smoothly – especially when it came to their admin.
“For the first year we were using pen and paper – and it was horrible!”
Hard to keep track of materials and hours
Luke quickly found that more employees equals more paperwork – and that was causing a whole raft of issues for the business.
Without a real-time view of his schedule, he would sometimes end up double-booking a job. Manually adding materials and logging work hours to an invoice was taking too much time – costs were sometimes missed, and Luke was forever chasing timesheets.
“It took a lot of work to get there – and it was painful.”
This wasn’t the way Luke wanted to run his business. He knew he needed to move operations online – so he went searching for the right solution.
Tradify: all-in-one
After looking at some more complex management systems, Luke found his way to Tradify. He liked how easy the tradie app was to navigate because it wouldn’t be just him using it, but his team too. It had scheduling functionality, so he could keep track of what jobs were happening when, and who was going to them, plus he could see it was capable of speeding up his invoicing process.
“Without Tradify I couldn’t do what we’re doing. It would have been doable, but I wouldn’t want to be doing that business!” Luke says.
Quotes and invoices six times faster
Luke now has a full-time office worker who uses the information he and his team plug into Tradify to put together all the quotes and invoices. His team uses the mobile job management app to load job information on the go. He’s also integrated Tradify with Xero which means he can send out an invoice – and get paid – as quickly as possible.
“The moment a job is ready to invoice, we’ll get it sent out. The aim is to have the whole day closed off.”
When it comes to doing quotes, Luke’s admin person can use pre-set kits which bundle costs together for ‘typical’ jobs, to turn around a quote in a matter of minutes.
“It’s then a simple matter of me cross-checking everything which is just tick and flick. From where we started, it’s probably six times quicker,” Luke says. “We’re up to 3000 invoices – so it’s definitely saved a lot of time.”
Functionality that makes life easier
Then there are features that Luke says help his business remain competitive.
Using timesheets, his team can easily log their hours in Tradify, which not only makes invoicing easier, it’s a great way to prove time spent on a worksite – and keep track of whether jobs are taking longer than expected.
The team is also now in the habit of taking photos which can be stored against the job in Tradify. They come in handy in case of discrepancies – and for promoting the business on social media.
“When we get an enquiry, because all of our jobs are scheduled, I find a day when we’re close to where the job is and log it for then – that’s why we’re often booked out three weeks in advance.”
Luke says he’s recommended Tradify to a lot of people, especially if they’re “chasing their tail.” He says it’s easy to use – and even the simplest of features make a big difference.
“Being able to get directions using the maps function to get straight to the job is one of our favourite features!”
Luke rates Tradify 10/10
- All-in-one solution: Tradify is the only software All Areas need.
- Integration with Xero speeds up invoicing, so bills are paid faster.
- Mobile-friendly app lets the team log hours and materials on-the-go.
- Scheduler helps Luke runs his business smoothly and efficiently.
- Job information stored in one place is accessible to the whole team.
Visit the All Areas Electrical S.A website or check out their Instagram & Facebook pages for the latest updates.
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