When Alex Turner started TurnCo Building & Maintenance, the business had plenty of work and a strong team, but the systems behind it weren’t keeping up. Jobs were run off scraps of paper, receipts went missing, and customer calls came through his personal phone.
“Honestly, it was a nightmare. I was forgetting jobs, losing receipts, and running everything off my phone and scraps of paper.”
The turning point came when his wife, Georgie, stepped in. She encouraged Alex to find a job management system that could take control of the chaos.
“She is the reason that I first got the management system. She pushed me into it. She came in and set a lot of good systems up office wise”
That’s when Alex discovered Tradify — and the difference was immediate.
One of the things Alex values most about TurnCo is the people he works with.
“There’s three, so four including me full-timers and then two really good subbies. And then also the network of subcontractors we use is great too. I work with a bunch of mates nearly every day… which is pretty lucky.”
While Alex could trust his crew to deliver quality work, keeping track of jobs and clients was another challenge altogether. That’s where Tradify stepped in. By centralising job details, contacts, and scheduling, Tradify gave Alex, his team and their subcontractors the structure they needed to grow, without losing sight of the details.
When Alex went looking for a job management system, he trialled options like Fergus and Jobber. But none of them felt right.
What set Tradify apart was how easily it slotted into the way TurnCo already worked. Instead of asking clients to use special setup emails or complicated processes, Alex could keep things simple. Job orders still come through to the business inbox — they’re just automatically forwarded into Tradify.
From there, the platform pulls job details straight from PDFs and emails, leaving Alex and his team free to tweak the essentials and get on with the work.
“Tradify’s ability to pull job details straight from emails was massive. The other systems didn’t offer that flexibility. For us, that was the deal-breaker.”
For Alex, moving onto Tradify wasn’t a drawn-out or stressful process.
“We started using the majority of the needed features straight away. We used scheduling straight away, we could actually see how many jobs were in progress or awaiting payment or invoices… and timesheets, we could use that straight away.”
More advanced features like reporting and bills took a little longer to refine, but with the help of his case manager, Christine, Alex and his team were up to speed quickly.
“There was so much support. I could book in as many times as I wanted. Any question I’ve had’s been answered and yeah, it’s been a pretty easy start-up to be honest.”
Tradify’s support didn’t just help Alex, it’s also helped his team. He created Loom recordings based on his own training sessions, so his staff could easily follow along with the exact processes TurnCo uses.
This combination of simple setup and responsive support gave TurnCo the confidence to fully commit to Tradify and reap the benefits from the very beginning.
Before Tradify, Alex relied on pen and paper to keep jobs in order — a system that quickly fell apart as his client list grew. Shifting to Tradify’s scheduling tools gave him instant visibility into every stage of the workflow.
“We used scheduling straight away. We could actually see how many jobs were in progress or awaiting payment or invoiced — we actually had a proper view of what was happening.”
This change meant Alex no longer had to carry the burden of remembering every detail, plus, his crew and subcontractors could log in at any time to see exactly what needed to be done.
Much of TurnCo’s work involves strata and rental properties, where the building owner isn’t the person opening the door on the day. In these situations, staying organised and having the right contact details at hand isn’t optional, it’s the only way to keep jobs running smoothly.
Tradify solved a long-standing challenge for Alex by giving his team one central place to capture and share everything about a job.
“Any notes that come up on a job, someone else can come in the next day and pick up where the job left off. Photos — we have to send in evidence of our work… just having access to all the notes and all the photos archived, easily searchable, has been an absolute game changer.”
For property managers and building owners, having clear records also means fewer disputes. Alex’s team can quickly pull up photos and notes to show what work was completed and when, without having to dig through old texts or paperwork.
Communication with tenants has also improved dramatically thanks to Tradify’s text reminders. Instead of endless phone tag, TurnCo can easily coordinate access between landlords, agents, and tenants.
“We can actually have the client’s number and information and then we can have the tenant’s number and information. So the boys have got access to that wherever they are.”
What used to take hours of back-and-forth is now a quick, reliable process. Jobs move forward without delays, tenants aren’t left in the dark, and clients have peace of mind knowing everything’s documented and under control.
The most powerful shift for Alex came when he started using Tradify’s reporting tools. Until then, he had no clear picture of whether jobs were actually profitable.
“When I first started using Tradify, we couldn’t figure out what was going on… we actually weren’t making enough profit to cover our operating expenses and we didn’t know that until we started using Tradify.”
Tradify gave him the clarity to understand exactly what margins were needed to keep the business healthy.
“The biggest thing that has helped us — efficiency and job costing — is now we know what we’ve got to make per job as a gross profit margin to cover our net profit margin, which we didn’t have any of that data before.”
What once felt like guesswork is now backed by real numbers. For TurnCo, that has been a game changer.
Need help planning profitable jobs? Try our free Profit Margin Calculator.
Before Tradify, Alex was buried in admin. He handled most of it himself, often late at night after long days on the tools. Since moving to Tradify, that workload has dropped dramatically. His offshore VA and Georgie now handle much of the process, with the system keeping everything streamlined.
“Admin I used to do heaps and then Tradify has helped with that a lot and then now the VA and my wife jumping on board has sort of dramatically reduced that. So I might do 20% at the moment which is just going further and further down.”
TurnCo is already tendering for public housing contracts and picking up new clients in the NDIS housing sector. The long-term vision is to build a complete facility maintenance team that can offer all trades in-house.
Most importantly, Alex now has the systems and support he needs to grow the business with confidence.
“Tradify has improved our efficiency across the board. I can focus on growing the business instead of putting out fires.”
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