Quoting and invoicing for plasterers
SoloDesks is a quoting and invoicing app for self-employed plasterers. Price a skim by the room or by the day, put the boarding, the beading and the bags on their own lines, and send a professional PDF before you've washed the tools off. Turn the quotes they accept into invoices without typing anything twice, and let it chase the ones that go quiet. It's built for one person and a mixer: no office, no team seats, no bookkeeper.
Free plan, no card needed. £12/month for unlimited when you want it.
Need something to send today? Free plasterer invoice template or quote template: itemised, downloadable as a PDF, no signup.
Why plasterers use SoloDesks
Quote the skim before the dust settles
Plastering quotes get lost in the gap between walking round a house and sitting down at night to write it up. Somebody shows you four rooms on Tuesday morning and the quote goes out Thursday, by which time two other lads have been round. Add the rooms on your phone in their hallway and send the PDF before you're back in the van.
By the room or by the day, priced the same way twice
Half the trade prices by the room and half by the day, and most do both depending on what it is. Put the labour on one line and the boards, beading, scrim and bags on their own, so a two-day skim and a full re-board get quoted with the same logic and you can look back at what you actually charged last time.
The wall you can't price until the old stuff is off
Blown plaster, damp behind the skirting, artex hiding a wall that wants boarding rather than skimming. Add the extra as its own line the day you find it and send a revised quote for them to accept, so the difference is agreed in writing instead of argued about on the doorstep when you invoice.
Get paid before the decorator turns up
Your work is finished the moment it's dry, and then it vanishes under somebody else's paint. Invoice the day you pull the beads off, from the van, while the customer can still see what you did. An invoice that lands three weeks later, after the decorator has been and gone, is an invoice that gets paid late.
Small jobs that add up, without keeping a diary
A patch here, a ceiling there, half a day for a builder who settles at the end of the month. Ten small jobs is ten invoices, and the two that never got sent are the two you'll never notice. Each job carries its own quote, invoice and paid status, so nothing quietly walks off.
Questions plasterers ask
- What is the best quoting app for a self-employed plasterer?
- The one you'll actually use standing in somebody's hallway, not the one that waits for a laptop. SoloDesks is built for solo plasterers: price by the room or by the day, itemise boards, beading and materials, send a professional PDF quote on the spot, and turn it into an invoice when it's accepted. The free plan covers 10 quotes and 10 invoices a month, with no card required.
- How do I quote a plastering job?
- Put the labour on its own line, by the room or by the day depending on how you work, then the boards, beading, scrim and bags on separate lines. State plainly what isn't included, like moving furniture or making good the floor. SoloDesks totals it into a professional PDF you can send before you leave, and the same breakdown carries onto the invoice.
- Should I charge a day rate or price the job?
- Price the job when you can see all of it, because a fixed price is what customers compare and accept. Fall back on a day rate for patching and chasing out, where nobody honestly knows how long it takes until it's open. A quote can hold both: a day-rate line and a priced line sit side by side. There's a free day rate calculator on the site if you want to sense-check yours.
- Is there a free plan for plasterers?
- Yes. 10 quotes, 10 invoices, 10 emailed PDFs and 3 one-tap accept-links a month, with unlimited clients and jobs, no card asked for. Pro lifts those limits and chases your overdue invoices for you, with no contract and cancel anytime.
- Will it chase the builder who hasn't paid me?
- On Pro, Overdue Autopilot emails a reminder when the invoice is 7 days old, a firmer one at 14 and a final notice at 21, all under your name, and it stops dead the moment you mark it paid. On the free plan it nudges you instead, so at least you know which one has gone quiet.
Reading for plasterers
Free guides and calculators. No account needed for any of them.
How to Work Out Your Hourly Rate When Self-Employed
Main Contractor Not Paying? UK Subcontractor Rights
Retention in Construction: How to Get Your Money Back
Calculators most plasterers actually open
Those are three of nine free calculators. No account needed for any of them.
What are you using now?
Honest write-ups of the four systems most plasterers actually run on, including who should keep the one they have.
Send your first quote today
It takes about a minute to set up, and the free plan doesn't ask for a card.
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