There is exactly one of you. The software should know that.

Most job software is built for a firm with an office manager. Seats, timesheets, dispatch boards, approval flows — and a price per user to pay for all of it. If you're a sole trader, you are the office manager, the scheduler and the person on the tools, and you're being charged a team rate for a single login. SoloDesks assumes there is one of you, which is why it costs £12 a month instead of £34 a seat.

Free plan, no card needed. £12/month for unlimited when you want it.

The five things a sole trader actually needs

Send the quote before you leave

The quote that wins is the one that arrives while they still remember your face. Add the lines on your phone in their hallway and send a professional PDF from the driveway.

Never type the same job twice

An accepted quote becomes an invoice carrying the same line items. The price they agreed to is the price you bill, without you retyping it at 9pm.

Know what you're owed without adding it up

One number for what's outstanding, and a list of which invoices have gone quiet. Not a report you have to build.

Chase without having the conversation

Overdue Autopilot nudges at 7, 14 and 21 days under your own business name, and stops the second you mark it paid. The awkward bit happens without you.

See where you're meant to be tomorrow

A job calendar with the client's address on it, so the morning starts with a postcode rather than a search through your messages.

What you don't get, and why that's the point

SoloDesks has none of the following, and isn't going to grow them. Each one only earns its place on the screen when a second person exists, and every one of them makes the app slower to use for the person who works alone.

• ×Team seats and user permissions
• ×Crew dispatching and a scheduling board
• ×Staff timesheets and time tracking
• ×Job approval and sign-off flows
• ×An office manager's dashboard

So: if you have staff, or you're about to, buy the team product. They're good, they're built for that, and the per-seat price is fair once the seats are full. We've written honest comparisons that say where each of them beats us — Jobber, Tradify and ServiceM8.

Whatever's on the side of the van

The argument is the same for every trade; the jobs and the line items aren't. Each of these pages talks about how that trade actually quotes and gets paid.

• Plumbers
• Electricians
• Painters & decorators
• Landscapers & gardeners
• Handymen
• Cleaners
• Tilers & plasterers
• Carpenters & joiners
• Bathroom fitters

Questions people ask

Is there invoicing software without per-user pricing?

Yes. SoloDesks is priced per business, not per seat: £12 a month flat, with a free plan below it. Most job-management apps charge per user because they're built for teams, so a sole trader ends up paying a team rate for a single login. There is no "extra user" line on a SoloDesks bill because there is no extra user.

What is the best job software for one person?

The one that doesn't make you skip past features built for staff. A sole trader needs four things: send a quote fast, turn it into an invoice without retyping, know what's unpaid, and see where you're meant to be tomorrow. SoloDesks does those four and stops. Dispatch boards, timesheets and approval flows are what you're paying for elsewhere and never switching on.

Do I need job management software if it's just me?

Not if a notebook is working. You need it when the admin starts happening at 9pm instead of on site: quotes written up days late, invoices you forgot to send, and money owed that you can't total from memory. That's the point at which a tool pays for itself, and it's usually well before anyone would call themselves a business.

Can I use SoloDesks if I take on staff later?

You can keep using it, but be honest with yourself about the fit: it has no team seats, no dispatching and no timesheets, because those are the things that make software feel heavy for one person. If you grow to a few people on the tools, a team product is the right move, and we say so on our comparison pages.

Is SoloDesks free for a sole trader?

There's a genuinely free plan: 10 quotes, 10 invoices and 10 emailed PDFs a month, plus unlimited clients and jobs, with no card and no expiry date. It's enough to run a quiet month end to end rather than a trial that runs out.