Guides for owners of trade and service businesses

Choose an automation consultant who starts by understanding how your business works, not by recommending a tool. Look for someone who can diagnose the problem, build the solution and document it so your team can run it, who has worked with businesses like yours and…

Automate the work that happens most often, follows the same steps every time and costs you money when it is late. For most UK trade and field service businesses that means, in order: enquiry capture and response, quote follow-up, job booking and customer updates, invoicing…

Simpro connects to Xero through its built-in accounting link, which shares contacts, invoices, credit notes, payments and tax rates, sends timesheets and journals to Xero, and pulls in your chart of accounts and tracking categories. For anything the link does not cover, such as your…

A business systems retainer is a monthly service where a specialist maintains, supports and improves the systems your business runs on: job management software such as Simpro, CRM, automations, integrations and IT. Depending on the level, it ranges from keeping everything working, to delivering a…

Owner dependency is when a business cannot operate normally without its owner’s constant involvement: decisions, knowledge, approvals and problem-solving all route through one person. It is usually caused by undocumented processes, missing decision rules and disconnected systems, and it is fixed by building those systems,…

A successful Simpro implementation starts with mapping how your business actually works, then configures Simpro around it: clean data, cost centres and pricing, quote and job templates, scheduling, the mobile app, accounts integration, team training and written SOPs. Most problems with Simpro come from skipping…

To make a trade business run without you, move the knowledge, decisions and admin that currently live in your head into the business itself: documented processes, clear decision rules, connected systems and simple reporting. Start by finding the few bottlenecks that cause most of the…