Plumbing software shaped around the way your business runs

The plumber's week, and what the software has to fix

A plumbing business runs on a messy mix of reactive and planned work. Emergency call-outs and blocked drains land without warning; hot-water swaps and tap repairs fill the diary; renovation and new-construction jobs run for weeks with staged work and a pile of fittings. The money leaks in predictable places: the after-hours job quoted verbally and never written up, the fittings that went on the job but never onto the invoice, the second visit nobody scheduled, the timesheet cobbled together on Sunday. Plumbing software has to keep every one of those attached to its job — and stay out of your way when you're up to your elbows under a sink.

Configure it to match how you plumb

Not every plumbing business works the same way. A solo maintenance plumber wants quoting, scheduling and invoicing and not much else; a firm doing renovation and construction work wants materials, inventory, supplier invoices, timesheets and a client portal all humming. My Apprentice lets you switch whole features on and off from your settings, so the app reflects your business — and because every feature is available to every business, you're never told a capability lives on a more expensive plan. Turn on what you use; leave the rest off; change your mind later.

Quoting: on the spot, and margin-aware

Half of plumbing quoting happens standing in someone's laundry. My Apprentice lets you build a quote from your line items and materials list with the margin calculated as you go — cost, markup, sell price — so you quote at a number that actually makes you money, not one you regret later. Send it and the customer gets a professional quote plus a portal link to accept it; the moment they do, it becomes a job in one click. The sent quote is stored as an immutable snapshot, which settles any "that's not what you said" conversation before it starts.

Scheduling and dispatch: reactive and planned in one diary

The plumber's scheduling problem is interruption: a planned day gets blown up by an emergency, and someone has to reshuffle. My Apprentice lets you assign shifts to the right plumber, run recurring shifts for ongoing maintenance contracts, and keep unscheduled and unassigned work visible so nothing slips. Field staff see only their own jobs and shifts, so an apprentice's day stays simple. (Honest note: there's no live GPS map of your vans — My Apprentice focuses on getting the right person to the right job with the right details, not vehicle tracking.)

Materials, fittings and stock: from the van to the invoice

Plumbing is fittings-heavy, and fittings are where margin quietly bleeds. My Apprentice keeps a materials library for your common items, tracks stock as an immutable ledger, and writes materials used back to stock automatically when a job is completed — so the fittings that went into that bathroom come off your stock and, if priced, onto the invoice. When the monthly bill lands from your plumbing supplier, built-in AI supplier-invoice scanning reads the PDF, matches the lines to your suppliers and materials, flags anything uncertain, and updates stock or costs the job — learning each supplier's codes over time. For a plumber getting regular accounts from a wholesaler, that's a night of data entry back each month, included at every seat.

Be clear on the edges: My Apprentice doesn't generate purchase orders or plug into wholesaler catalogues with live pricing, so procurement-heavy operations will want more there. For most plumbing businesses, the materials library plus AI bill-scanning does the job.

Compliance and documentation: prove it was done right

Plumbing carries compliance weight — depending on your state you're issuing certificates of compliance for the work, and backflow, gas and drainage work has its own paperwork. My Apprentice is upfront about its role: it isn't a compliance-certificate or SWMS module and doesn't replace your state's plumbing compliance process. What it does is hold the evidence that supports it — photos of the work attached to the job and shift, notes, and a full audit trail, with immutable records of every quote and invoice sent. You can share that photo evidence with the customer or builder through the portal, which is usually exactly what they want before releasing payment. If dedicated compliance-certificate and SWMS management is central to your business, a compliance-focused platform will do more; My Apprentice gives you clean, defensible documentation on every job.

Customer communication: fewer chase-up calls

Plumbing customers are often stressed — there's water where it shouldn't be — and they want to know what's happening. My Apprentice's no-login client portal gives each customer a secure link to see the job's progress, approve the quote, read the invoice, message you and — once you've connected Stripe — pay by card, without setting up an account. Fewer "are you still coming?" calls, faster quote sign-off, and quicker payment because the pay button sits right beside the invoice.

Timesheets: hours that match the work

Between call-outs and site work, plumbing hours are hard to reconstruct. My Apprentice captures clock in/out against the work, rolls it into weekly timesheets for approval, and exports for payroll — so the hours you pay match the hours on the jobs, and Sunday-night guesswork disappears.

Getting paid: invoice straight off the job

Because the invoice is built from the job — labour, fittings and any variations already attached — you're not reconstructing the story at billing time. Send it, track paid/outstanding, chase with reminders, and let the customer pay by card through the portal. Invoices push to Xero when you're ready, with paid/outstanding syncing back, so your books stay straight without double entry.

Where My Apprentice fits a plumbing business — and where it doesn't

It fits three kinds of plumbing business:

• The sole-trader plumber who wants to look professional and reclaim evenings
• The small-to-mid plumbing contractor (up to around 25 staff) juggling service, maintenance and renovation work, who needs quoting, scheduling, materials, permissions and a client portal in one configurable app
• Any plumbing business that wants its whole workflow joined up and runnable from the phone

It's less of a fit if you run large commercial plumbing projects needing multi-phase progress billing and formal procurement, or if MYOB is a dealbreaker — those point to heavier platforms. My Apprentice's sweet spot is the residential and light-commercial plumbing business that wants one adaptable system without an enterprise rollout.

If you run a mixed-trade shop, the same configurable app covers the neighbouring trades too — there are dedicated pages for electrician software and HVAC software.

A real-world example

A two-plumber business plus an apprentice gets a call: hot-water system failed overnight. The owner books it for the morning, and on site quotes the replacement from the materials list — new unit, fittings, labour — with the margin visible as he builds it. The customer approves it on the spot through the portal link, and it becomes a job. The apprentice, assigned alongside, sees the job and shift but not the pricing. Photos of the old and new units go onto the job. Meanwhile a bathroom-reno job is running across the road; its fittings are tracked against that job. When the wholesaler's account arrives, AI scanning reconciles the fittings to stock and jobs. Each job is completed, materials write back to stock, invoices go out from the jobs, and the customers pay by card through the portal. Both plumbers' and the apprentice's hours flowed into the timesheet. No lost fittings, no evening admin.

Pricing for plumbing businesses

My Apprentice is per seat in Australian dollars, and the rate drops as you grow: $39 per seat per month for a sole trader, dropping to $27 per seat for larger teams, with 20% off annual billing. Your first 2 months are free, there's no setup fee and no lock-in contract. Every feature is included — you switch on what you use — so a solo plumber and a growing firm get the same toolbox at a price that falls per head as the team grows. You can see the price before you sign up.

FAQ

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