October 20, 2026
The plasterer who built his own quoting app
Tom, plasterer and founder of InstaQuote, has been working in the trades since the age of 17. After 18 months spent building his own quoting app, here is what he’d tell any tradesperson about the paperwork.
I was sat in the van outside a job, wanting to go in, sit down and switch off. I couldn’t, not until the quotes, the chasing and the paperwork were done. The work never worried me. The paperwork did.
Trades teach you how to do the trade. Nobody teaches you the books.
I tried app after app. Each was missing something or under-delivering, so I ended up paying for several. That is what pushed me to build one app that does the lot.
Three things to do this week
1. Price the job while you’re still in the room. The quote that goes out that night beats the better one that goes out three days later.
2. Ask for a deposit before you book anyone in. It turns “maybe” into a date in your diary.
3. Check the VAT and CIS rules before you send an invoice. Whether the reverse charge applies depends on you and your customer. If it does, the invoice has to say “reverse charge” and show how much VAT is due under it, but that VAT is not included in the amount you charge your customer. Check GOV.UK, or ask your accountant, before you send it.
If you want the plain-English version of Making Tax Digital, with a three-tap check of whether it applies to you and what the £30,000 means for your trade, it’s at getinstaquote.com/making-tax-digital.
What the app does for you
One app does the quoting, chasing, booking and books. You give it the real sizes, it prices off your own rates, and anything it assumed is marked for you to check. The customer pays the deposit and books themselves in.
Quoting now takes me about ten minutes instead of a few hours.
You can try for free for 7 days at getinstaquote.com, and for readers of this piece, my code TOM20 takes 20% off your first month. The free CIS and VAT reverse charge checker needs no sign-up.
You do the job. We do everything else.
