Electrician Software and Apps in Australia
Software for electricians has to price a switchboard upgrade properly, carry the compliance line items, and get you paid on site. Six Australian options compared, from a sole-trader quoting app to commercial contractor platforms.
Electrician software has a harder job than software for most trades, because the quote has to carry the compliance as well as the price. Every job from a single GPO to a switchboard upgrade has to meet AS/NZS 3000, needs a certificate of compliance, and on bigger work needs the network notified. Miss the isolator, the hole patching or the certificate line, and the margin is gone before the van is packed. This guide compares six electrician apps and software platforms used by Australian electrical contractors, from a sole-trader quoting app to systems built for a commercial crew with an office, on how they handle per-point pricing, compliance line items, job costing and what they cost.
What electrician software has to get right on every quote
Pricing structure first. Most Australian sparkies quote one of three ways: hourly at $80 to $120 plus materials, per point at $100 to $200 per power or light point, or fixed price for standard jobs like a $150 to $250 power point or a $1,500 to $4,000 switchboard upgrade. The software has to make all three fast, not force you into one.
Compliance second. Every quote should carry the compliance testing and the certificate as line items, and switchboard work should flag the distribution network notification. Smoke alarm work needs to reference AS 3786. The three items electricians most often leave off are hole cutting and patching for downlights and GPOs, isolators between the switchboard and high-load appliances, and the certificate itself. Software that puts those in front of you saves the argument later.
Materials third. Cable by type and length, GPOs, RCDs, MCBs, isolators and lugs priced at what they cost this week, not from a list you built in March.
At a glance
| # | App | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | QuoteMate ★ Top pick | Sole-trader sparkies: per-point or hourly quotes with compliance items built in | Free plan; Pro $49/mo or $490/yr |
| 2 | ServiceM8 | iPhone teams wanting job cards & forms | Free then from $29/mo |
| 3 | Tradify | Small crews needing timesheets & dispatch | From $48/user/mo |
| 4 | Fergus | Plumbing & electrical job costing | From $53/mo |
| 5 | simPRO | Mid-size & commercial contractors | Quoted per user + setup |
| 6 | AroFlo | Deep supplier & compliance tools | From ~$45/user/mo + setup |
Sole-trader quoting app or electrical contractor platform
Electrical contractor apps split the same way plumbing ones do. A quoting-first app is built for the sparkie who is also the office: quote from the site on a phone, itemised, compliant, sent before you leave, paid on the spot. A contractor platform is built for a business with crews, a scheduler and someone tracking cost against margin on commercial jobs.
QuoteMate is the first kind. Describe the job, say twelve downlights and a switchboard upgrade, and it suggests the materials, applies live supplier pricing, adds labour and GST and produces a branded PDF in under two minutes. It adds electrical compliance notes to quotes and prices RCDs and safety switches as part of the materials list. The accepted quote becomes the invoice and the job runs through a pipeline to paid.
The most common question we get from electricians is whether the compliance items come through on the quote or get lost. They come through: compliance notes are a feature of the electrical quote template, not something you type each time. What QuoteMate does not do is dispatch four sparkies across Sydney or run timesheets. That is where the platforms below start.
The six options for electricians, honestly
QuoteMate. Quoting-first for sole traders and small crews. AI-assisted materials, live supplier pricing, compliance notes, branded PDFs, GST and ABN, Square tap-to-pay on site, a nine-stage job pipeline. Free plan with unlimited quotes and invoices; Pro is a flat $49 a month or $490 a year. Not for crew dispatch or inventory.
ServiceM8. Job cards, forms and scheduling for teams on iPhones. Free tier for very low volume, then from $29 a month by job volume. Strong for documenting the job on site; quoting is manual.
Tradify. Timesheets, dispatch and scheduling for small crews. From $48 per user per month, and the per-user cost adds up with an apprentice and a subbie.
Fergus. Job costing for electrical and plumbing businesses with office staff, tracking cost against margin on larger jobs. From $53 a month. Manual quoting, no live supplier pricing.
simPRO. Mid-size and commercial electrical contractors: multi-crew scheduling, project costing, warehousing. Quoted per user plus setup. Built for a service desk, not a van.
AroFlo. Deep supplier integrations, inventory and compliance paperwork for larger operations. From around $45 per user per month plus setup.
What a sole-trader sparkie pays, and why margin on the quote matters more
QuoteMate free, or Pro at $49 a month (about $41 a month paid annually at $490). ServiceM8 from $29. Fergus from $53. Tradify from $48 per user. AroFlo from around $45 per user plus setup. simPRO quoted.
Set those against the jobs. A $2,500 switchboard upgrade with a forgotten isolator and no certificate line loses more than a year of any subscription on this page. The value of electrician software is not the monthly fee saved; it is the line items that stop being forgotten. Pick on that, then check the price.
Where to go from here
If you quote on site and want the compliance items and materials handled, start with the QuoteMate electrical quoting page, which walks through a real switchboard and downlight quote, or read the guide on how to quote electrical work for the per-point and hourly maths. If you run a crew with an office, take the trials for ServiceM8 and Fergus and judge them on the scheduler and the costing report, since that is what you will be paying for.
Whichever you pick, the quote should leave the site with AS/NZS 3000 compliance, the certificate and the network notification already on it. Anything that makes you add those from memory is the wrong software.
Frequently Asked Questions
A quoting-first app that handles per-point and hourly pricing, puts compliance items on the quote and gets you paid on site. QuoteMate does that with AI-assisted materials at live supplier prices, compliance notes, a free plan for unlimited quotes and invoices, and Pro at a flat $49 a month. Once you are dispatching a crew, ServiceM8 or Fergus fit better.
Any of them can carry a certificate as a line item if you add it. The difference is whether the software prompts you. QuoteMate adds electrical compliance notes to quotes automatically. Fergus and simPRO are built for larger contractors and handle compliance paperwork at the business level rather than on each quote.
QuoteMate has a permanent free plan with unlimited quotes and invoices. ServiceM8 has a free tier limited to a small number of jobs a month. The contractor platforms offer trials, then per-user pricing and in some cases setup fees.
ServiceM8 if your team runs on iPhones and you want strong job cards and forms. Fergus if you have office staff and want job costing against margin on bigger jobs. Neither has live supplier pricing, so both are job management tools rather than quoting tools.
In most of them, by setting a rate per power or light point as a line item and multiplying. The typical Australian range is $100 to $200 per point. The software should also let you switch to hourly at $80 to $120 plus materials or a fixed price for standard jobs, because most sparkies use all three depending on the work.
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