Australian tradies spend 5 to 10 hours a week building quotes by hand. The right quoting tool cuts that to minutes, gets your quote to the customer first, and keeps the numbers accurate. Here is what to look for, how the main tools compare, and where voice quoting fits in.
See it draft a real quote into Xero from a voice memo.
Why it matters
Australian tradies consistently report spending 5 to 10 hours a week on quoting, invoicing, and paperwork. At a charge-out rate of $120 an hour, that is $600 to $1,200 a week in time you could bill for. The quoting piece alone eats 2 to 5 of those hours, depending on how many jobs you look at.
Homeowners often accept the first professional-looking quote that arrives. A quote sent from site in 30 seconds lands hours before the one typed up that evening at the kitchen table. Speed turns into revenue, every week.
Quoting from memory after a site visit means something slips through: a length of cable, a fitting, an extra hour of labour. Each missed line comes out of your pocket. Software that captures every item as you speak it keeps the margin you priced.
Choosing a tool
Five things separate a quoting tool that actually saves you time from one that adds another login to your week.
Can you build a complete quote while still at the job? The tools that work in the van or at the switchboard are the ones tradies actually use. A tool that requires you to sit down at a laptop later duplicates work you have already done in your head on site. Look for mobile-first design, offline capability, and an input method that matches how you work (typing, templates, or voice).
A quoting tool should price from your numbers, the sell prices you have already decided on, updated when your supplier costs change. Generic estimates or industry averages create margin risk. The best tools sync with your accounting software (Xero, MYOB, or QuickBooks) so prices stay current in one place.
Most Australian trade businesses run Xero. The question is how deep the integration goes. Some tools sync invoices and contacts but handle quotes in their own system. Others draft the quote directly into Xero as a native Xero quote. The deeper the sync, the less double-entry. If your BAS and job costing live in Xero, the quote should too.
An electrician quoting switchboard upgrades has different needs from a plumber quoting hot water systems, or a roofer pricing a tile re-bed. Material-heavy trades need price books and supplier integrations. Service trades need speed and simplicity. Large commercial operations need variations, multi-stage costing, and approval workflows. Match the tool to the shape of your quoting.
Good software should get faster the more you use it. Templates help. Remembered pricing helps more. AI-powered tools that learn your phrasing, your common job types, and your preferred line items reduce friction over time. The goal is a tool that quotes the way you think, after the first few weeks.
How they compare
Each tool fits a different shape of business. Here is a factual rundown of who they are built for, what they cost, and how they handle quotes and Xero.
Australia's most widely used job management platform for small trade businesses. Built-in quoting with smart templates, AI-powered proposals, SMS and email delivery, and a client portal where customers accept and sign. The free tier gives you 5 jobs a month to test the workflow. Strong mobile app. Xero integration syncs invoices and contacts; quotes stay inside ServiceM8's system.
Best for: Sole traders and small teams who want job management, scheduling, and quoting in one platform. FlowSpec vs ServiceM8
New Zealand-built, popular across Australia and NZ. Strong mobile experience: site measurements, photos, and customer details captured on the phone flow straight into quote templates. Template library and automatic follow-up reminders. Xero integration syncs invoices, contacts, and payments. Quotes are built inside Tradify and can be sent as PDFs.
Best for: Small to mid-size teams who want a clean mobile workflow with scheduling and quoting together. FlowSpec vs Tradify
Built for trades where material costs drive the margin: plumbing, electrical, HVAC. Supplier integrations keep price books current, and grouped templates let you quote repeat work fast. Detailed job costing tracks actual costs against quoted amounts. Xero integration syncs invoices and contacts; quotes are built inside Fergus. Budget 2 to 3 weeks for initial setup of supplier connections and price books.
Best for: Material-heavy trades (plumbers, electricians, HVAC) who need supplier price books and job costing. FlowSpec vs Fergus
Enterprise-grade job management for larger trade businesses running multi-stage commercial projects. Quoting handles variations, detailed cost breakdowns by phase, and full project costing. Inventory management, asset tracking, and multi-branch support. Xero integration syncs invoices and contacts. The feature set is deep; the onboarding commitment is significant.
Best for: Teams of 5+ doing complex commercial work with multi-stage quoting and project management. FlowSpec vs simPRO
Australian-built job management platform popular with plumbing and HVAC businesses. Quoting with templates, inventory tracking, supplier catalogues, and purchase orders. Field app for mobile crews. Xero integration syncs invoices and contacts; quotes live inside AroFlo. The Premium tier adds project management and asset tracking.
Best for: Mid-size plumbing and HVAC businesses wanting inventory management alongside quoting. FlowSpec vs AroFlo
Australian-built, budget-friendly option for smaller trade businesses. Quoting with templates, scheduling, timesheet tracking, and a field app. Xero integration via the Xero App Store. Straightforward feature set that covers the basics of job management and quoting for teams that want simplicity over depth.
Best for: Budget-conscious smaller teams wanting quoting and scheduling in one tool. FlowSpec vs Ascora
Purpose-built for one job: getting a priced quote into Xero as fast as possible. You speak the job in trade shorthand (or type it), and FlowSpec drafts the quote straight into Xero as a native Xero draft quote, priced from your own Xero items, with the client matched or created, account codes set, and GST applied. About 30 seconds from voice memo to Xero draft. Works for every trade. Learns your phrasing over time.
Best for: Any tradie on Xero who wants to quote faster from site, with the quote living inside Xero. FlowSpec is a quoting engine, not a job management platform. It does one thing and does it fast.
20% off annual plans. First 100 customers lock the rate for life. See pricing
A different approach
Most quoting tools assume you will sit down and type. Voice quoting starts from how tradies actually work on site.
What you say
"Bathroom reno for Sarah Chen at 42 Darling St. Remove existing vanity, supply and install new vanity unit, re-plumb hot and cold, new mixer tap, re-tile splashback 4 square metres, silicone, 6 hours labour."
What FlowSpec does with it
About 30 seconds from the spoken memo to a priced draft sitting in Xero. That same quote typed by hand is a kitchen-table session.
How FlowSpec works
Talk through the job and FlowSpec carries it the rest of the way.
Talk it through like you would to your offsider. Use your own shorthand: GPOs, DBs, pipe sizes, tile runs, whatever fits the trade. Record on site with your phone or type it out. FlowSpec reads trade terms across electrical, plumbing, HVAC, roofing, tiling, and more.
Every material, fitting, and labour line matches to your own Xero items at your own sell prices. Your labour rate goes on, GST is applied per line, and the client is matched or created in Xero from the name and address you said.
A priced draft quote lands in your Xero account with line items, account codes, and tax types already set. Review it, adjust anything you want, and send. The customer has your quote while you are still in the driveway.
Works for your trade
FlowSpec reads the shorthand of your trade. Here is how it handles jobs across different specialties.
Switchboard upgrades, new builds, GPOs, RCDs, cable runs. FlowSpec reads sparky shorthand and prices every component from your Xero items.
Hot water systems, bathroom rough-ins, pipe runs, fittings. Speak the job in plumbing terms and FlowSpec handles the rest.
Split systems, ducted units, refrigerant lines, condensate drains. FlowSpec reads HVAC terms and prices the install from your own numbers.
Re-beds, re-points, Colorbond replacements, gutter runs. Describe the roof job and get a priced Xero draft in about 30 seconds.
Floor tiles, wall tiles, waterproofing, adhesive, grout. Speak the square metreage and materials, and FlowSpec prices the lot.
Panels, inverters, racking, cable, isolators, CEC paperwork time. Speak the system spec and get the quote priced from your own Xero items.
Decks, pergolas, door hangs, framing. Timber lengths, fixings, and labour hours spoken on site become a Xero quote in seconds.
Retaining walls, turf, pavers, garden beds, drainage. Walk the site, talk it out, and have the quote in Xero before you leave.
FlowSpec also handles painters, concreters, gasfitters, and more. See the full list on the compare hub.
An honest split
Most of the tools above are job management platforms that include quoting as one feature among many. FlowSpec is a dedicated quoting engine. The difference matters.
You already have Xero for accounting. You already have a scheduling system or a whiteboard or a phone. What eats your evenings is the quoting step: turning site visits into priced quotes. FlowSpec solves that one thing. It sits on top of Xero, uses your existing prices, and gives you the 30-second-quote workflow.
ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus, and simPRO bundle quoting with scheduling, job tracking, invoicing, timesheets, and more. If you want all of that in one system, those are solid choices. FlowSpec pairs with them: use the platform for job management, and FlowSpec for getting the quote into Xero fast.
Pricing
One plan, every feature included, per quoting seat.
Free trial
First 5 sent-to-Xero quotes free, or 7 days from signup, whichever comes first.
Monthly
$50/month for your first quoting seat. $25/month for each additional seat. Cancel anytime.
Annual (20% off)
$480/year ($40/mo) for your first seat. $240/year ($20/mo) for each additional seat.
First 100 customers lock the rate for life. Full pricing details
More on FlowSpec
See how FlowSpec lines up against specific tools on the compare hub. Read about voice quoting for Xero in Australia, or browse trade-specific pages for electricians, plumbers, HVAC, and roofers. If you are weighing up alternatives, there are dedicated pages for AI quoting software for tradies and how to quote in Xero by voice. For practical quoting walkthroughs, see how to quote plumbing, landscaping, HVAC, concreting, decking, excavation, and kitchen renovation jobs.
FAQ
It depends on what you quote and how you work. ServiceM8 and Tradify are popular for general job management with quoting built in. Fergus suits material-heavy trades with supplier price books. simPRO handles complex multi-stage commercial work. FlowSpec is purpose-built for voice quoting straight into Xero: you speak the job, and it drafts a priced quote into Xero from your own items in about 30 seconds. If you already run Xero and want to quote faster from site, FlowSpec is the dedicated tool for that.
Prices range widely. ServiceM8 starts at $9/month for a basic plan with limited jobs. Tradify runs $48 to $62/month per user depending on the tier. Fergus charges around $48 to $72/user/month. simPRO is enterprise-priced and quote-based. FlowSpec is $50/month for the first quoting seat, $25/month for each additional seat, with 20% off when paid annually. Most tools offer a free trial so you can test before committing.
Xero handles accounting, invoicing, and basic quotes, and it is the backbone of most Australian trade businesses. Where dedicated quoting software adds value is speed: building a quote with line items, pricing, and GST in Xero by hand takes time, especially from site. Tools like FlowSpec sit on top of Xero and do the heavy lifting. You speak or type the job, and FlowSpec drafts the quote into your Xero account with line items priced from your own Xero items. The quote stays in Xero where your accounting lives.
Voice quoting software lets you describe a job out loud and have it turned into a priced quote automatically. Instead of typing line items into a form, you speak them. FlowSpec is one of the first tools built specifically for this: you record a voice memo describing the job in trade shorthand, and FlowSpec transcribes it, pulls out the line items, matches them to your Xero items at your own sell prices, and drafts the quote into Xero. The whole process takes about 30 seconds.
Most tools offer a trial. ServiceM8 has a free tier with limited jobs. Tradify offers a 14-day trial. Fergus provides a trial period. FlowSpec gives you your first 5 sent-to-Xero quotes free, or 7 days from signup, whichever comes first. That is enough to see how it handles your real jobs before deciding.
ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus, simPRO, and AroFlo all have Xero integrations, mostly syncing invoices and contacts. FlowSpec goes deeper: it drafts quotes directly into Xero as native Xero quotes, priced from your own Xero items, with account codes and tax types already set. If quotes living inside Xero matters to you, FlowSpec is the most tightly integrated option for the quoting step.
Five things matter most: speed (can you build a quote from site in under a minute?), pricing accuracy (does it use your own prices or generic estimates?), accounting sync (does it land in Xero or MYOB properly?), mobile usability (does it work on your phone with one hand?), and learning (does it get faster as you use it?). Weight these by how you work. A sole trader quoting from a van needs speed and mobile-first design. A team of five running commercial projects needs variations, approvals, and multi-stage costing.
Yes, especially if you are spending evenings on quotes. Australian tradies report spending 5 to 10 hours a week on quoting and admin. At a charge-out rate of $100 to $150 per hour, that is $500 to $1,500 a week in unbilled time. A quoting tool that cuts your quote build time from 30 minutes to under a minute pays for itself after the first few quotes each month.
Speak the job, get a priced Xero draft on your own prices. FlowSpec runs on one all-inclusive, per-seat plan, with every feature included.
Try the demoSee it draft a real quote into Xero.