Software for self-employed builders: get your deposit in three steps

Are you paying for the materials yourself? You're at the builders' merchant, the job has just been agreed and the money isn't there yet. Then you're financing the job yourself. These are the three steps to turn that around.

How do you get the client to sign the quote?

You send the quote as a link and the client signs digitally. That is legally binding under art. 3:15a of the Dutch Civil Code. You don't need to print anything and nobody has to come round with a pen.

With Contract + signature, the client signs on his own phone or on your tablet at the kitchen table. You get a notification as soon as he agrees. You only send the quote once you have confirmed it.

Say you're a painter and you've surveyed the house this afternoon. You ask the agent to prepare the quote. You check it, confirm, and the client signs the same evening.

How do you get the deposit in?

After the signature, the client gets a payment link from your own bunq. He pays the deposit himself, on his phone. The money goes to your account, not to an intermediary.

So you don't ask for money in a chat message and you don't pass a bank account number around. Money and signatures always go through a link, never in the chat itself. That keeps things clean, for you and for the client.

Say you're an installer and you need to order a heat pump. You wait to order until the payment is in. Then you know you aren't paying out of your own pocket.

What happens after the client pays?

With Payment link + go-ahead, the job is ready in your planning once it's paid. You don't have to remember that the money has come in. The app shows it and sets the job up for you.

You see it in the day planning, with suggested slots for the new job. You choose the day. Then you order the materials, with the client's money and not your own.

Later the invoice comes from the same signed quote and your work orders. Want to know what it has to meet? The Belastingdienst invoice requirements are listed there. More about money after the job is in software for contractors and getting paid faster.

What do you need to do to get started?

You create a free trial account. You don't need payment details, you install nothing and it never switches over to a paid plan by itself. It works in the browser, on your phone and on your laptop.

You use your own quote and your own bunq. Anything involving money or a signature, the agent prepares with a confirm button. You do the sending.

First look at how invoices and payments work. Want to try it yourself, start your free trial account.