The quote app for painters whose jobs grow a room at a time

How painting jobs grow past the quote

A painting quote is a promise about surfaces: which walls, which ceilings, which trims, how many coats, how much prep. Every painter knows the three ways that promise gets stretched:

• Extra rooms and ceilings once you're set up. The quote was walls in three bedrooms. Day one, the freshly cut-in walls make the ceilings look grey, and the owner asks you to do those too — "and maybe the hallway while the gear's here". Fair enough. But if it's a nod instead of a document, the invoice becomes a memory test.
• Prep blowouts you couldn't see at quote time. The sample wall sands fine; the bathroom side turns out to be peeling paint over water damage that needs scraping back, sealing and skimming. That's hours of labour the quote never priced — and the hardest cost to recover after the fact, because good prep is invisible when you're done.
• Colour changes after the first coat. The colour the customer chose from a chip looks different on a full wall, and they want to switch. Recoating is real labour and real paint, but "it's just another coat" is what you'll hear at invoice time unless the change was priced and agreed in writing when they asked.

With TradieCue, each of those moments is a short voice note. Timmy drafts the variation, linked to the job, in customer-ready English, with your price — and nothing is sent until you've approved it.

Adding ceilings and doors to a 3-bed repaint

Thirty seconds of talking, and the extra day and a half of work exists on paper before you've opened the ceiling white. The customer approves a document, not a vibe — which is what makes the bigger invoice land without a fight. The same habit covers the prep blowout: photograph the peeling wall, note what fixing it takes and what it costs, and get the written yes before the scraper comes out.

Quoting paint jobs while the walk-through is fresh

Painting quotes are won on specifics: room by room, surface by surface. After the walk-through, talk it into your phone the way you saw it — "three beds walls and ceilings two coats, hallway walls only, gloss on doors and frames, wash and sand throughout, minor filling included, wallpaper removal excluded, ceilings over the stairwell excluded" — with your price per room or as one figure, however you sell. Timmy structures that into an itemised quote draft on an editable preview. Tidy it, send it, same day. A specific written scope also protects your margin later: when the job grows, there's a clear line between what was quoted and what's a variation. See voice-to-quote and how to write a professional trade quote.

What Timmy asks when your note skips something

When an important detail is missing (a price, a customer, a scope item), Timmy asks rather than making it up. On painting notes that plays out as:

• Which surfaces are in. "Paint the lounge" — walls only, or ceiling and trims too? If your note doesn't say, Timmy asks instead of committing you to surfaces you didn't price.
• The number of rooms or doors. "Do the doors as well" gets a question — how many? — so the customer-facing draft is checkable, not vague.
• Who supplies the paint. If the customer is buying their own designer colours, say so and the draft records it; if it's unclear, that's a question, not an assumption.
• The price. Capture the recoat or the extra hallway before you've settled the number, and the draft holds the scope with the price open until you give it. Timmy never invents an amount to fill the gap.

Honest fit for a painting business

TradieCue is for solo tradies and small owner-operated trade businesses (roughly 1–5 people) in australia — the painter on the brush who also runs the books. It won't schedule your crew, track hours or order paint; it's not job-management software and doesn't try to be. It also doesn't measure walls or estimate for you: quantities, coverage and prices are yours, and every draft is reviewed by you before it goes anywhere. Your licence and compliance paperwork stays yours too.

Speak English, Chinese or a mix and the customer sees professional English. iPhone (iOS) today. Free to download and try. TradieCue Pro is a subscription through Apple: A$24.99/month or A$239.99/year with a 30-day free trial. Apple confirms before any charge.

Common questions