Blog

The story behind SME System's job costing: a quote that went out fine, a job that quietly bled, and the realisation that profit visibility shouldn't arrive three months late.

Most quotes aren't rejected — they're forgotten. A simple follow-up schedule, three message templates, and the tracking habit that recovers the jobs you already half-won.

CRM, quoting, job tracking, accounting — what's a sensible monthly spend for a 5–30 person UK business, and where do the hidden costs hide? A realistic budget breakdown.

Wrong VAT rates, hidden maths errors and missing totals — quoting mistakes cost UK small businesses margin and credibility. Here are the six most common, and how to make them impossible.

Your prices aren't the problem. Profit leaks through five quiet gaps — unlogged hours, supplier runs, scope creep, optimistic estimates and subbie drift. Here's how to find yours.

Most CRMs are built for sales teams, not trades. Here's what a CRM for a UK trade or services business actually needs — and the features that sound good but aren't.

If you move CRM, quoting and job tracking into one system, does Xero or QuickBooks become redundant? Mostly no — and here's exactly where each system should start and stop.

A repeatable quoting process for UK trades: what to include, how to handle VAT, how to price labour honestly, and the two numbers most quotes forget.

A job costing template you can build in 20 minutes: job sheet, cost log and profit summary. Includes the exact formulas — and the honest list of where spreadsheets stop coping.

Odoo is powerful but often overwhelming for small UK service businesses. Here are the realistic alternatives — including when Odoo is actually the right answer.