Industries: painters and decorators
Software for painters and decorators, built round drying times and colour codes
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A job sheet with the colour for every room, a board that keeps exteriors off wet days, and a quote that is ready once the survey is done.
Four jobs, three crews and a forecast that changes on Tuesday
Software for painters starts with an ordinary Tuesday in October. At half seven one crew puts the second coat on ceilings in Cotham, at half nine another starts a living room and hall in Bishopston, after lunch an exterior in Bath needs washing down and filling, and at half four there is a survey for wallpaper in Keynsham. The first coat in Bishopston will not take a second until four. If it rains on Thursday, the exterior is off and that crew needs work indoors.
In most decorating firms that lives in a diary, a folder of colour cards and the owner's phone. Last year's bedroom colour is written on a tin lid in the van, the room sizes on the back of an envelope, the extras in a text message. We build software round how your firm surveys, quotes, plans and invoices. Not a package for every contractor, but a painter and decorator program with a job sheet, a board and a quote that work the way you do.
The job sheet for a living room, with the colour on it
- The colour code per roomBrand, colour and sheen sit with every room. Touch up a damaged wall next year and you mix the same paint.
- Drying time on the sheetThe sheet says when the next coat can go on. The team knows whether to stay or drive to the next job.
- Extra work, signed offCracks, a ceiling that was not in the quote? The customer signs on the phone, the office adds it to the invoice.
An example with made-up homes and addresses; you choose what a decorating job sheet asks for.
Where a decorating week loses its hours
Ask a decorator where the week goes and the answer is rarely the painting. It is the waiting, the looking up and the evenings at the kitchen table.
| Where it pinches | What it looks like on site | What the software does |
|---|---|---|
| Drying time nobody sees | A crew finishes the first coat at two and waits until four | Shows when the next coat can go on and suggests prep in another room |
| Colour codes on a tin lid | A customer rings two years later about a scuffed hall | Keeps brand, colour, sheen and coats per room in the customer's file |
| Square metres per room | Walls, ceilings, doors, frames, skirting, paper to strip | Measures room by room on the phone and turns it into the quote |
| Exteriors and the weather | Masonry paint planned for a wet day | Puts the forecast on the board for every exterior |
| Extras without a signature | Cracks above the door that only show once it is masked up | The crew adds the extra, the customer signs on the phone |
| Quotes after dark | Ten surveys a week typed up in the evening | A draft quote from the survey and the photos, ready the same day |
The job sheet in the picture above comes from the same base as our work order app; the hours per crew can feed a time tracking app.
An exterior on a wet day, moved before the van leaves
Rain on Wednesday
The exterior in Bath is booked on Wednesday, with an 80 percent chance of rain, on new render that the data sheet says needs one more dry day.
Thursday is dry. The board moves the exterior and the cherry picker to Thursday, Dan finishes the lounge in Bishopston on Wednesday, and the client in Bath gets a text.
Sorted: Exterior to Thursday
An example of what we can build, with made-up names and sites. You choose which rules the board checks.
Crews, jobs and the forecast on one board
A decorating firm with three crews rarely has three jobs a week. It has eight: a living room that takes three days, an exterior waiting for dry weather, an office where you can only work after six, and small jobs in between. A board built for painters knows those rules and warns you before the crew sets off.
- Weather per jobExteriors carry the forecast; a wet day turns the job amber.
- Drying timesNew plaster that still needs to dry, and the hours between coats.
- EquipmentThe cherry picker or the scaffold booked for one job at a time.
- Occupied homesA customer who is only in until noon, or a room that must be usable by the evening.
- DeliveriesWallpaper that has not arrived moves the start date, and the customer gets a message.
If you plan in a spreadsheet today, read Excel scheduling or planning software first. What we build for site planning in general is on construction scheduling software; planning people rather than jobs is staff scheduling software.
A search in Bristol that turns into a survey
New request
Lounge, hall and stairs, Victorian terrace, high ceilings, five photos
Emma, Bishopston, today 20:14
- A page per job: interiors, exteriors, wallpaper, woodwork
- Before and after photos of your jobs on your Google profile
- A form that asks for rooms, sizes and photos
An example with made-up decorators and reviews.
Homeowners pick a decorator from photos and reviews
A homeowner looking for a decorator searches in their own area and chooses on photos and reviews. A main contractor or a managing agent wants references and someone who turns up when they said. Both want a date for the survey quickly. Your website should be built round that:
- A page per kind of workInterior decorating, exteriors, wallpapering, woodwork and spraying, each with your service area and photos of your own jobs.
- An enquiry form that asks for the roomsWhich rooms, roughly how big, the age of the house and photos. The age of the house also tells you whether asbestos needs thinking about.
- A Google profile with colourBefore and after photos, recent reviews, the right category. See create a Google Business Profile and get more Google reviews.
Everything about the site itself, including what it costs, is on painter and decorator website. A website with us starts from EUR 1,500, through website design. To rank in the towns where you work, see local SEO.
Five photos and a message as the first draft of a quote
An example: the AI works from your own prices per m2 and per coat, you decide.
AI does not paint walls. What it can do is take five photos, the age of the house and three sentences from the customer and draft the lines of a first quote with your own rates: strip paper in the hall, prep, mist coat and two coats on the walls, ceilings, doors and frames in satinwood, and the stairs as an option. After the survey you correct the square metres and send it. How that estimating side works, with rates per square metre, coats and extras, is on painting and decorating estimating software. For AI in quotes in general, read AI quote generator and AI for construction.
Finding a decorator who is not on a job board
An example with made-up names; you choose what the form asks a decorator, from inside or outside to spraying.
Good decorators choose the crew and what happens when it rains
Good painters and decorators have plenty of work. They choose a firm on the crew, on the kind of work and on what happens on a wet day: are they sent home, or is there work inside? A vacancy on your own site says that plainly: interiors and exteriors, spraying or brush and roller, paper hanging, whether CSCS and IPAF courses are paid for. Applying takes three taps, and the office sees every candidate and where they stand. What you show as an employer is called employer branding. Once they start, check their right to work before the first day, and plan them with staff scheduling software.
A sole trader decorator or a firm with five crews
A sole trader does not need an ERP. A firm with five crews needs more than a diary. This is what we would build at each size.
- Sole trader
- What you needA site with an enquiry form and photos, a Google profile, a quote per room and a job sheet that becomes the invoice, ready for MTD
- What you do not need (yet)A planning board, roles and permissions, a stock module
- Crew of five
- What you needJob sheets with colour codes and drying times, quotes from the survey, a colour history per customer, extras with a signature
- What you do not need (yet)Your own stock system for paint
- Firm of 20 to 50
- What you needA board with crews, weather and access equipment, job costing per job, paint used per square metre, CIS for your subcontractors, a customer link
- What you do not need (yet)An ERP the crews never open
- Larger firm
- What you needLinks to accounts and your paint supplier, reports per crew and per kind of work, documents for main contractors
- What you do not need (yet)A second system next to what already runs
Start where you lose the most time. For most decorators that is the quote after the survey.
CIS, VAT and ladders: the rules a decorator works under
These are the rules that most often belong in a UK decorating firm's paperwork, as they stand on 31 October 2026.
| Rule | What it asks | What the software does |
|---|---|---|
| Construction Industry Scheme | Painting and decorating falls under CIS. A main contractor deducts 20 percent from a registered subcontractor and 30 percent from an unregistered one; gross payment status means no deduction. A sole trader needs £30,000 turnover, without VAT and materials, for gross status. Contractors file monthly by the 19th and pay by the 22nd | Deductions on every payment, statements for your subcontractors, the return ready on time |
| Making Tax Digital for Income Tax | Sole traders with qualifying income over £50,000 from 6 April 2026, over £30,000 from April 2027, over £20,000 from April 2028; quarterly updates by 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May | Every invoice and cost in digital records, ready for the quarterly update |
| VAT on decorating | Decorating an occupied home is 20 percent; materials you supply with the work follow the rate of the work. Renovating a home empty for 2 years before the work, or a conversion, can be 5 percent | The rate set per job, with the evidence attached when it is 5 percent |
| Work at height | No minimum height; collective protection before personal; ladders are not banned and suit low-risk, short tasks | Scaffold or cherry picker as a planned step on every exterior |
| Asbestos | Assume asbestos is present in buildings built or refurbished before 2000 unless a survey says otherwise; breaking into the fabric can need a refurbishment survey | The job sheet asks for the survey before sanding an old textured ceiling |
| Waste carrier registration (England) | Carrying waste needs registration; construction waste usually means the upper tier, renewed every 3 years; a new registration costs £191.02 | The registration number and renewal date in the company file |
| Building Safety Act, Part 2A | On building work under the Building Regulations, contractors must be competent and make sure their work complies | Your competence and the job's documents kept with the job |
| Right to work | Up to £60,000 per illegal worker; since 1 October 2026 the checks also reach individual subcontractors | The check stored before anyone starts on a job |
If you invoice main contractors, read e-invoicing in the UK as well.
Ten surveys a week, worked out in hours
| Task per week | Diary, notebook and evenings | A system of your own |
|---|---|---|
| Writing up quotes room by room, 48 minutes each | 8 hours | 3 hours |
| Collecting job sheets, colours and extras, 9 minutes per sheet | 3 hours | 0.5 hours |
| Replanning after rain and drying times | 2.5 hours | 0.5 hours |
| Looking up colours and old quotes for repeat customers | 1.5 hours | 0.25 hours |
| Total | 15 hours | 4.25 hours |
That is 10.75 hours a week, or 483.75 hours a year: in this example EUR 24,187.50 of the owner's time. An example, not a promise. What it comes to for you depends on how many quotes you write and how many you win.
A decorating firm starts with a conversation about a wet week
- A conversation about your weekHow do enquiries come in, how do you survey, where do the colour codes live, who replans when it rains? We look at an ordinary week and at one with three wet days.
- A fixed price per projectTogether we pick the part where you lose the most time and agree a fixed price for that part. A website with an enquiry form starts from EUR 1,500; software gets a price after the conversation.
- One crew uses it firstOne crew and whoever plans work with the first version on real jobs. What does not work at the top of a ladder we change before the other crews join.
A decorator is rarely first on site. Joiners, tilers and kitchen fitters have often been in before you, and on a renovation a main contractor plans every trade together. What we build for building firms in general is on software for construction companies; how we build software is on custom software. If you would rather talk first, use contact. For a building firm in Ghent we built a site with a step-by-step cost calculator and an energy rating calculator: SN Group.
Questions decorators put to us
- Can I quote room by room, with square metres, coats and colour?
- Yes. Each room gets its walls, ceiling, doors and skirting, with the number of coats and the colour. The customer sees what they pay for, and after the job you see whether the square metres were right.
- Is it the best software for painters if I work on my own?
- On your own, a good website, a quote template and an invoicing tool that is ready for Making Tax Digital go a long way. A system of your own pays off once you run crews, or when quotes take your evenings.
- Can the customer choose and confirm colours before we start?
- Yes. Through a link they see the colour and sheen per room and confirm. That confirmation sits on the job sheet, so nobody on site has to guess.
- How do I plan exteriors round the weather?
- The board shows the forecast for every job. If an exterior sits on a wet day, it suggests a dry day and an indoor job for that crew. You decide, the customer gets a message.
- I mostly work as a subcontractor under CIS. Does it help?
- Yes. Your job sheets show hours per job for the main contractor, your invoices show the CIS deduction, and the statements you get back sit with the job, ready for your tax return.
- Do I have to replace my accounting package?
- No. We link to what you use. The job sheet becomes the invoice, and your accountant gets it as today.
Custom software
How VBS helps you with this
We build the platform your business runs on every day: your spreadsheets, emails and paperwork in one system that does what you do.
- Your workflow mapped first, then a fixed price
- Screens for the office, the client and the road
- Hosting, backups and security managed by us on AWS
How we approach it is on our page about Custom software.
Your quotes, colours and crews in one place?
Tell us how a week runs for you, wet ones included. We show you where we would start and what it would save.
Rather get in touch right away?