Construction & trades
Automation forconstruction companies and trades
Fewer evenings spent on quotes, invoices and chasers: more time on site.
- Customer messages & requests
- Documents & admin
- Scheduling & operations
In short
Iselia Projects automates the repetitive admin of trades and small construction firms: sorting quote requests, drafting quotes from your site-visit notes, chasing unsigned quotes and unpaid invoices, progress billing, site scheduling and collecting subcontractor compliance documents. Plugged into the quoting and invoicing software you already use, these automations give the owner and the office several hours back each week, instead of paperwork eating into evenings.
- Who it’s for
- Tradespeople, contractors and small-to-mid construction firms (plumbing, electrical, renovation, joinery, masonry, roofing…)
- What we automate
- Customer messages & requests Documents & admin Scheduling & operations
- 7tasks quantified
- 11industry tools supported
- 5steps in the end-to-end example
Day to day
Where your team loses time.
Useful but repetitive tasks that pile up around the real work. They are usually the first ones that can be automated.
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Quotes written at night and at weekends
Days are spent on site, so quotes get done after hours: measurements, descriptions, updated supplier prices… while the customer waits ten days and signs with someone else.
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Quotes sent, never followed up
A large share of quotes go out with no follow-up. Nobody has time to call every prospect back, and potential revenue quietly disappears.
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Cash flow hanging on chasers
Late progress invoices, deposits never requested, invoices unpaid at 60 days: chasing takes time and tact the owner no longer has by Friday.
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A schedule that changes every day
A late delivery, bad weather, an absent customer, a sick crew member: the team, the customer and sometimes the subcontractor all need telling, one call or message at a time.
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Paperwork that expires quietly
Subcontractor insurance certificates, tax and social-security compliance certificates, company registration extracts: mandatory documents that lapse without warning.
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E-invoicing mandates on the way
Across Europe, structured e-invoicing is becoming mandatory (in France, receiving since September 2026 and issuing from September 2027 for small firms): tools and habits have to change without losing jobs along the way.
Task by task
Where your hours are hiding.
Each row applies the same formula: weekly volume × manual time × automatable share. Volumes match the example “8 people, including 1 office administrator”.
| Task | Volume / wk | Time per unit | Automatable | Saved / wk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer messages & requests Sort and qualify quote requests Requests from your website, email or lead platforms are read, qualifying questions go out automatically (photos, area, address, timing) and a site-visit slot is offered. | 15 requests / week | 8 min | 60 % | 1.2 h |
| Documents & admin Draft quotes from site-visit notes A draft quote built from your notes, photos and measurements using your standard items and prices, with mandatory wording added. You review and adjust before it goes out. | 8 quotes / week | 45 min | 40 % | 2.4 h |
| Customer messages & requests Follow up unsigned quotes Personalised follow-ups at day 7 and day 15, answers to simple questions and easy e-signature; hesitant prospects are flagged to you for a call. | 10 follow-ups / week | 5 min | 80 % | 0.7 h |
| Documents & admin Prepare progress and final invoices Deposit requests, progress claims, retention and final invoices prepared from the quote and reported progress, sent once you approve. | 8 invoices / week | 20 min | 50 % | 1.3 h |
| Documents & admin Chase unpaid invoices Due dates tracked, graduated reminders by email and text with a statement attached, escalation to the owner before any formal demand. | 6 reminders / week | 10 min | 70 % | 0.7 h |
| Scheduling & operations Keep the site schedule and inform crews and customers Schedule updated from signed quotes, visit confirmations sent to customers, the day’s address and instructions sent to crews, alerts when something slips. | 20 changes / week | 6 min | 50 % | 1.0 h |
| Documents & admin Process supplier invoices and subcontractor documents Supplier invoices read and matched to orders and jobs; subcontractor insurance and compliance certificates collected, tracked and chased before they expire. | 25 documents / week | 3 min | 70 % | 0.9 h |
| Estimated total · ≈ 384 h a year | 8.2 h | |||
By type of automation
The estimated hours are spread across these automations, each explained on its own page.
- 1.9 h / week Customer messages & requests Sort and qualify quote requests Follow up unsigned quotes Explore
- 5.3 h / week Documents & admin Draft quotes from site-visit notes Prepare progress and final invoices Chase unpaid invoices Process supplier invoices and subcontractor documents Explore
- 1.0 h / week Scheduling & operations Keep the site schedule and inform crews and customers Explore
End-to-end example
Example: from quote request to scheduled job
A typical scenario to show how it fits together: each step triggers on its own, your team approves what needs approving and can take over at any time.
Human in the loop: approvals, escalations and a log of every action.
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Qualified request
A request arrives via your website or email: the prospect immediately gets the useful questions (photos, area, timing) and a choice of site-visit slots.
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Quote drafted
After the visit, your notes and photos pre-fill the quote in your software with your standard items and prices; you review, adjust and send.
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Follow-up and signature
If there is no reply, the customer is followed up automatically; they sign online and the deposit invoice goes out straight away.
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Job scheduled
The signed quote creates the job on the schedule, notifies the crew and confirms the date with the customer; any change triggers a fresh update.
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Billing on track
Progress claims, retention and final invoices are prepared at each stage; unpaid invoices are chased and escalated to the owner if they drag on.
Calculator
What about your business?
The example’s tasks and volumes are pre-filled. Replace them with your own and the result updates instantly.
Average fully loaded cost of one hour of work for the team involved (€35/h by default).
Your estimate
Construction & trades
Hours back per week
8.2 h / week
- Hours back per year
- 384 h / year
- Equivalent staff cost per year
- €13,448 / year
- tasks included
- 7 / 7
Split by type of automation
- Documents & admin 5.3 h
- Scheduling & operations 1.0 h
- Custom business tools 0.0 h
Indicative estimate, based on the assumptions above. No guaranteed results.
Example: an 8-person renovation company
Illustrative scenario, not a real client: an 8-person renovation company (the owner, an office administrator, a site lead and five tradespeople). With the cautious assumptions above — 15 quote requests, 8 quotes, 10 quote follow-ups, 8 invoices or progress claims, 6 payment reminders, 20 schedule changes and 25 supplier documents per week — the indicative estimate is about 8.2 hours saved per week, or roughly 385 hours a year (47 working weeks). Most of the gain comes from quotes and chasers; real figures depend on your tools and how you work.
- Example size
- 8 people, including 1 office administrator
- per week
- 8.2 h
- per year (47 weeks)
- 384 h
- of staff time at €35/h
- €13,448
Integrations
Plugged into your tools.
We connect automations to the software you already use, through APIs, webhooks or exports. No forced migration.
Common tools in this industry that we can connect to: these are not client references. Don’t see yours? We check compatibility during the assessment.
- Obat
- Tolteck
- EBP
- Sage
- QuickBooks
- Xero
- Tradify
- Pennylane
- Yousign
- Google Calendar
Why automate construction admin now
On a construction business, admin is invisible on site but it decides a lot: a quote sent in two days rather than two weeks, a progress claim issued on time, a subcontractor whose insurance has not quietly lapsed. It is also the work that piles up in the evenings and at weekends, usually on the owner. Automation does not replace the site survey or the craft; it removes the re-keying, the chasing and the coordination messages that come back every single week.
Rules the automation has to respect
- Mandatory wording on quotes and invoices: depending on the country, this covers insurance details (in France, the ten-year liability insurer and territorial cover must appear on quotes and invoices), reduced VAT rates and their conditions, payment terms. Our templates reuse your wording; you remain responsible for its accuracy.
- Subcontracting: compliance certificates to collect and renew, reverse-charge VAT between construction firms where it applies, subcontractor declarations on public contracts.
- Long jobs and contracts: progress claims, retention (capped at 5% in France), final accounts, and public-sector invoices submitted through government portals such as Chorus Pro in France.
- E-invoicing: structured e-invoicing is being rolled out across the EU. In France, every VAT-registered business must be able to receive e-invoices since 1 September 2026, and small and mid-sized firms must issue them from 1 September 2027.
What automates well… and what stays with you
Automates well: answering incoming enquiries and booking site visits, drafting quotes from libraries of standard items, chasers (quotes, deposits, unpaid invoices), keeping the schedule up to date and informing crews and customers, reading supplier invoices and tracking subcontractor paperwork.
Stays with you: final pricing, technical choices, handover and snagging, commercial decisions and any delicate conversation with an unhappy customer. The automation prepares and flags; it does not decide.
Our principles, on site and in the office
- Nothing goes out without approval when a price, a date or a commitment is at stake.
- Crews keep their tools: text, WhatsApp, photos. No new app to learn on site.
- Everything is logged: who was chased, when and with which document, so a job’s history is easy to retrieve in a dispute.
- You own the automations and the data, connected to the software you already use.
Where to start
Usually with quote follow-ups and unpaid-invoice chasers: quick to set up, easy to measure and straight into cash flow. The calculator below uses the assumptions on this page; adjust the volumes to your business for your own indicative estimate, then book a free assessment so we can check it together.
FAQ
Your questions, answered.
What professionals in this industry ask us most often before getting started.
How much does it cost to automate a construction firm’s admin?
Does it work with my quoting and invoicing software?
Will the AI price my jobs for me?
Do my crews have to change how they work?
How do you handle subcontractor compliance documents?
Is my customers' data protected?
Free assessment · 30 minutes
Your 8.2 estimated hours, checked in 30 minutes.
We review your tasks, your real volumes and your tools, then quantify what you can actually get back. You leave with a clear roadmap, whether or not you work with us.
Reply within one business day · No commitment