Painting business software for Australian painters

How a painting job runs in Karya Falak

Most painting work follows the same path: an enquiry, a look at the site, a quote, a deposit, a few days of prep and coats, a walk-through, then the invoice. Karya Falak puts that path on a board you can read at a glance, with columns you name yourself.

• New enquiry: a message from your website form or email lands in one shared inbox and becomes a card. WhatsApp and SMS messages land in the same inbox.
• Quoted: the quote goes out as a link, and the card moves when the customer accepts.
• Booked: the job sits on the Calendar with the painters who are going.
• In progress: photos, notes and colour details build up on the card as the crew works.
• Invoiced and Paid: the accepted quote becomes the tax invoice, and the card shows when it is paid.

Quotes for repaints, new work and touch-ups

Painters price in different ways: per square metre of wall, per room, per door or window, or one price for the whole house. Put your rates in the price book once, with your cost and margin, and they come up as you type a quote line. A kit groups several lines, so “Bedroom repaint: walls, ceiling, skirting, door” goes in with one pick.

On the quote page the customer sees your logo and colours, ticks the optional extras they want, such as ceilings, a feature wall or the front fence, and signs with a finger. If they want something changed, they ask on the same page and you send a revision instead of starting again. Add a markup on the cost of paint and materials, and the customer sees only your price.

When they accept, a deposit invoice can go out straight away, as a percentage or a fixed amount, so the paint is covered before you open a tin. If the job counts as residential building work in your state, a legal cap on deposits may apply, so check it first. More on quotes, or start from the free painter quote template.

Colours, sheen and coats, recorded once

The wrong colour on a wall costs a day. Add your own fields to the job, such as paint brand, colour name and code, sheen and number of coats, and make them required before a job can be marked done. Whoever goes back for touch-ups next year finds the answer on the card.

A job form keeps prep the same across the crew. Build it once from ticks, text, numbers, yes or no answers, choices, dates and photos, and set it to attach by itself to the jobs it applies to, by board or by job type. Useful questions for painters:

• Surfaces washed, sanded and filled
• Furniture covered and floors protected
• Older home checked for lead paint before sanding
• Photo of each room before and after
• Leftover paint labelled and left with the customer

Booking the crew, and moving it when it rains

Exterior work moves with the weather. The Calendar shows every painter by week or by day, and a visit drags to another day or another person. A booking can run over several days, up to two weeks, so a full exterior repaint is one booking, not ten.

Before you book, Karya Falak warns you if someone is on leave, already busy, or it is a public holiday in your state. Leave is asked for and approved in the same place. More on scheduling.

On site with the Field app

Each painter sees only their own jobs in the Field app: the address with a Navigate button, access notes like where the key is or that the dog stays inside, the job form, and notes from the office. It works with no signal, which helps in new estates and basements, and the visit can finish with photos and the customer’s signature. The Field app runs on iPhone and Android.

Arrived and left times on each visit can become labour lines on the invoice, so nobody is guessing hours on a Friday afternoon.

Which jobs actually made money

Paint, tape, plastic and scaffold hire add up. Photograph each receipt as an expense against the job, set each painter’s hourly cost, and job costing shows the profit on every job. Expenses you pass on can go straight onto the invoice. A profitability report with a CSV export shows which kinds of work are worth chasing. These are management figures for you; they are not sent to your accounting software.

Invoices, GST and getting paid

The invoice is an Australian tax invoice when you are registered for GST, with your ABN checked and printed in the ATO’s format and GST worked out to the cent. PayID and bank details print on it, with an optional payment slip at the foot, and you mark those payments paid when they arrive. The final invoice takes off the deposit already paid.

Online payment by card, PayTo or direct debit runs through your own Stripe account, and the invoice then carries a QR code that opens the pay link. Invoices, customers and payments sync with Xero or QuickBooks, and overdue reminders go out by themselves once you switch them on. Read what a tax invoice needs in Australia or how to get paid faster.

What it costs, and what it does not do

Karya Falak does not measure rooms from photos, show colour previews or order paint from your supplier. It runs the jobs, the crew and the money around them. Full details are on pricing.