Plastering and rendering software for quoting, coats and GST invoicing

Plastering and rendering businesses in Australia run on a paperwork problem that is easy to underestimate. You are measuring walls and ceilings and writing quotes on a notepad, texting flushed-joint photos to builders, and then spending your evenings trying to match Xero invoices against deposits from three different fitouts. Many plasterers pay from $37/mo for Xero and from $48/mo per user for a job app like Tradify or Jobber, and still end up with a ute full of plaster-supplier dockets and Bunnings receipts that never get logged against the right job. The result: you do not know how profitable a fitout was until your accountant tells you months later, if they can even untangle which docket went with which house.

OneBookPlus gives you one app for your whole plastering business. Build itemised quotes on your phone, board-and-set and render priced by the square metre, cornice by the lineal metre, plus sheets, compound, beads and render products all itemised with GST calculated automatically. When the customer or builder accepts via the quote link, the job drops straight onto your calendar. Set the walls, log the compound and cornice, snap flushed-joint and finished-render photos, and convert the quote to a GST invoice with one tap, or raise a progress claim against the next stage on a whole-house fitout. Log every supplier cost against the job so you can see the true margin on each set. No more guessing, no more double-entry, no more Sunday night sorting dockets.

Quoting per m² and per lineal metre

The thing generic job apps get wrong for plasterers is how you price. A fitout is a mix of measures in one quote: walls and ceilings by the square metre (board-and-set, cement render, acrylic render, texture, square-set or straight-set finish), cornice by the lineal metre, and one-off patch and crack repairs as fixed lines. OneBookPlus lets you build all of them into the same quote, alongside plasterboard sheets by the sheet, compound and stopping angles, beads and mesh, and render products by the bag or the m². The customer sees a clear, professional breakdown instead of a single lump sum, and accepts on their phone. The accepted quote becomes a live job with all those line items carried straight through to the invoice, so nothing gets re-keyed or forgotten. If you are sanity-checking a rate before you send it, the free tradie quote calculator works the labour, materials and GST back out of a finished price.

Levels of finish, and why the quote should name one

AS/NZS 2589, the Australian and New Zealand standard for gypsum linings cited at the foot of this page, is the reference the industry uses for how a board-and-set job is applied and finished. The part that matters commercially is that it describes levels of finish, and the level a job is set to changes how many coats you apply, how much sanding the crew does and how the wall behaves under critical lighting. A hallway that will be painted in a flat colour and a feature wall raked by a north-facing window are not the same job, even when the square metres match. Write the level into the quote as its own line rather than burying it in the rate, so the builder or homeowner is agreeing to a specification and not just a price. In OneBookPlus the line sits on the accepted quote, carries through to the job and appears on the invoice, so if a nail pop or a hairline crack turns into a phone call six months later, the standard you set to is on the record and not in your memory. Where a client later asks for a higher level, log it as a variation with its own price instead of absorbing the extra coats.

Multi-coat scheduling

Plastering is a staged job that cannot be rushed. You hang the board, set and flush the joints, then sand back once it is dry, and render runs through a scratch coat, a float coat and a finish coat with curing time between each. The week view shows every job and every crew member at a glance. Lay out the stages, block the drying time so no-one turns up to sand a green wall, and assign the crew. If a job slips or the weather turns on an outdoor render, drag it to a new day and the customer and crew reminders update automatically. For plasterers subbing to builders, you can see at a glance which houses are boarded and ready to set versus which are still waiting on the chippies.

Progress claims, variations and cash flow

A whole-house board-and-set or a rendered façade rarely pays in one invoice at the end. They run on progress claims against agreed stages, deposit, board hung, set and flushed, cornice on, final sand, and waiting until the whole job is done to bill it is what strangles a plasterer's cash flow. OneBookPlus lets you raise each stage as its own GST invoice that draws down the contract value, with the balance owing always clear on the job. See the progress claims feature overview for how a schedule of stages is set up. When the builder adds an extra room or the customer upgrades to a square-set finish, log the variation against the job the moment it is agreed so nothing gets done for free and forgotten by claim time. Automated reminders chase any claim that goes overdue, so the money keeps moving while the job is still on the walls.

Subbing to builders, and getting paid on their cycle

Most plastering work comes through a builder rather than a homeowner, and that changes the paperwork more than the plastering. The builder pays on their own claim cycle, so your stages need to line up with the ones they recognise, and a claim that arrives after their cut-off waits a whole month for the next run. Set your progress-claim stages to match the head contract before the first sheet goes up, and keep the variation trail in writing rather than in a group chat, because the extra bedroom nobody priced is the argument that turns up at the final claim. Quote your ABN on every claim so no-ABN withholding never comes into it, keep the builder as one contact with every past house under it, and let the reminders do the follow-up so you are not the plasterer who rings about money. If you want to see how the other side of the same job runs, the builders page covers the head-contract view, and the markup and margin calculator is worth a minute before you agree to a rate for a whole estate.

Invoicing, GST and BAS

Every invoice and progress claim carries your ABN and calculates 10% GST on labour, board, compound and render products, meeting ATO tax-invoice requirements without you doing the maths. Customers pay online by card through Stripe or by bank transfer via BECS direct debit, straight from the invoice link. Where your work type and contract value require a building or trade contractor licence in your state or territory, show that number on the quote and invoice too. Customer and builder payments made through the invoice link clear the invoice on their own, and supplier costs (plaster supplier, render products, fuel) land in the right accounts as you enter or import them. There is no live bank feed at the moment, so anything paid outside the link is imported from a statement. Come BAS time, your GST summary is already prepared: GST collected on invoices, GST credits on purchases, and the net owing. Export it in one click, and use the free GST calculator when you want to split a quoted price by hand. This is general information about how the software works, not tax advice, so confirm your specifics with your accountant or the ATO.

Estimating and plan takeoffs (Builder Suite)

If you tender bigger fitouts and rendered façades off plans, add the optional Builder Suite estimating add-on ($99/mo on top of any core plan). Keep your plasterboard, cornice, compound, render and labour rates in one cost catalogue, build reusable board-and-set and render recipes that price a room or a house per m² in one click, and upload a plan to have AI read the wall, ceiling and cornice areas into a review queue you check line by line. It drafts the estimate; you review and adjust every line before it goes out. The core plans already cover quoting, scheduling, progress claims, variations and invoicing, and Builder Suite is there when you want the full estimating toolkit on top. Our guide to estimating software for Australian trades sets out what to look for in any tool that claims to take off and price from a plan.

Getting started

Sign up free, no credit card, no lock-in contract. Choose “Plastering & Rendering” as your business type and OneBookPlus pre-configures plastering service categories, typical job types (board-and-set, cornice, cement render, acrylic render, texture coat, patch repair) and invoice templates. Import your customer and builder list via CSV from Tradify, Jobber, or a spreadsheet, set your per-m² and per-lineal-metre rates and progress-claim stages, and set your invoice branding and numbering. You can send your first quote the day you sign up. Switching from a job app plus Xero is designed to fit in a single evening.