Admin done. Home by five.
How many hours do you spend at night on quotes, estimates, invoicing, chasing payments? What if that was done for you?
DoneBy5 writes your estimates, your customer emails and your invoice chases. You read them and hit send. It never messages a customer on its own.
Built by a working electrician. Runs a real firm today.
The mission
Why we built this
Think about this honestly. How many hours do you spend at night on quotes, estimates, invoicing, researching? How many evenings has the laptop been open on the kitchen table at half nine? How many Sundays have you spent chasing a payment that should have been chased on Friday?
Around five to seven hours a week, for most trades. A full working day, unpaid, on personal time, every week.
What if that was done for you?
Not handed to someone else to pay for. Not left to pile up until the weekend. Done. By five. So the evening is yours.
The football match. A pint at the pub. Reading your child a bedtime story. The specific thing you missed last Tuesday while you were typing up a quote.
That is the whole idea. Admin done by five. The evening is yours.
The promise
Nothing goes out without you
DoneBy5 drafts. You send.
This is the part that matters most, so here it is plainly. Every estimate, every email, every invoice chase sits and waits for you to read it. You change whatever you want. Then you press send, in your own name, under your own brand. Your customers never see DoneBy5 and never know it was involved.
It is a colleague who does the typing, not a robot that takes over. If that sounds obvious, it is not: plenty of tools in this space will fire things off at your customers automatically. We think that is the wrong way round. The last word is always yours.
How it works
How it works
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It listens
A customer enquiry lands in your email or WhatsApp. DoneBy5 reads it and sets up the job for you, with the details already filled in.
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It drafts
It writes the first reply, then the estimate, priced from your own rates, your own materials, your own way of working. Not a number it made up. Your numbers.
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You send
You open the draft, change anything you like, and send it yourself. Booking links, confirmations, the lot, all ready for you, all under your name.
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It chases
When the job is done and the invoice is out, it keeps an eye on who has not paid and drafts the friendly nudge. You decide when it goes.
The whole thread, from first enquiry to final payment, handled in one place. You are in the loop at every step and you are always the one who hits send.
What it does
What DoneBy5 drafts for you
- First replies to new enquiries, so nobody waits two days for an answer.
- Estimates, priced from your rates and your materials, with the certificate built in, not bolted on after.
- Booking messages and confirmations, so the diary fills itself in.
- Invoice chases, the polite kind, for the money you are owed.
- The follow-up after the job, the check-in and the review ask.
All written for you. All sent by you.
Pricing
One price. No lock-in.
A pound a day.
£30 a month
Less than the coffee you grab on the way to the first job.
- Every feature, however many jobs you run through it.
- No per-user charges, no surprise add-ons.
- No annual contract. Cancel any month you like.
For comparison, a part-time bookkeeper starts around £100 to £150 a month. DoneBy5 does the typing for less than a pound a day, and it never goes home.
Founding members
Be one of the first
We are opening DoneBy5 to a small group of trades first, before it goes wider. Founding members get it at a held rate for being early, a direct line to shape what gets built next, and the price locked while they stay.
Held rate, figure confirmed on enquiryWhere it came from
Built by a trade, not a tech firm
DoneBy5 did not come out of a startup whiteboard. It came out of a working electrical firm in York, Bright Sparks of York, that got tired of losing its evenings to paperwork and built a way out.
The firm runs on it today. Every estimate, every booking, every chase goes through the same system you would. It was built by someone who knows how a job is actually priced, certified, invoiced and chased, because he does it every week.
That is the difference. DoneBy5 was not designed for trades. It was designed by one.
Questions
Questions
Does it send things to my customers automatically?
No. DoneBy5 drafts everything and waits. You read it, change it if you want, and send it yourself. It never messages a customer on its own.
Will my customers know I am using it?
No. Everything goes out in your name, under your brand, from your email. DoneBy5 stays behind the scenes. Your customers see you, the same as always.
What if a draft is wrong?
You change it or bin it before it goes anywhere. A draft is just a starting point. Nothing is sent until you send it.
Do I need to be good with computers?
No. If you can use WhatsApp and your email, you can use this. Setup takes about twenty minutes and we will walk you through it.
What does it cost?
A pound a day, £30 a month. One price, no per-user fees, no contract, cancel any month. Founding members get a held rate for joining early.
Which trades is it for?
Any trade that quotes, books and invoices. Electricians, plumbers, gas engineers, joiners, heating and ventilation. If the paperwork is eating your evenings, it is for you.
Do I have to drop the software I already use?
No. DoneBy5 works alongside your accounts software. If you use Xero you can connect it; if you do not, that is fine too.
Is my data safe?
Your business is yours. Your customer details are kept separate from every other firm's and are never used to train anything. We are putting the formal data-protection paperwork in place before we take on a single member.
Is there an app?
Yes. There is an app for when you are out on the job, and the back office runs on your phone or your computer at the desk.
Can I cancel?
Any month. No notice period, no exit fee. If it is not saving you time, you should not be paying for it.
The ask
Get your evenings back
DoneBy5 is opening to a first group of founding members. If you are a trade who is sick of the paperwork eating your nights and weekends, send us a line and we will be in touch.
No lists, no spam. There is no form here and nothing is stored. You email us, we reply.