Tilers rarely work alone on site: the plasterer goes before them, the plumber comes after, and the general contractor sits over the whole schedule. This scheduled, sequential trade has its own rules, and paper filing isn’t built for it.
The m2 costing: small in price, big in effect
Tiling is quoted in square metres, and half a franc per m2 decides whether you win the job or make a margin. All the more reason for the quote to keep line items clean and separate: surface preparation, waterproofing, tiles by format (large format costs differently than 20x20), grouting, silicone, cut edges, transport to and from site. If you know your real m2 output from job costing (how many m2 does the team really manage per day for which format), you quote sharply instead of by gut feel. The hourly rate calculator gives you the base, and logged project hours do the rest.
For tilers, time-and-materials work is almost always about the substrate
The classic dispute: the substrate was worse than assumed, it needed levelling compound and an extra day. Without proof, you pay for that yourself. With a photo of the substrate, logged time-and-materials hours and a short written approval from the site manager, it’s an undisputed variation item. This is exactly what phone-based logging and project photos are built for; the exclusions for this belong in the quote from the start.
As a subcontractor: protecting yourself is part of the job
If you work for general contractors, you know the chain: the general contractor pays once the client pays, and if the general contractor goes under, you’re left holding open invoices. Three habits protect you:
- Progress invoices by stage instead of one big final invoice, see advance payments.
- Monitor open invoices by age and send payment reminders consistently the moment things start slipping.
- Keep the statutory building contractor’s lien deadline on your calendar: the four-month deadline from completion of your work is your insurance against the general contractor going bankrupt. Note the completion date per property; digitally, that happens automatically.
Many small sites, one overview
Twenty parallel properties means knowing twenty times over: what’s quoted, what’s underway, what’s ready for handover, what’s been invoiced? A project list with status replaces your head as the database. In MeisterOffice, the quote, the hours, the photos and the invoices all hang off each property; the tiler page shows the workflow.
Does it pay off?
A two-person business that gets one substrate variation item approved per month, one that used to fall victim to disputes, and whose final invoices go out a week earlier, has the cost of the software covered many times over. The real value is the protection it gives you: the first time a general contractor goes bankrupt, clean paperwork pays off in real money.