Still quoting in Excel and chasing timesheets by text? Spreadsheets got you this far, but once the crew grows, they start costing you nights, weekends and margin. Here's the honest rundown.
Short story:If you're a one-person band doing a handful of small jobs, a spreadsheet can hold the line for a bit. Once you've got a crew and multi-stage jobs on the go, NextMinute pays for itself in the first week's admin alone.
Excel and Google Sheets are cracking tools, for accountants. They were never built to run construction jobs. Every quote is a fresh copy-paste job, every timesheet is a Sunday-night data entry session, and the version on your laptop never matches the one the office has open.
From the first quote to the final invoice, you run the whole job in NextMinute: book in the work, schedule the crew, track time, sort variations, raise POs, send progress claims, and watch your actual costs against estimate as the job runs.
No formulas to break, no "final_v7_ACTUAL.xlsx", and no re-keying anything into your accounting software. Perfect for residential builds, renos, landscaping, carpentry or any job where you need to know, right now, what's going on with your work and your team.
Here's the thing: spreadsheets don't really have one. The Excel and Sheets apps technically open on a phone, but nobody's scrolling 40 columns from site to log their hours, so your "live" sheet is always a week behind. NextMinute's app is built for the crew. They log time, tick off tasks and add photos and site notes, while whoever's running the show can quote, invoice, raise POs and shuffle the schedule from the ute.
The hours you spend copying numbers between sheets and Xero? Gone. Quotes from templates, timesheets from the field, invoices in a few clicks.
One dragged formula or stale rate in a quoting sheet can sink a job's margin. NextMinute keeps one price book and one source of truth.
Track actual vs estimate on framing, fit-out, whatever the stage, while the job runs. A spreadsheet only tells you after the damage is done.
Two-way sync means bills, invoices and timesheets flow through without you keying anything twice. Your bookkeeper will buy you a beer.
Timesheets, tasks, photos and site notes from their phones on iOS and Android. No more chasing hours by text on a Sunday night.
A Sydney-based team (Duncan, Ryan & Tarsha) who get tradie life. Setup, training and help for life. Try getting Excel on the phone.
Import your price books and use templates to save hours on quoting. Send to clients and get approval with one click.
Use your takeoff software or QS of choice, and quickly import takeoffs to NextMinute to start planning the job.
Easy-to-use Gantt chart for planning jobs. Assign jobs and tasks to crew to reduce confusion and get on with the job.
No more chasing timesheets or payroll errors. Talk-to-text notes, attach photos, and log time + expenses.
Your team can easily view plans on site. Ditch the paperwork and have less mistakes and confused tradies.
Crew can save photos to jobs so you have a leg to stand on and can keep the customer up-to-date.
Crew can easily log notes and photos against jobs and tasks to keep you & your client informed.
Manage your jobs from on-site or in the ute with ease. Plus, your crew can view jobs and tasks, and log time with ease.
With all your job costs in one system, you can easily send accurate progress or final invoices with a few clicks.
No more handshake agreements and client disputes. NextMinute makes managing and tracking variations a breeze.
Report on actuals vs estimates in real-time by job and stage. Spot blow outs early to protect your profit.
Set custom buy/sell rates for machinery and have your crew log the hours.
Easily add in job expenses to keep track of your actuals vs. estimates.
Easily send SMS, email, and in-app messages straight from NextMinute.
"The Reno Guys and Fervour Construction have been using NextMinute for over six years, and it continues to be the most flexible and user-friendly software we've ever come across! From managing leads and generating quotes to project management and invoicing, NextMinute handles it all seamlessly."
Alison Williams
The Reno Guys
Reviews
Rated 4.9/5 with 100+ reviews on Google and Facebook, with local Aussie support that actually helps.
Starting from AU$199/month for 3 users, and it’s easy to adjust as your team changes.
No limits - full access to all features on all plans
Unlimited projects & jobs
Flexible, month-to-month pricing based on your crew size
No lock-in contracts
Unlimited setup, training, and ongoing support for life
Dedicated help from our local crew: Duncan, Ryan & Tarsha.
Sydney-based support team who actually understand tradie life.
Straight answers to what Aussie builders and tradies ask us about switching.
Spreadsheets are a general tool you have to bend into shape, and someone has to maintain all those formulas and tabs. NextMinute is purpose-built for running trade jobs, so quoting, scheduling, timesheets, variations and invoicing are already wired together and talking to your accounting software. Nothing to build, nothing to break, and the whole crew can use it, not just whoever owns the spreadsheet.
The software is free, your time isn't. Between copying quotes, chasing timesheets, re-keying data into Xero and fixing broken formulas, spreadsheet admin quietly eats hours every week. At your charge-out rate, that's a lot more than NextMinute's monthly price. Most crews find the time saved on admin covers the subscription before the first week's out, and that's before it catches a single quoting error.
You can. Price books, client lists and job data can be brought across, and our team helps with the import as part of your one-on-one onboarding, so you're not starting from a blank page. If you'd rather see it done before you commit, book a 15-minute intro and we'll walk through your actual spreadsheets with you.
We rebuild them properly. Your rates and line items go into NextMinute price books and quote templates, so you get the same quotes out the other end, minus the copy-paste and the risk of a stale rate slipping through. You can add your logo to the quote PDF, and your T&Cs are included as standard.
That's the point of it. The crew logs time, ticks off tasks and adds photos and site notes straight from the mobile app on-site. You see it all live, and timesheets flow through to Xero or MYOB for payroll without you touching a keyboard on a Sunday night.
Easily. You can manage client variations on the fly and set up progress payments so you're not waiting until the end of a build to get cash flowing back into the business. Try doing that cleanly in a spreadsheet, with a paper trail the client can't argue with.
Better, and live. NextMinute reports actual costs against your estimate by job and by stage as the work happens, pulling in timesheets, supplier invoices and expenses automatically. A spreadsheet only knows what someone remembered to type in, and only after they typed it. By then the margin's already gone.
You keep your way of working, you just stop maintaining the machinery behind it. NextMinute is flexible where it counts: your own quote templates, price books, job stages, charge-out rates and cost reporting. The difference is the whole crew can use it without breaking anything, and it all syncs with your accounting software instead of living on one laptop.
It's easier than switching from most software, because there's nothing to untangle. We set you up one-on-one, import your data, connect Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks and train the crew. Most teams are running their first job in NextMinute within days. If you've got questions first, get in touch and have a yarn with the Sydney team.
Yep, 10 days, no credit card. Run a job in NextMinute alongside your spreadsheet for a week and see which one you'd rather open on Monday morning. We'll even set up a customised trial account with your jobs and quotes loaded, so you're comparing like for like, not staring at an empty screen.
Talk to a Real Person
Have a quick chat with our Sydney-based team. We’ll walk through how you run jobs and show you how NextMinute fits.
Anna-Kate
Sales Manager
From the land of Guinness, she’ll help you work out if NextMinute’s a good fit. Straight talk, no sales BS, and a good sense of humour.
Mat
Former Plumber & NextMinute Pro
Mat’s a plumber, not a software guy. He’s been on the tools and shows you how to run jobs without the admin headaches.
Tell us what you need
Let us know your requirements and how you run your jobs
No bullsh*t
Real humans with construction experience that you'll actually like talking to
Get a trial account
We'll set you up with a customised account to try out NextMinute. We can even import your jobs and quotes
Copyright © NextMinute Australia Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
.avif)
