Quoting software for electrical businesses — Datanorm, GAEB and calculation in one system
The quote sits in the calculation spreadsheet, the material prices come from last autumn's list, and when the job comes in the same line item gets entered a second time — and a third by the time it reaches the invoice. krafteq Handwerk turns that around: you import your wholesaler's item and price data via Datanorm and tenders via GAEB, and calculation runs with a real markup structure per cost type. The calculated line item becomes the job and the invoice within the same body of data. Bought once instead of rented monthly, in a dedicated installation for your electrical business. krafteq Handwerk is standard software for trade businesses — not a project built for you from scratch. We are currently rolling it out with the first businesses: you test it free of charge, receive an individual offer afterwards, and we set up your business together with you.
The installation brings the catalogue categories, units and markup types of the electrical trade with it — not as an empty system.
Where you are nowWhen the quote gets written in a spreadsheet in the evening
We hear these five points from electrical businesses with 5 to 50 employees almost word for word, again and again — usually in this order:
The price list sits next to the spreadsheet
Look up the item number, copy the price, line by line — and with a variation the same thing starts over. The calculation spreadsheet can do everything, which is why it is still there. It only costs you in a place nobody notices: typing.
You calculate with yesterday's prices
The material price in the template is months old. Whether the margin in the quote still holds only shows up on the final invoice — if anyone checks at all.
The same line item, entered three times
Quote in the spreadsheet, job in the calendar, invoice in the word processor. Every transfer is an opportunity for a transposed digit, and three people in the office each do it slightly differently.
The tender is left lying there
The procurement office sends a bill of quantities as a GAEB file. Without a matching interface there are two options: retype it or decline. Declining is the quiet option — and the expensive one.
At plancraft and HERO, every further seat costs extra (as of Aug 2026)
plancraft charges every additional office seat separately, HERO every additional app licence (as of Aug 2026). Anyone needing a second account because the master craftsman will now also write quotes pays more every month there. krafteq Handwerk bills per business, not per user.
Competitor price sources (regular prices, net, as of Aug 2026; promotions not included): plancraft price list, ToolTime price list, HERO price list
Try it freeFeaturesQuoting software for electricians: what counts in daily work
No add-on module, no calculator on the side: catalogue, calculation, quote, job and invoice sit in one body of data — with the terms and units of the electrical trade.
Import and export the Datanorm catalogue
Item number, description, unit, price and discount group come into the system from your wholesaler's file — in and out. You import new price sets instead of adding them line by line. Your own items and your own services sit alongside them in the same catalogue.
Calculation with your markups
Material, labour and subcontracted work each carry their own markups per cost type instead of disappearing into one blanket factor: site overheads, general business costs, and risk and profit shown separately. That is German trades practice, not a calculator bolted on afterwards.
GAEB tenders and price sheets
Import bills of quantities as GAEB 90 (D81/D83/D84/D86), GAEB 2000 and GAEB DA XML (X81/X83/X84/X86), price them with your catalogue prices and return them as X84/X86, validated against the schema. VHB/EFB price sheets 221, 222 and 223 are produced as PDFs from the calculated line items.
From quote to job to invoice
Quotes with hierarchical line items — headings, sub-headings, line items instead of a flat list. The quote becomes the job with your own statuses, and the job becomes the invoice: interim, final and recurring invoices, receivables, dunning, payment matching via CAMT.053.
Enquiries that do not get lost
Every enquiry gets a follow-up date, an expected value and, if it comes to nothing, a loss reason. After six months you know why your quotes fail rather than guessing.
E-invoicing and tax advisor export
XRechnung as a structured data set and ZUGFeRD as a PDF are produced from the job. For the bookkeeping: DATEV export including the receipt package, with posting proposals and dispatch history.
Test it on a quote you wrote last week
We set up your test instance, configured for the electrical trade. Create the same record again — with your catalogue, your markups, your line-item structure. Usually within three working days, without a sales call.
- No subscription
- No sales call
- No obligation
LimitsWhat this quoting software does not do
Four points the market likes to hint at. We say them up front so they are not a surprise later:
No live price lookup at the wholesaler
Datanorm is a catalogue and price import, not a live connection to your wholesaler. krafteq Handwerk does not fetch same-day prices through an interface and does not check availability in a shop. You import the price set your supplier provides.
No stock control, no ordering
Catalogue, supplier terms and the document chain through to the invoice: yes. Stock levels, orders and goods receipt: deliberately no. A half-maintained stock module is worse than none — it produces figures nobody trusts.
No bookkeeping
The system produces postings, receipts and the export — your tax advisor does the posting. No general ledger, no balance sheet, no payroll.
No portal for your customers
Nobody outside your business gets an account. Your clients receive quotes, invoices and documents as a file by email — a decision, not a missing building block.
The modelThree reasons this can be aligned to your business
Subscription software runs as one system for all customers at once — your discount logic and your line-item structure have to fit into what was built for everyone. krafteq Handwerk runs differently.
A dedicated installation per business
Your own database, your own domain, your own configuration — no shared system. That is exactly why your job types, your statuses and your document templates can be changed at all. Areas your business never needs, you switch off; the data stays and the decision is reversible.
Per business, not per head
Billing is per business, not per user and not per workstation. Who writes quotes in the office and who records hours on site is therefore an organisational question — not a pricing one. Your data is yours, with export at any time.
Perpetual licence and fine-tuning
You buy a perpetual right of use to the software delivered, once rather than monthly. In the first year all updates and security updates are included; after that they run through maintenance — and without maintenance your version simply keeps running. Whatever does not suit your calculation in the first few months, we fine-tune; the scope is fixed in the offer.
Quotes are only one part — the full scope for electrical businesses
Inspections, PV and wallbox jobs, plans on the job, the site view, e-invoicing and the comparison against the subscription vendors are on the trade page.
See the software for electrical businessesRead onWhere next?
Depending on where things currently snag for you:
You want to know what a Datanorm import does technically and how a GAEB tender runs through.
A detailed article on both formats is coming shortly — and you can already test both on a real quote in your test instance.
Try it freeFor you it does not snag on the quote but on the recurring inspections.
Appointments per installation, questionnaires as the report scaffold, photos and evidence on the job — that is its own mechanic with its own page.
Managing inspection appointments in an electrical businessYou want to understand first how purchase, operation and maintenance fit together.
You buy the software and rent the operation — or take it over yourself. The commercial model is set out in full on one page.
Buy trades software instead of renting itFAQQuestions from quote writing
Would you rather talk about your calculation first?
Book a 30 to 60 minute first call. You describe how your quotes are produced today — catalogue, markups, tenders, variations — and get an honest assessment, even if it is that you do not need us for this. No sales pitch, no obligation.
- No sales call
- No obligation
- 30–60 minutes