Invoicing software for painters: interim payments, final invoice and e-invoicing in one system
Sunday morning, the business is quiet, and the invoice backlog is finally supposed to go. Three interim payments for the facade job to dig out of the bank statement, the amounts paid to deduct in the final invoice, and the invoice to the property manager really ought to be an XRechnung. krafteq Handwerk is an invoicing program for painting businesses that already knows the record: quote, measurement, interim payments and final invoice all hang on the same job, XRechnung and ZUGFeRD are built in, and the DATEV export goes to your tax advisor along with the receipt package. Bought once instead of rented monthly, in a dedicated installation for your 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.
Number ranges, tax rates and print layouts are set to the form your clients already know from you.
Where you are nowWhere invoicing snags in a painting business
This page is for painting and decorating businesses with 5 to 50 employees looking for an invoicing program for the painting trade — owners and master craftsmen who want to invoice, not operate software. Six situations we hear most often:
The invoice backlog has been sitting there for weeks
Invoicing happens when nothing else can: Sundays, evenings, between two sites. Reviews of trades software describe the consequence again and again in different words — customers walk away because the business cannot keep up with quotes and invoices.
Digging interim payments out of the bank statement
Three interim payments came in on the facade job, one of them only half. Anyone assembling the amounts from memory and the bank statement will eventually forget one — or invoice a line item twice because it was already inside the second interim payment.
The property manager wants an XRechnung
Receiving structured invoices has been mandatory since 2025, and sending them becomes binding in stages from 2027 and 2028 respectively under the Wachstumschancengesetz. Anyone sending only PDFs gets the first invoice back — and does not know what to send instead.
E-invoicing is a detour of its own
In some programs the structured format is a special route with several clicks and a menu entry of its own. Writing an invoice then stops being a sequence and becomes an exercise in operating software — which is why it gets put off.
The tax advisor gets the shoebox
Writing invoices is one thing. After that someone has to sort receipts, keep the cash book and prepare everything for the practice — the office time that was supposed to be saved sits exactly there.
Every further seat costs extra at plancraft and HERO (as of Aug 2026)
With plancraft every further seat is charged separately, with HERO every further app licence — including for each new journeyman (as of Aug 2026).
FeaturesWhat the invoicing program covers in a painting business
Anyone searching for painter software for invoicing usually means exactly this chain: the quote becomes interim payments, the interim payments become a final invoice, and at the end everything goes to the tax advisor. In krafteq Handwerk that hangs on one record — no retyping between quoting tool, spreadsheet and bookkeeping.
Interim invoice by progress on site
The interim invoice is derived from the quote the system already knows — with the line items that are to be invoiced now. You derive it rather than writing it from scratch each time.
Final invoice with deduction of payments made
The final invoice lists the full scope of work and then deducts what has already been paid through the interim payments. The remaining balance is stated beneath it — precisely the arithmetic that most often goes wrong by hand.
XRechnung and ZUGFeRD
Structured invoice data is produced as XML per XRechnung and as a ZUGFeRD PDF, following the EN 16931 business terms — for private, commercial and public clients. Receive, send, and retain with immutable document states and traceable changes.
Receivables, dunning, payment matching
Which invoice is open, which is overdue, which is only partly paid. The bank statement comes in as CAMT.053 and is matched automatically against receivables — you chase by status, not by feel.
Recurring invoices
For maintenance repainting, property servicing and standing agreements you set up a series instead of retyping every cycle.
GoBD: cancellation instead of an eraser
A finalised invoice is not overwritten. You cancel and reissue — traceable, with a document for both records. That is not a detour but the condition for your number ranges standing up to an audit.
DATEV export including the receipt package
Posting proposals as DATEV CSV, plus summary lists and the receipt package as a ZIP, with a dispatch history. Receipts arrive through a dedicated mailbox, and the cash book follows German rules.
Your invoice format, as a setting
Number ranges, tax rates, payment terms and print layouts are settings, not a development project. The invoice then looks the way your clients know it from you.
And the honest limits
No bookkeeping — the system produces postings, receipts and the export, and your tax advisor does the posting. No general ledger, no balance sheet, no stock control, no payroll, no portal for your customers. Whatever is missing, we say so up front.
Run a real job through it
We set up your test instance, configured for the painting trade. You issue an interim invoice, deduct it in the final invoice, and see whether the invoice looks the way it should. Usually within three working days, without a sales call.
- No subscription
- No sales call
- No obligation
The modelWhy bought instead of rented monthly
An invoicing program is not a consumable. It stays with a painting business for years, and that is exactly why the model behind it decides more than the feature list.
One system instead of three
Quote in the spreadsheet, invoice in the word processor, receipts in a folder: at every handover the same figure is touched again. One body of data from enquiry to accounting export makes those transfers unnecessary.
No price-increase email
No monthly rent, no contract renewal you overlook, no feature that suddenly costs extra mid-contract. You buy a perpetual right of use.
Per business, not per head
We bill neither per user nor per workstation. The invoicing program does not get more expensive when you hire — the accounts for your crew are included.
Your own installation
Your own database, your own domain, your own configuration — no shared system with other businesses. Operated by krafteq on servers in Germany, self-operated on your server, or entirely inside your own network. Data export at any time.
And if something is missing?
Fine-tuning after go-live is included: whatever does not suit your invoicing in the first few months, we adjust. The scope is fixed in your offer beforehand.
ComparisonRent an invoicing program or buy the software
plancraft, ToolTime and HERO write invoices reliably, and so do TAIFUN and Bosch OfficeOn. The difference is not in the feature list but in how you are billed, what is left of your invoice data after a cancellation, and whether your business gets an installation of its own.
| krafteq Handwerk | plancraft / ToolTime / HERO | TAIFUN / Bosch OfficeOn | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing | per business, one-off | monthly per plan — plancraft from 59.90 euros, HERO from 69 euros, ToolTime from 79 euros (net, entry tier, as of Aug 2026) | TAIFUN: purchase according to the vendor page, price on request, modular · Bosch OfficeOn: subscription from 49.99 euros/month, 12-month term |
| Perpetual right of use | Yes — perpetual licence | ends with the subscription (plancraft, ToolTime and HERO list subscription models on their pricing pages) | TAIFUN: purchase according to the vendor page · Bosch OfficeOn: ends with the subscription |
| Adapting to your invoice format | Number ranges, tax rates and print layouts as a setting — plus fine-tuning after go-live | settings within the standard product; the vendor states the actual scope | settings within the standard product; the vendor states the actual scope |
Competitor price sources (regular prices, net, as of Aug 2026; promotions not included): plancraft price list, ToolTime price list, HERO price list, TAIFUN price page, Bosch OfficeOn price page — A comparison of models without figures: krafteq terms belong in the individual offer. The statements about the other vendors refer to their publicly described subscription model, not to individual plans.
OrientationIs an invoicing program enough — or does it take more?
Not every painting business needs the same thing. Four cases, and where they lead:
You write quotes and invoices, and the measurement sits in a spreadsheet anyway.
Then a pure invoicing program for painters and decorators is entirely sufficient — we say that openly. It only gets interesting once the same square metres are typed twice.
See the measurement software for paintersInterim payments, deductions and the e-invoicing mandate are the real questions.
A concise article on the rules behind this is coming shortly — and where your contract decides rather than your software, we name it here too.
Try it freeNot just the invoicing — the whole business should sit in one system.
Measurement, calculation, photo documentation, time tracking and invoicing on one record — with the terms and units of the painting trade.
Painter software for painting and decorating businessesThe open question is rent or buy.
Perpetual licence, your own installation, operations as you choose and fine-tuning after go-live — the model in detail, without figures on the page.
Buy trades software instead of renting itFAQCommon questions about the invoicing program
More than the invoice: the whole painting business in one system
Measurement, calculation, photo documentation, time tracking, defects and invoicing on one record — with the terms, units and templates of the painting trade, in a dedicated installation for your business.
See the painter software for painting and decorating businessesWould you rather talk first?
Book a 30 to 60 minute first call. You describe how you invoice today — interim payments, final invoices, e-invoicing, the handover to your tax advisor. We give you an honest assessment, even if the answer is that your current invoicing program is fine. No sales pitch, no obligation.
- No sales call
- No obligation
- 30–60 minutes