Software for Your Business — Bought, Not Rented
krafteq Handwerk as standard software for trades businesses with 5 to 50 employees — and a fixed-price project where a standard product does not reach far enough
You have been paying a monthly fee for years for software that cannot be changed for your business. krafteq Handwerk takes the other route: standard software for trades businesses with 5 to 50 employees, bought once instead of rented monthly, with a dedicated installation for your business. Whatever does not fit in the first months, we fine-tune. And if your requirement goes beyond the product, we build at a fixed price — with a paid analysis phase up front so the price is known before the work starts. Based in Leverkusen, serving businesses across Germany. We are currently rolling krafteq Handwerk 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.
Standard software, a dedicated installation per business, fine-tuning after go-live included. Billed per business, not per head.
When This FitsDo You Recognise Yourself?
This is written for owners and managers of trades businesses with 5 to 50 employees. Subscription software is not bad software. The rent simply never ends, the price hangs on plan tiers and seats, and in standardised cloud operation serving many customers, changes for a single business are typically narrower. Those are the points where we work differently.
The bill grows with every seat
Office licence, field seat, time tracking, an interface to your tax advisor — every building block keeps costing monthly, and the price-increase email arrives anyway. With us you buy the right of use once, and billing is per business rather than per head. The software does not get more expensive when you hire.
The system fits, but your business works differently
Standard software covers what runs the same way in every business. The rest is your business: your own terms, your own sequences, your own print layouts. That is what the fine-tuning after go-live is for — whatever does not fit gets adjusted, rather than deferred to the next release.
You want your own installation, not a shared system
Your own database, your own domain, your own configuration — not an account on a system shared by every customer. Your data belongs to you, export is available at any time, and on request the whole thing runs inside your own network without an internet connection.
E-invoicing is coming your way
The phased mandatory e-invoicing requirement demands structured invoice data such as XRechnung or ZUGFeRD. Both are part of the product, as is the DATEV export with the document package for your tax advisor. The books are still kept by your tax advisor — the system is not an accounting package.
Spreadsheets, email, and WhatsApp are no longer enough
Enquiries by email, customer data in a spreadsheet, invoices in a third tool. In the evening someone types up what was written on paper during the day. One system, one set of data — from the enquiry through to the export to your tax advisor.
You do not want a project, you want a solution
You do not have to be able to describe up front what you need. You start with a system that already reflects the day-to-day of a trades business — and we see in live operation where it does not fit yours.
Sources for the vendor statements on this page (regular prices, net, as of Aug 2026): plancraft — pricing page, ToolTime — pricing page, HERO — pricing page
Try it with your own data
You get your test instance of krafteq Handwerk — set up for your trade and ready for your own data. A short request is enough, no sales call needed. Afterwards you receive an individual written offer; we set up your business together with you. For trade businesses. Not a trade business? Then write to us via the contact form.
- No subscription
- No sales call
- No obligation
The ModelYou buy the software. You rent the operation — or run it yourself.
The purchase price and the running operation are two separate things, and they stay separate. The concrete terms go into your quote rather than onto this page — they depend on your business.
Fixed-price perpetual licence, one-off
You buy an unlimited right to use the software as delivered. Paid once, no monthly licence fee, no minimum term, no auto-renewal to overlook. Bought is bought.
Per business, not per head
We bill neither per user nor per workstation. Seats for the site are therefore included — and the software does not get more expensive as your business grows.
Your own installation
Your own database, your own domain, your own configuration. Not a shared system in which changes for a single business are typically more limited. Data export at any time.
Operation your way
Operation at krafteq as an annual service, self-operation on your server or at your IT provider, or fully offline inside your own network. With self-operation the security updates are yours to run — we say so up front rather than playing it down.
Fine-tuning after go-live included
Whatever does not fit your business in the first months, we fine-tune. First without development: switch off areas you do not use, rename sequences and statuses to your own terms, set number ranges, tax rates, and print layouts. Where that is not enough, we develop. Scope and duration are set out in your quote.
All updates in the first year are included
Every update and security update in the first year is covered by the purchase price. After that, updates run through maintenance — and without maintenance your version simply keeps running. The right of use never expires.
ProcessFrom enquiry to a running installation
Four steps, and you can stop after any of them. You see the software before you talk about a price.
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Enquiry and test instance
You briefly describe your business in the form: trade, number of employees, the programs you use today. You then get your test instance of krafteq Handwerk — set up for your trade and ready for your own data. No sales call, no obligation — we get back to you within one working day as a rule with one or two quick questions about your business.
You see the running system with your own data instead of watching a presentation.
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Conversation and quote
We go through what runs differently in your business than in the standard, and which of it is configuration and which is development. That becomes your individual written offer: fixed-price perpetual licence, the operating model you choose, the scope and duration of the fine-tuning. We set up your business together with you. Honest also when the answer is that a different program suits you better.
A quote with fixed terms — rather than a price that depends on your headcount.
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Setup and go-live
Your installation is set up — at krafteq, on your server, or inside your own network. It arrives with the terms, units, and templates of your trade, not as an empty system you have to configure yourself. At go-live we walk through the system with your team.
A configured system in which your team recognises its own way of working.
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Fine-tuning and operation
Live operation shows what still does not fit, and we adjust it within the agreed scope. What is useful for every business goes into the product and reaches you with the next update. What applies only to your business gets its own quote. Running the installation is either ours or yours.
An installation that fits your business — without you having had to write a requirements list first.
The ScopeWhat krafteq Handwerk covers
A job runs through end to end: enquiry, quote, costing, scheduling, site documentation, time tracking, e-invoice, export to the tax advisor. No retyping between a quoting tool, a spreadsheet, and the books.
Selling
Contacts, enquiries, and quotes with hierarchical line items, catalogue and supplier prices via Datanorm, costing with a real markup structure, GAEB tender import.
Delivering
Jobs and projects with your own statuses, crew scheduling, a mobile day view for the site, time tracking, measurements, defects, and site diary.
Invoicing
Interim, final, and recurring invoices, ZUGFeRD and XRechnung, open items, dunning, payment matching against the bank statement via CAMT.053.
Booking
Documents with email intake, a cash book following German rules, DATEV export with the document package for your tax advisor.
Office and site see different things
The office sees the full scope. The site sees a lean subset: day view, measurements, hours, documents. That cut is enforced on the server, not merely hidden in the menu.
Your data and your access
Sign-in with email and password, with a second factor on request, plus a complete audit trail. Your data sits in your own database and can be exported at any time. Operation in Germany, inside your own network, or entirely without an internet connection.
Honest limits
No accounting — the system produces entries, documents, and exports; the books are kept by your tax advisor. No stock, no purchasing, no payroll, and no portal for your customers. Whatever is missing, we say so beforehand.
A point of contact in Leverkusen
krafteq is based in Leverkusen, NRW — direct owner contact rather than a call centre. On-site meetings are possible; fully remote works equally well.
When the product is not enoughLarger business, or a need outside the product? Then we build — at a fixed price.
krafteq Handwerk covers trades businesses with 5 to 50 employees. Anyone above that, or with a requirement that sits outside the product, does not get a bigger product package but a project: built bespoke, in house, at a fixed price. Checking in that order is still right — with configuration and fine-tuning the product carries further than most expect, and it is considerably cheaper.
The first conversation is free: together we decide whether the product carries or a project is needed.
Then a short, paid analysis phase at a fixed price. The result is a written scope and a fixed-price quote for the build. Without that phase a project cannot be priced honestly — the alternative would be billing by the hour.
You buy something small first and can stop afterwards. The written scope is yours to keep and can be used elsewhere.
The build runs at a fixed price per milestone, in house. Then fine-tuning, then operation at krafteq or with you.
On source code the opposite of the product applies here: what we build for everyone stays our product, and what we build exclusively for you can be handed over in full — bespoke work has no reuse value for us.
Where it fits technically, a project does not start from a blank page but on top of the existing product. That lowers both risk and price considerably.
Software for Your Business — Bought, Not Rented — let's talk about it
Let us discuss how we can support your team.
“Bespoke projects in the trades rarely fail on engineering. They fail because a business of five people has nobody who can write down in advance what it needs. So we sell standard software and fine-tune it — and build bespoke only where a product does not reach far enough.”
FAQFrequently Asked Questions
Not a trades business? For mid-market companies we build at a fixed price.
Where a standard product does not reach far enough — a sprawling tool landscape, a legacy system at the end of its life, a process no standard software reflects — we build bespoke, in house, at a fixed price. The way in is the free first conversation and the analysis phase.
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