Skilled Trades Digitalisation — Your Own Software Instead of a SaaS Subscription
Digitalise your trades business without a subscription — fixed price from €1,000.
Over 1 million skilled-trades businesses in Germany — and most still work with Excel, paper timesheets, and a drawer full of quotes. krafteq builds you your own business software that fits your business exactly: fixed price €1,000–2,000, Krafteq Cloud hosting €250 per year per software (year 1 included, optional), E-Invoicing and mobile use included. Delivery in under 4 weeks, free prototype in 5 business days — from Leverkusen for trades businesses across the Rhineland and throughout Germany.
Tier-1 trades — SHK (plumbing/heating/AC), Elektro (electrical), Maler (painters), Tischler (joiners/carpenters), Dachdecker (roofers). krafteq is based in Leverkusen — a personal point of contact, not a call centre. First response within 24 hours.
Pain PointsWhy digitalisation in the skilled trades has stalled for years
The figures are documented, not assumed. The industry association ZDH, the NRW Digitalisation Index by FHM, and analysis by Roland Zimmermann all describe the same situation: high demand, high barriers, and almost no suitable offerings for small businesses with 1 to 20 employees. These six pain points come up daily in our initial consultations — from SHK, Elektro, Maler, Tischler, and Dachdecker alike.
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96 per cent fear IT security and data protection issues
According to Roland Zimmermann's analysis, 96 per cent of trades businesses cite IT security and data protection concerns as a barrier to digitalisation. Sending customer data to a foreign US cloud creates both a gut-feeling problem and a GDPR problem. krafteq hosts on servers in Germany (EU fallback available), with a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) available as standard.
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73 per cent still rely on manual processes
Customer lists in Excel, quotes from a Word template, paper timesheets, invoices sent by email. 73 per cent of small businesses still rely on exactly these manual workflows — even though everyone in the business knows it could be done better. The problem is not the will, but the fact that no affordable software has ever fitted their exact processes.
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69 per cent regard investment costs as the greatest barrier
Traditional custom development costs €50,000–200,000; subscription software with all add-ons adds up to €9,000–18,000 over five years. For a business with eight employees, neither is an option. AI-assisted development at krafteq lowers the entry point to a fixed price of €1,000–2,000 — economically viable for a small business for the first time.
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The E-Invoicing requirement 2026 — an immediate prompt to act
The phased mandatory E-Invoicing requirement (XRechnung/ZUGFeRD mandate) is forcing trades businesses to act in 2026. Those without invoicing software need one. Those running an older solution need to check whether it actually produces the required format. krafteq builds E-Invoicing as standard into every job management and invoicing module — included in the fixed price.
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Spreadsheet chaos and isolated solutions
Customers in Outlook, jobs in Excel, timesheets via WhatsApp, quotes in Word, accounts in DATEV Unternehmen Online: every piece of information lives somewhere different. Duplicate data entry, typos, missed quote follow-ups. What you actually need is a system that reflects your reality — not ten tools that do not talk to each other.
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No in-house IT team — and no desire for one
You are a master tradesperson or business owner, not an IT manager. Running your own servers, setting up backups, securing data in line with GDPR, applying patches — none of that is your trade. Krafteq Cloud handles hosting, patches, backups, monitoring, and GDPR-compliant operation in full. You use it; we run it.
Our ApproachYour own software, prototype in one week
Your own software instead of a subscription — fixed price €1,000–2,000 versus €9,000–18,000 subscription-software total cost of ownership over five years. AI-assisted development makes this price point possible for the first time; krafteq passes that advantage directly to the trades business.
Free prototype in 5 business days — working software, not mockups or slide decks. You see your job management, your invoicing, your time tracking in action before you pay a single penny.
Local from Leverkusen, personally reachable — competitors are based in Hamburg, Berlin, and Hanover. krafteq meets you in the Rhineland in person, communicates in German, and writes contracts without small print. Your data stays in Germany; your code belongs to you from Sprint 1.
ProcessFrom first contact to live software
The journey from the enquiry form to software in productive use takes 5 to 9 weeks. You see a working prototype in 5 business days, know the fixed price before you place an order, and pay 50 per cent at the start and 50 per cent at go-live. No open consulting invoice, no sales pressure.
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Initial consultation and enquiry (Day 1)
You fill in the form on the free prototype page — your trade, number of employees, software currently in use, and the workflows you need. You will hear from us within 24 hours. In a phone call or an on-site meeting in Leverkusen, we clarify the scope and speak openly about what we can build — and what we cannot.
Within 24 hours you know whether and how krafteq can meet your requirements.
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Free prototype in 5 business days
krafteq builds a working prototype of your 1–2 core workflows. Live hosted on Krafteq Cloud, with a login for you and 1–2 further users, and realistic sample data suited to your trade. In a 30–45-minute walkthrough we show you everything and discuss the next version.
You see your own software in action — before any contract is signed.
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Fixed-price offer and v1 in under 4 weeks
After the walkthrough you receive a binding fixed-price offer of between €1,000 and €2,000, depending on scope. Development proceeds in 1–2-week sprints with demos; source code in the client repository from Sprint 1. Standard components such as login, roles, PDF export, and email dispatch are included. Data migration from Excel, CSV, or an existing SaaS solution is optional from €300.
Fixed price instead of hourly billing. The code belongs to you from the first paid sprint.
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Go-live, training, and ongoing operation
Your software goes live. Krafteq Cloud hosting starts from €250 per year per software — patches, backups, monitoring, Krafteq support, maintenance, and GDPR-compliant operation included. Optional extras: on-site training from €500 per day, DATEV or GAEB integration from €500 (one-off). Further development billed by effort or on a time budget. First response for tickets and bug reports within 24 hours.
You use it; krafteq runs it — no in-house IT team required.
FeaturesWhat your own trades business software will do
krafteq builds individually for each business — no suite with 200 features, 80 per cent of which go unused. These eight building blocks cover almost every trades workflow; from them we assemble your software, supplemented by the specific characteristics of your trade and your business.
Manage jobs and sites
From enquiry through quote to invoice in one system. Status overview per job, appointments and materials, assignment to team members. No copy-paste between email, Excel, and accounts.
Quotes and invoices with E-Invoicing
PDF quotes and invoices at the press of a button, with your logo and your templates. E-Invoicing in XRechnung or ZUGFeRD format — compliant with the 2026 mandate. Optional handover to DATEV or Lexoffice.
Mobile time tracking on site
Employees record hours and materials directly on site via their smartphone. Device-independent, works on iOS, Android, and in the browser — no native app installation required, though one is available optionally.
Customer file and communication history
A single source for contact details, job history, correspondence, and attachments. No more searching through Outlook folders and Excel spreadsheets. Notes per customer, automatic reminders for maintenance and follow-ups.
Mobile use — responsive from the browser
Works on any smartphone, tablet, and laptop without app installation. Optional native app for iOS and Android from €2,000 (one-off) if offline use or push notifications are critical.
Interfaces to DATEV, GAEB, DATANORM
Standardised connection to your accounts (DATEV, Lexoffice), construction standards (GAEB for tenders, DATANORM for material data). From €500 per interface (one-off) — provided the respective supplier offers an open API.
Roles, permissions, and GDPR-compliant architecture
Owner, master tradesperson, employee, accounts — each role sees only what it needs to see. Audit log per record, role-based access control, encryption in transit and at rest. Hosting in Germany (EU fallback available), DPA included.
Data export and code ownership
Self-service data export via the Customer Portal at any time. Source code in your own Git repository from Sprint 1. Standard containers (Docker) — your software continues to run even if krafteq were to disappear tomorrow.
ResultsHow digitalised trades businesses work today
Skilled Trades Digitalisation — Your Own Software Instead of a SaaS Subscription — let's tackle it
Let us discuss how we can solve this challenge for your organization.
“Trades businesses do not need a SaaS suite with 200 features — they need software that reflects their actual business: job, quote, invoice, time tracking, customer file. AI-assisted development makes the fixed price of €1,000–2,000 economically viable for the first time, and our productised stack with Krafteq Cloud, Customer Portal, and IAM supports ongoing operation. We are based in Leverkusen, we communicate in German, and we write contracts without small print. That is exactly what the market lacks — we have verified it.”
FAQFrequently asked questions about skilled trades digitalisation
Not a small business? krafteq also serves mid-market and enterprise clients.
SRE/DevOps, QA engineering, cloud cost optimisation, legacy-to-cloud, managed squads, DevSecOps, and CRA compliance — with senior engineers for complex engineering requirements beyond the small-business package.
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