On your own work.
Your enquiries, your quote spreadsheet, your customer emails. Not slides.
Home / Software for trades
Sector: trades and manufacturing
Software for trades businesses that are run from a spreadsheet and a phone.
Norloch builds custom software and automation for trades, joinery and small manufacturing businesses in Edinburgh and across Scotland. Enquiries, quotes, surveys, job tracking and workshop production in one system, connected to the tools you already use.
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Most trades businesses start with a training session for the office. See the session
Updated October 2026
In short
Norloch builds custom software and automation for trades, joinery and small manufacturing businesses in Edinburgh, Scotland and the UK. That covers enquiry handling, quoting, site survey and measure capture on mobile, job tracking and scheduling, workshop production sheets and CNC inputs, management reporting, and integration with Jobber, Tradify, Xero, QuickBooks, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
The work is delivered in phases, each one usable on its own, and everything built is owned by the client. Norloch is led by Shanoor Hussain, former Head of Managed Services at Datatonic and Cloudreach.
Start here
Train the team first.
Most trades businesses start with a session for the office team. They learn what the tools can do with quotes, enquiries and customer messages, and we see what's worth building.
Safe with customer details.
What never goes into a public AI tool, which settings matter, and a one-page rule the whole office can remember.
Ends with a list, not a pitch.
A short priced list of what we'd automate first. Do it with us, do it yourself, or do nothing. Most pick one.
The problem
Good at the work. Drowning in the admin around it.
The pattern is the same whether it's windows, kitchens, roofing or fabrication.
Enquiries fall through.
Website forms, emails, calls and messages land in different places. Quotes go out late or not at all.
Measurements get retyped.
Site notes on paper, then into a spreadsheet, then into the production sheet. Each step a chance to get it wrong.
The job list lives in one person's head.
Which jobs are surveyed, ordered, in the workshop, ready to fit, invoiced. One spreadsheet, one owner, one point of failure.
Workshop and office don't see each other.
The office doesn't know what's cut. The workshop doesn't know what's changed.
Quotes take an evening.
Pricing is in someone's head or a complex spreadsheet nobody else dares touch.
The numbers arrive late.
How many units a week, what's the average job worth, which jobs are stuck. Known at year end, not on Monday.
What we build
One system, from enquiry to install.
Built in phases. Each phase works on its own and is paid for before the next is scoped.
- Enquiry handling. Every enquiry captured and acknowledged, with a draft reply ready for the office to send.
- Quoting. Your pricing logic turned into something the whole office can use, producing consistent quotes in minutes.
- Survey and measure capture. A phone or tablet form for site, built around your actual measurements and options, feeding straight into the job.
- Job tracking. Every job and its stages in one place, from first contact to final invoice, visible to office and workshop.
- Production sheets. Cutting lists, CNC inputs and workshop sheets generated from the measured data, not retyped.
- Scheduling and the install calendar. Who's where, what's due, what's waiting on planning or the customer.
- Integration. Jobber, Tradify, Xero, QuickBooks, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 connected, so nothing is entered twice.
- The numbers. Units per week, average job value, lead times and bottlenecks, on a screen the owner can check on Monday.
Why it works
Built around the trade, not a template.
We go to the workshop.
The system is designed from how the work is actually done, including the bits that only exist on a whiteboard.
Your people's language.
Fields and stages are named the way your team names them. If a surveyor calls it a horn, the form calls it a horn.
Yours to keep.
The software and the data are in your accounts, documented, with no monthly fee to us to keep using it.
Senior judgement.
Led by a fractional CTO with 15 years in software and data, so you get the right architecture first time.
FAQ
Common questions.
We're not a tech business. Is this for us?
Yes. The businesses this suits best are the ones where skilled people are losing hours to admin. If you can describe the process, we can build around it. Nobody on your team needs to be technical.
We already use Jobber, Tradify, Fergus or ServiceM8. Do we have to change?
No. Those tools are good at what they do. We connect to them and build the pieces they don't cover: the workshop view, the quote logic, the production sheet, the reporting.
Can it work on a phone on site?
Yes. Surveys, measures and job updates are captured on a phone or tablet, offline if needed, and land in the office system without retyping.
What does it cost?
A first build, usually enquiry handling or the job list, is a fixed price between £1,500 and £5,000. A full job, survey and workshop system is built in phases, typically up to £15,000 for the first phase, each phase usable on its own. Training for the office from £2,000. Full pricing.
How long before it's useful?
A first build, such as enquiry handling or a job tracker, usually goes live within weeks. Bigger pieces such as a workshop system are delivered in phases, each one usable on its own.
Do you work outside Edinburgh?
Yes. We're based in Edinburgh and work on-site across Scotland. Elsewhere in the UK is remote, with site visits when they help.
Running the business off a spreadsheet?
Free 30-minute call. Bring the spreadsheet. We'll tell you what's worth building and what isn't.
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