There is no single best job management software in New Zealand. Most NZ tradies end up choosing between ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus and NextMinute, and the monthly cost runs from $0 to about $349. Pick on the pricing model, not the feature list: ServiceM8 charges per job, Tradify and Fergus charge per user, NextMinute charges per crew.
What does job management software actually do?
It takes the job from enquiry to paid invoice in one place, so nothing lives in your head or in a text thread. That is the whole promise, and the good ones deliver it.
In practice a job management app handles:
- Quotes built from your own price list and sent from site, not from the kitchen table at 9pm
- A schedule your crew can see, with the address, the notes and the photos attached to the job
- Job cards, checklists and forms filled in on a phone while the work is happening
- Invoicing the moment the job is signed off, usually pushed straight into Xero or MYOB
- Payment collection, automated reminders and a record of who owes what
What it does not do is get you work. This is worth saying plainly because a lot of tradies buy software hoping it fixes a quiet phone. It fixes leaking jobs, slow quotes and unpaid invoices. If the enquiries are not coming in the first place, that is a marketing problem and no app will solve it.
The money job management software saves you is mostly the quote you never sent and the job you never invoiced. Count those before you count features.
The best job management software for NZ tradies, compared
Four options cover almost every NZ trade business. Every price below was read off each company’s own New Zealand pricing page on 25 July 2026, and all figures are NZD. Vendors change plans without warning, so check before you sign anything.
| Software | NZD per month | Priced by | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| ServiceM8 | $0 to $349 | Jobs per month, unlimited logins | Lots of short jobs, iPhone crews, on-site forms |
| Tradify | $48 to $62 per user | Users, unlimited jobs | Mixed iPhone and Android teams who want simple |
| Fergus | From $53, plus $26 per timesheet user | Account plus user types | Staged jobs, purchase orders, site health and safety |
| NextMinute | From $199 for 3 to 9 users | Crew size band | Residential builders doing takeoffs and supplier orders |
The detail behind those numbers, as at July 2026:
- ServiceM8 is free for 30 jobs a month on one login, then $29, $79, $149 and $349 a month for 50, 150, 500 and 1,500 or more jobs, all with unlimited staff logins (servicem8.com NZ pricing page). SMS is 10c a message.
- Tradify is $48, $52 or $62 per user per month excluding GST on Lite, Pro and Plus, with unlimited jobs on every plan (tradifyhq.com NZ pricing page). Texts are 20c each.
- Fergus is from $53 a month on Basic and $75 on Professional, with timesheet users from $26 a month each and contractors at $4 per user per day (fergus.com NZ pricing page). Fergus describes its model as per user per month with flexible user types, so confirm your exact licence mix with them.
- NextMinute is $199 a month for 3 to 9 users and $349 for 10 to 14, both excluding GST, with larger crews quoted (nextminute.com NZ pricing page).
Two of those state clearly that prices exclude GST, so add 15 per cent when you budget.
The honest disclosure: Horton Taylor is a ServiceM8 Certified Partner, so discount our opinion accordingly. Mitch gets paid to set ServiceM8 up and knows it better than the other three. What we will not do is pretend it suits everyone, because it does not. The three-way head to head, including where Tradify and Fergus beat it, is in ServiceM8 vs Tradify vs Fergus.
Best job management software for electricians
For most NZ sparkies it is ServiceM8 or Tradify, and the deciding factor is usually phones and paperwork rather than price.
Electrical work carries certification the other trades do not. Every job with prescribed electrical work needs a Certificate of Compliance, and an Electrical Safety Certificate where the installation is connected, with templates published by WorkSafe and the EWRB (worksafe.govt.nz electrical certification templates, as at July 2026). If your certificates are still being written on carbon paper in the van, the software choice matters more than usual.
- ServiceM8 takes custom forms, and a Certificate of Compliance form can be imported into your account and filled in on an iPhone or iPad on site, signed and emailed before you leave. Its offline mode is the best of the four, which counts when you are in a switchboard cupboard with no signal. It is iOS-first, so an Android crew is a problem.
- Tradify carries compliance certificates and health and safety forms on its Pro and Plus plans, and runs on iPhone, Android and desktop. It is the easiest of the four to learn, which matters if you have older hands who hate new systems.
- Fergus wins if you have an office person plus field staff and want purchase orders and site hazards handled tightly. Note that Fergus charges separately for certificates, listed at $50 for 1 to 9 staff (fergus.com NZ pricing page, as at July 2026).
For a two or three van electrical business doing high volume service work, ServiceM8’s per-job pricing is usually the cheaper answer, and ServiceM8 setup and support is the work we do most.
Best job management software for builders
For most residential builders it is NextMinute or Fergus, not ServiceM8. Builders do fewer, longer, staged jobs, and per-job pricing gives you nothing when a single job runs for four months.
What builders actually need is the estimate holding up all the way through. NextMinute is built for that: takeoffs from your estimating software or quantity surveyor import straight in and become tasks and purchase orders, and its PlaceMakers integration pulls supplier orders and invoices onto the right job at your real rates (nextminute.com, as at July 2026). At a flat $199 a month for 3 to 9 users, a crew of five or six gets reasonable value quickly, and support is New Zealand based.
Fergus is the alternative when the job has phases, purchase orders and margin you need to watch while the job is still moving. Its shape suits an office-plus-field split, because the account fee covers the admin side and you add timesheet users at $26 a month each rather than a full licence for every set of hands.
ServiceM8 can run a building business, and some do. But if your crew is small and your jobs are big, you are paying for a job allowance you will never use and missing the staged-job tooling you need. We say that on the first call rather than after you have paid us.
What it costs to run in NZD
Two costs, not one. The monthly subscription you pay the software company, and the one-off cost of setting it up so your business actually runs on it. Most people budget the first and forget the second, then wonder why the app never stuck.
| What you pay for | Typical NZD | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | $29 to $349 a month | Depends on the model: jobs, users or crew size |
| Texts from the app | 10c to 20c a message | Adds up fast on automated reminders |
| Setup and configuration | One-off | Templates, forms and workflow built around how your trade quotes |
| Data migration and team training | One-off | Depends on business size and how much history moves |
The subscription maths swings hard on your job count. A three-person window cleaning business getting through 120 jobs a month pays $79 on ServiceM8’s Growing plan. The same three people on Tradify Pro at $52 each pay about $156. Flip it to a three-person kitchen install outfit doing 15 jobs a month and that $156 buys better quoting and no job ceiling, while ServiceM8’s cheap tiers sit mostly unused.
So work out your real monthly job count and your real licence count before you look at a price page. Most tradies guess both wrong by a wide margin, and the answer is often to stay exactly where you are and use what you already pay for properly.
If you have picked your tool and want it running properly, our job management software setup page has the full breakdown of what we do and where we will tell you to go somewhere else. A standard ServiceM8 setup covers your job templates, quote and invoice layouts, on-site forms, Xero sync and training your crew on it. Book a free 15-minute call and you will get a straight number for your business, including do nothing if that is the right answer.
