Kelpie put my whole business on my phone. I quote on site, the invoice goes out the second the job's done, and the money lands without me chasing it. Game changer for a small team.
Alex Tasseron Hakea Projects · Fairfield, VIC 
Job management software for painters.
Quoting, scheduling, invoicing and payments — Kelpie runs your whole painting business from one app. Quote the repaint with prep and coats itemised, take tap-to-pay on site, and it all syncs to Xero.
No card needed 14 days free
What the crew reckons
Tradies who made the switch.
Real tradies, real businesses — running the whole job out of Kelpie.
Alex Tasseron Hakea Projects · Fairfield, VIC What's slowing painters down
You do a tidy job. The admin's the mess.
The cutting-in's the easy part. It's the quoting, the chasing and the double data-entry that eat your evenings.
01 • Quotes that don't cover the prep
Price by the square metre alone and the prep eats your margin — the scraping, the gap-filling, the making-good you didn't allow for. The job's done, but the money's gone into hours you never quoted.
02 • Chasing the balance for weeks
The paint's bought up front and the crew's on the clock, then you wait weeks to get paid for a job you finished a fortnight ago. The cash flow's always a coat behind.
03 • Double-handling every night
Quote it, re-type it as an invoice, then re-type that into the books. Same details, keyed over and over after tea — an hour a night you'll never bill for.
A painter's job, ran on Kelpie
From the walk-through to paid the day you finish.
An interior repaint or an exterior over a few days — prep, undercoat, coats — it all runs from the one app.
1 The walk-through · On site
Quote the repaint, prep and coats itemised.
Measure up room by room, itemise the prep, the undercoat and the coats from a saved template, and send a clear quote on the spot — one the customer can accept from their phone and lock in the dates before you've left.
- Itemised quotes — prep, undercoat and two coats spelled out, so the price is clear.
- Templates and price lists — your usual jobs ready to tweak, so you quote fast and don't under-price.
- Accepted on the spot — they accept from their phone and the job's booked in.
2 On the job · Over a few days
Run the job across days, and the weather.
Schedule prep, undercoat and coats across the days, and when rain threatens the exterior, shuffle the job without losing it. Photos and notes save to the job, and the whole crew sees what's on next.
- Multi-day scheduling — prep day, coats over days, all on one calendar.
- Reschedule around the weather — bump an exterior coat without losing the job.
- Photos & notes on the job — before-and-afters saved to the job, not lost in a group chat.
3 Last coat · Paid
Get paid the day you pack up.
Mark the job done and the quote becomes a ready-to-send invoice — any extras added, GST and your ABN on it. Email a payment link or take tap-to-pay on the spot, and it syncs straight to Xero.
- Built from the quote — the invoice is your accepted quote plus any extras, no re-typing.
- Tap-to-pay built in — card or bank transfer, money in days not weeks.
- Syncs to Xero — GST and your ABN carried across, nothing typed twice.
Built for the way painters work
Everything a painting business runs on.
Six tools that used to mean a pile of paperwork and a Sunday night — now they're one tap apart.
Kelpie vs Fergus
Every feature, every job — one simple plan.
Other apps keep their best features for pricier plans and bolt the rest on as paid extras. Kelpie gives you every feature and as many jobs as you can win, for one simple price per user.
How they stack up
Everything included
Fergus Tiered plans + add-ons
Works on any phone — iPhone or Android
Often Apple-first
The full app on mobile
Cut-down on mobile
Every feature included
No per-job caps or limits
Often capped
One simple price per user
Tiered plans
Every feature's included on every seat — no tiers, no per-job caps, no add-ons.
Questions, answered
What painters ask before switching.
Yes. Build a quote room by room with prep, undercoat and the coats itemised from a saved template — so the customer sees exactly what they're paying for, and the prep that eats your time is actually in the price.
Yes. The moment the job's done, your quote becomes an invoice you can hand over on site — take tap-to-pay or send a payment link, and automatic reminders chase any balance for you, so the money lands in days, not weeks.
Yes. Schedule prep, undercoat and coats across the days, and when the weather turns, shuffle the job on the calendar without losing it — the crew sees the change straight away.
Yep — Kelpie's the same full app on your phone, tablet and laptop, iPhone or Android. Quote on site, run the job, send the invoice and take payment — then pick it up on the laptop back home. Everyone gets the full app, not a stripped-back mobile version.
Yes. Kelpie runs your quoting, jobs, invoicing and payments, then syncs every invoice to Xero — GST and your ABN carried across, so nothing's typed twice and your BAS stays organised for the next tax period.
Keep Xero — it's great at the books. But Xero doesn't quote a repaint on site, schedule a three-day job, take payment in the field or get you paid the day you finish. That's everything before the money hits your accounts — and it's exactly what Kelpie does. Then it syncs straight to Xero, so the numbers land without you typing them twice.
It is. ABN and GST are built into every invoice, itemised quotes match how painting jobs are actually priced, and it works with Australian accounting software and your accountant. It speaks tradie out of the box.
14 days free No card needed
Run your painting business from one login.
Start your 14-day free trial today — no card, no lock-in, completely risk-free. So what are you waiting for?
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