Job management for Perth tradies

Built for how Perth tradies work#

• Distance is the WA tax. Perth to the Peel region and back is a day. Quoting on site rather than from the office that night is the difference between the job closing this week and next.
• Built to survive a thin signal. The hills and the regions drop out. Offline mode is one of the features we are building now; until then Chippie needs a connection and is built to work fast on a poor one.
• FIFO-shaped admin. If your week is split between Perth and a site somewhere else, every job, quote and invoice lives on the phone rather than in a filing cabinet you are not standing next to.

Who licenses trade work in Western Australia?#

Building and Energy, a division of the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety. It runs builder registration and the electrical, plumbing and gasfitting licences from the one place, which is tidier than most states manage.

• Builder registration and building service contractor registration are separate things, and which you need depends on the work.
• Electrical, plumbing and gasfitting each have their own worker and contractor authorisations.
• Building and Energy publishes a public register, so a subcontractor's status is checkable before they start.

Source: Building and Energy WA: licensing and registration

Which payment law applies to a WA job?#

It depends on the contract date. The Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021 replaced the Construction Contracts Act 2004 regime and was phased in, so contracts entered before the relevant commencement still run under the old law. Getting this wrong sends a claim down the wrong track.

• The 2021 Act introduced payment claims, payment schedules and adjudication in a form closer to the eastern states.
• It also brought a retention trust scheme, so retention on covered contracts is held separately from the head contractor's money.
• Check your contract date against the commencement dates Building and Energy publishes before you assume which Act governs.

Source: Building and Energy WA: security of payment

When does WA home indemnity insurance apply?#

For residential building work above a value threshold, cover has to be in place before you take any payment, deposit included, and before work starts. It protects the owner if you die, disappear or become insolvent, and the sequencing is where builders come unstuck.

• The cover goes in before the deposit, which means before the job feels real.
• It is arranged per contract for residential work over the threshold, not annually for the business.
• Building and Energy publishes the current threshold and the approved insurers.

Source: Building and Energy WA: home indemnity insurance