Best Invoicing App for Plumbers in Australia (2026): 8 Apps Compared

The best invoicing app for plumbers Australia-wide is InvoiceSonic, because it builds, sends and chases a tax invoice from your phone while you are still standing in the laundry. If you only need a free PDF, Invoice-Generator.com.au produces an ATO-compliant tax invoice with no signup and no watermark. Plumbers rostering a second van, or costing materials across a week-long bathroom, should look at ServiceM8, Tradify or Fergus instead. We judged all eight apps on one thing: the after-hours callout test — at 11pm, standing in a laundry, can you build and send a tax invoice covering the callout fee, labour and parts before you leave?

Quick comparison

Every price here and below is at the time of writing; trade software pricing moves.

How we tested: the after-hours callout test. At 11pm, torch in your teeth and phone on 12% battery, can you build and send a tax invoice covering the callout fee, labour and parts before you leave? Three questions per app. Can you raise and send it from the phone, with no laptop and no trip to the office? Does it carry three separate lines, apply 10% GST and show your ABN? And can the customer pay that night, with the app chasing if they stall?

Half the list stumbles. Invoice-Generator.com.au clears the first two questions and fails the third: it makes the PDF, you do the chasing. Xero fails the first, because it is the ledger the invoice lands in, not a tool you drive with one thumb in a dark laundry. ServiceM8 passes only on an iPhone or iPad, the only field app it ships. Fergus is built around an office desktop. The other four pass, then separate on cost.

The 11pm blocked drain, priced. A typical A$280 after-hours job looks like this, and the GST line is where hand-written invoices go wrong:

• After-hours callout fee: A$150.00
• Labour, one hour after-hours: A$120.00
• Parts, jet nozzle seal kit: A$10.00
• Subtotal A$280.00 · GST at 10% A$28.00 · Total A$308.00

What the timing is worth. Invoiced on site at 11:07pm and paid by PayID before you pack the ute, that A$308 is in the account next morning. Written up by hand on Saturday, posted Monday, opened Wednesday and paid the following Monday, it takes nine days to clear. That is eight days of your money in someone else's account, on every callout. Four after-hours jobs a week is A$1,232 a week, or A$176 a day, so an eight-day lag leaves about A$1,408 permanently outstanding. InvoiceSonic Pro is A$168 a year at the time of writing, about A$14 a month. A$14 a month to stop A$1,408 of your own cash sitting in other people's accounts is the real argument for an invoicing app.

1. InvoiceSonic — Best overall

InvoiceSonic builds and sends a tax invoice from a phone or a browser in about a minute, and the first one needs no sign-up and no card. That is why it wins: the 11pm callout gets invoiced while you are still in the laundry, not on Saturday when the parts cost is a guess.

It takes the three lines a callout needs, applies 10% GST, carries your ABN and logo, and gets paid by bank transfer or PayID with no InvoiceSonic transaction fee, since the money moves bank to bank with no gateway. Reminders chase the ones that go quiet, open tracking shows the moment it is read, and an accepted quote converts in one click with a deposit up front. Progress claims on a re-pipe are separate invoices, and real volume needs Pro.

Pros

• Sends, tracks and chases from the phone, which no PDF generator does.
• Bank transfer and PayID with no InvoiceSonic transaction fee, so a A$308 invoice arrives as A$308.

Cons

• No materials or job-cost tracking, so what a bathroom cost you lives in a spreadsheet.
• No native Android app; Android plumbers run the web app from the home screen.

Price: at the time of writing, free plan capped at three saved invoices, one tracked send and one reminder a month; Pro A$19 a month or A$168 a year, about A$14 a month, with a 7-day trial that needs a card. Best for: one-van plumbers who want the callout invoiced on site.

2. Invoice-Generator.com.au — Best free tool

Invoice-Generator.com.au is a free tax invoice generator that builds a finished PDF in your browser. No signup, no watermark, no ads, no cap, and nothing you type leaves the browser, which matters on a customer's wifi.

The plumber invoice template is pre-set with an ABN field, 10% GST and a live compliance checklist, so the callout fee, labour and parts add up and the GST line is right before anything goes out. There is a broader tradie invoice template, the Australian tax invoice generator, and a free quote generator. It clears the first two callout questions from a phone browser and fails the third.

Pros

• Free with no signup, no watermark and no invoice limit.
• The compliance checklist catches a missing ABN or GST line.

Cons

• No sending, tracking or automatic reminders.
• No saved customer list and no payment collection.

Price: free, always. Best for: occasional callouts, plumbers under the A$75,000 GST threshold, and anyone needing one compliant invoice tonight.

3. ServiceM8 — Best free plan with a diary

ServiceM8 is Australian-built job management that runs a job from the first call to the payment, and its free tier is the most generous thing here: 30 jobs a month with scheduling, quoting and invoicing. The callout gets booked, the job card filled in and the invoice sent from one record, for nothing.

It clears the callout test on an iPhone or iPad and nowhere else, so an Android van is out before you start. Paid plans are charged per business, not per user, which gets cheaper the moment a second plumber joins. Watch the free cap: 30 jobs a month is about seven a week, which a busy plumber burns through fast.

Pros

• The free plan includes a diary and job cards, which nothing else here gives for A$0.
• Paid plans are per business, not per user, so a crew does not multiply the bill.

Cons

• The field app is iPhone and iPad only, so an Android crew is locked out.
• 30 jobs a month runs out fast in a wet winter.

Price: at the time of writing, free for 30 jobs a month, then AUD $29, $79, $149 or $349 per month including GST. Best for: iPhone plumbers wanting a diary and job cards without paying per user.

4. Tradify — Best for a crew you have to roster

Tradify is trade job management: quotes, scheduling, job cards, timesheets and invoicing in one place, pushing finished invoices into Xero or MYOB. It passes the callout test, because an accepted quote becomes an invoice that goes out from the phone.

Model the per-user pricing first, because it scales with the fleet and not the revenue. At the time of writing, two plumbers on Pro is about AUD $104 a month before GST and five is about $260, real money against a A$168-a-year invoicing subscription if all you needed was invoices. There is a 14-day trial, no free plan, and progress invoicing sits above the cheapest tier.

Pros

• Quote, roster, job card and invoice on one record, with timesheets for apprentices.
• Pushes invoices into Xero or MYOB; 14-day trial.

Cons

• Per-user pricing punishes a growing crew.
• No free plan, and progress invoicing is not on the cheapest tier.

Price: at the time of writing, AUD $48 (Lite), $52 (Pro) or $62 (Plus) per user per month, ex GST. Best for: plumbing businesses with staff to roster and job cards to fill.

5. Fergus — Best for long jobs and materials

Fergus is job management aimed at plumbers, electricians and builders on work that lasts longer than a day. Its strength is cost tracking: materials, supplier bills and labour attach to the job, so at the end of a bathroom you know what it cost you, not just what you invoiced. No invoicing app here does that.

It half-passes the callout test. Everything is there, but Fergus is built around an office desktop feeding jobs out to phones, so the 11pm invoice gets raised next morning. For one person doing callouts that is more system than the work needs, and there is no free plan for a quiet month.

Pros

• Tracks materials, supplier bills and labour per job, so job margin is visible.
• Built for multi-week plumbing work and the office side of it.

Cons

• No free plan, and the workflow assumes an office with someone in it.
• Overkill for a single-van plumber doing callouts.

Price: at the time of writing, from AUD $53 (Essentials) or $77 (Professional) per month. Best for: plumbing companies with an office and jobs that run for weeks.

6. Square Invoices — Best if customers want to tap a card

Square Invoices gives you unlimited invoices, estimates and automatic reminders on a free plan, and the customer pays from the invoice itself, so money often lands the same day. It passes the callout test, and it is the pick if a Square reader already lives in the van.

The card fee is the real price, so run the callout numbers through it. At the time of writing, 2.2% on online card payments takes A$6.78 out of a A$308 invoice. Four after-hours jobs a week is 208 a year, so about A$1,409 a year in card fees, more than eight times a year of InvoiceSonic Pro. Estimate auto-conversion and milestone schedules are Plus only.

Pros

• Unlimited free invoices, estimates and automatic reminders.
• The customer pays from the invoice, so cash often lands the same day.

Cons

• 2.2% on online card payments is the actual cost, and it grows with the job value.
• No scheduling or job cards; estimate auto-convert and milestone schedules are Plus only.

Price: at the time of writing, free, or Plus at AUD $30 per month; 2.2% on online card payments. Best for: plumbers who get paid at the door by card.

7. Zoho Invoice — Best genuinely free full invoicing app

Zoho Invoice is free, and Zoho states there is no cost and no contract. Not a trial and not a three-invoice cap, but a complete invoicing product with saved customers, estimates and templates in 19 or more languages. It clears the callout test, so it suits a plumber who will not pay for software.

The catch is what free buys. It is the front door to a large software suite, so expect to be pointed at the paid products, and the interface carries that weight. Dense is fine at a desk and slow at 11pm with cold, wet hands, and support is a paid-suite affair.

Pros

• Genuinely free with no invoice cap, not a limited trial.
• Full customer and estimate records, not one-off PDFs.

Cons

• Dense interface, slower than a phone-first app on a doorstep.
• Part of a large upsell suite, and real support belongs to the paid products.

Price: free at the time of writing, with Zoho stating no cost and no contracts. Best for: plumbers wanting a complete invoicing system for nothing.

8. Xero — Best if your bookkeeper already uses it

Xero is accounting software rather than an invoicing app, and it is here because plenty of plumbing businesses never buy anything else. If your bookkeeper already works in Xero, invoices, bank feeds, GST and BAS live in one system and nobody re-keys anything.

It fails the callout test on shape rather than features. Xero is where the invoice ends up, not what you drive with one thumb in a dark laundry, and there is no free plan. Raise invoices in a phone-first app and let Xero be the ledger behind it, which is what ServiceM8 and Tradify are built to feed.

Pros

• Invoicing, bank reconciliation, GST and BAS in one system.
• The tool most Australian bookkeepers know.

Cons

• No free plan.
• No diary, job cards or on-site workflow, so you still need an app in the van.

Price: paid plans available — check current pricing. Best for: businesses whose books already run on Xero.

What to look for in an invoicing app for plumbers

• Sending, not just generating. A PDF you email later is a job half done. The app has to send from where you stand, or the callout gets paid nine days late.
• A callout fee that lives on the invoice. After-hours work is a fixed fee plus labour plus parts, each on its own line. A queried invoice is an unpaid one.
• GST and ABN handled for you. Once registered, the invoice must say Tax invoice and show your ABN, the date, what you supplied and the GST amount. See tax invoice requirements in Australia and the ATO for the detail.
• Payment methods that do not shave the job. Bank transfer and PayID move money bank to bank at no cost. Cards cost around 2%: A$6.78 on a A$308 callout, A$110 on a A$5,000 bathroom.
• Terms and automatic reminders. Emergency plumbing is usually payable on the day, not in 30. Set terms deliberately, let the app chase, and read invoice payment terms in Australia first.
• Job costing only when you need it. Per-job materials and labour tracking is worth paying for on multi-week work, and nothing on a blocked drain.

Which one should you choose?

• If you invoice a few callouts a month and chase nobody → the free plumber invoice template, emailed yourself.
• If you run one van and do after-hours work → InvoiceSonic, so the invoice goes out on site and gets chased for you.
• If you want a diary for nothing and run an iPhone → ServiceM8's free 30 jobs a month.
• If you roster an apprentice or a second plumber, especially on Android → Tradify, per-user cost worked out first.
• If your jobs run for weeks with supplier bills and progress claims → Fergus.

When not to use InvoiceSonic or a free generator. Once you are scheduling other people, filling in job cards or costing materials job by job, an invoicing app is the wrong tool, and speed on the doorstep does not make up for it. That work belongs in job-management software: ServiceM8 if the crew is on iPhones, Tradify if you need timesheets and a roster, Fergus if the jobs are long and materials-heavy. Payroll, bank feeds and BAS lodgement mean accounting software, so Xero or MYOB. Choosing across trades rather than plumbing alone? Our comparison of the best invoicing software for tradies runs the same test.

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