Quote it, dispatch it, bill it — the biggest Subgrade update yet
It's been a few weeks since our last update (the one on payroll penalties, public holidays and rain pay), and we've been heads-down. This is a big one — a whole new way to run job-and-trade work, subcontractors brought fully into the system, salaried and day-rate pay, a payroll suite that's now production-ready, and a long list of smaller wins. Here's everything that's landed.
Trade Pack: run jobs from quote to cash
The headline. Trade Pack is a new, optional toolset alongside the civil suite that gives you end-to-end job management — office to field and back to billing.
Work Orders with a visual Dispatch Board (Draft → Dispatched → In Progress → Completed → Ready for Invoice) you drag jobs across.
Optional quoting — raise a quote, attach photos and a price, email it as a PDF; on acceptance it becomes the job, same record.
"My Jobs" field screen — crews start/stop on site, log labour and materials, snap photos (quote vs job kept separate), and mark complete.
Job card to payment — capture cash/card/bank payment in-app, generate the job-card PDF, email it and a receipt to the customer (every email logged).
One-off customers by email, no full client record needed.
Approved labour flows to payroll automatically. Switch it on per business; runs standalone for pure trades shops.
Subcontractors, fully in the system (with RCTIs)
Subbies log work (priced from your rate catalogue), submit for approval; managers approve in a Work Approvals tab with notifications.
On approval, Subgrade auto-builds a tax-compliant RCTI — monthly, both ABNs snapshotted, GST handled, sequential numbering.
Approved work posts straight to the project cost ledger; corrections are made with a credit, never a delete; hours cross-checked against shift reports.
Payroll now handles salary and day rates
Pick hourly, annual salary, or day rate per pay rate, so a mixed workforce runs in one place.
Salaried staff paid across pay periods (hours still feed job costing); day-rate workers paid per day worked.
New Cost / Hour column shows the true fully-loaded cost of a role (base + on-costs + allowances, full ordinary day).
The payroll suite is ready for go-live
We rebuilt the payroll experience (the maths was already solid): one Payroll Hub front door, a linear cycle stepper with no hidden blockers, Hub Timesheets split into workflow tabs with an Exceptions tab and Cycle Coverage panel, allowances folded into the Pay Summary (and auto-applied), and governance controls — optional dual-control export approval, export safeguards, and full finalize/void audit trails. Clearer language, honest status messages.
Day Works Dockets: capture on site, bill cleanly
Capture paper dockets with photo/scan proof, create dockets from the field on your phone, billing exports with auto-calculated amounts and double-bill protection, and signed dockets locked as permanent billing evidence (adjust with a credit).
Float Manager + Project Documents
Float Manager (was Float Tracker) sends float requests straight to your transport company from a slide-over, records their reply, resends in one click, logs everything, and ties into Allocation Manager with schedule CSV export and prestart warnings. Project Documents became a requirements engine — each project shows what it needs (SWMS, VMPs, general uploads) with clear status and sign-off, a phone Field Site Pack for crews, and a readiness export.
Plus a stack of smaller wins
Project Lookahead schedules forecast (not-yet-awarded) work in its own lane.
More actionable dashboard widgets — clickable rows, exception-focused counters.
Plain-English notifications instead of raw payloads.
Multi-tenant users land on their last-visited business.
Smoother onboarding (first-party page) and under-the-hood hardening (role-permission seeding, Filament 4.11, test suite back to green).
That's the last few weeks. If any of this changes how you'd like your account set up — Trade Pack, salaried staff, subcontractor rates, dual-control payroll — just reach out.
