What's new in TradeLinkers: the Community, trade news and app 1.2.0

Three things have landed in the last fortnight. Here is the short version of each.

The Community: a free forum for UK trades

Since 31 August there has been a public forum at tradelinkers.co.uk/community. It is free, you do not need the app to use it, and it is open to anyone in the UK trades: sparks, plumbers, heating engineers, chippies, builders, roofers, plasterers and the rest.

There are twelve boards: Pricing & Quoting, Regs, Certs & Compliance, Getting Work & Leads, Customers & Getting Paid, Business, Tax & VAT, Tools & Kit, Vans & Fleet, Apprentices & Hiring, Jobs Gone Wrong, Finished Work, Trade News, and a Help & Feedback board for the app itself. We have started it off with genuine questions we would like answered. The answers are the valuable part, and those come from you.

Members can post, reply, vote and mark an accepted answer on a question. A good answer about what to charge for a boiler swap in Leeds keeps working long after it was written.

Trade news, in one place

You are reading it. This section carries the news that affects people on the tools: regs, safety, tax, vans, tools and grants, with each story linked to where it came from. Anything you spot that others should know about, post it on the Trade News board.

App version 1.2.0

Version 1.2.0 went live on Google Play on 29 August. What is in it:

• Deposits on estimates and invoices. Set a deposit as a percentage or a fixed amount when you raise the document.
• Add a job straight from the calendar. Tap a day, add the job, done.
• Postcode lookup on your billing address. Type the postcode, pick the address, the rest fills itself in.
• VAT follows your registration. Your VAT settings now track whether you are registered, so an invoice cannot go out with VAT on it when it should not.
• The PDF comes with the email. Invoice and reminder emails now attach the invoice as a PDF as well as showing it in the message.
• First month of Pro free. Finish the getting-started checklist in the app and you get a code for your first month of Pro at no cost.
• The 14-day Pro trial starts the moment you sign up, with everything unlocked from the first screen.

Update through Google Play, or start at tradelinkers.co.uk. If something is not working the way you expect, say so on the Help & Feedback board and we will read it.