Leading trade SME, Powered Now, a mobile-based billing, invoicing and quotation application for trade businesses such as plumbers and electricians, announce that they have won a major grant from the government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.

Powered Now is dedicated to streamlining the communication process between small trade businesses and their customers, providing them with a safe place to store their vital documentation. This grant will enable Powered Now to develop features to help these micro-SMEs to compete more effectively and efficiently with larger corporations and companies who tend to have far more complex and expensive IT systems.

The domestic market, which suffered greatly during both the spring and winter lockdowns, is now calling for an evolution in their communication processes- one that is designed to help businesses efficiently adapt to a Covid-19 landscape.

Here are the reasons why trade businesses are using the Powered Now app:

• Easy quoting and invoicing
Invoices and quotes can be raised from anywhere on smartphones, tablets or the web. Matt Walsh, owner of ARP Heating and Plumbing, uses Powered Now and says “If it wasn’t for Powered Now I would have been divorced by now”. In a 2020 survey, business owners using Powered Now reported that on average they saved around half a day a week of time previously spent on paperwork.

• Everything in one place
With Powered Now, one app enables all of the business’ administration to be done in a single place. Invoices, quotes, job sheets, purchase orders and costs can all be raised and recorded. Gas and electrical certificates and many other statutory UK requirements can be met. Customer details are held along with details of appointments and time logs.

• Organise their teams
The owner of the business can know where their team is, at any time. Team chat helps co-ordinate work and a shared diary keeps appointments organised.

• Everything secure
Customer details, notes, invoices, quotes, payments and appointments are all stored securely. If any device is lost, broken or stolen all the information can be recovered.

CEO of Powered Now, Benjamin Dyer comments on the grant win, and what this means for the trade sector in the future:
“We are very excited to be starting this new project. When it is finished, we will be able to offer to trade businesses with up to ten employees the sort of powerful capabilities that were previously only affordable to larger companies. This should really help these smaller businesses to compete on a level playing field.”

To learn more visit www.powerednow.com