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Checkatrade's free TradeMore app: free AI job management for every UK tradesperson. * home * blog * Checkatrade's free TradeMore app: free AI job management for every UK tradesperson. * admin * September 1, 2026 Checkatrade has just launched TradeMore, a free AI powered job management app open to every UK tradesperson, not just those already signed up to Checkatrade. It lands at a genuinely uncomfortable moment for the trade: research behind the UK Admin Drain Report 2026 found the average small business owner in trades loses eight hours a week to manual admin, invoicing, chasing payments, juggling messages across three different inboxes. That is 384 hours a year, roughly ten working weeks, and for a self-employed electrician billing at an effective £45 an hour, it works out to more than £17,000 in lost billable time annually. Kaizen AI Consulting work with trades businesses across London and the UK, and admin overload is the single most common complaint Kaizen AI Consulting hear before AI ever comes up. So when a brand with Checkatrade's reach puts a free AI tool directly into that gap, it is worth a proper look, not just a press release summary. What TradeMore actually does. TradeMore pulls messages from Gmail, Hotmail and Checkatrade's own enquiry system into one unified inbox, so a tradesperson is not hunting across three apps to find out who still needs a reply. From there it auto-builds a customer book from conversation details, handles intelligent scheduling with automated reminders, and lets you send quotes and invoices from inside a chat thread using a saved price list, without switching screens. Certificates are supported too, and the platform connects to popular accounting software rather than trying to replace it outright. It is built to flex across trade types, from a single call-out job to a multi-stage renovation, and it works for electricians, plumbers, builders, roofers, decorators, gardeners, heating engineers and carpenters alike. Crucially, it is available on iOS and web to any UK tradesperson, whether or not they have ever used Checkatrade to find work. The problem it is actually aimed at. The eight hours a week figure is the number worth sitting with. Spread across a year it is not a rounding error, it is ten working weeks spent on admin instead of on tools, materials or the next job. A separate survey from Powered Now and Installer, the NOW Report, put the time specifically spent on quoting, invoicing and chasing payments at five hours and twenty minutes a week, much of it happening in the evenings or at weekends rather than during paid hours. Either figure tells the same story: the paperwork does not stop when the tools go down, it just moves into the tradesperson's own time. That is the gap TradeMore is trying to close, and it is not alone. Tradify, Powered Now, ServiceM8 and BigChange's Cooper have all been pushing AI-assisted job management at trades this year, and Kaizen AI Consulting covered the BigChange launch on this blog only last week. What makes TradeMore different is the free entry tier and Checkatrade's existing reach into a huge slice of the UK trade, which means adoption could move faster here than with a paid-only competitor. It also means TradeMore has a built-in incentive to keep tradespeople inside the Checkatrade ecosystem, worth remembering when you weigh up a tool that is nominally independent of the marketplace you already use to find work. The wider pattern matters more than any single launch. Every major job management platform serving UK trades is racing to bolt on the same short list of features this year: a unified inbox, AI-drafted quotes, automated scheduling and payment chasing. When several competitors converge on the same feature set within months of each other, it is usually a sign the underlying pain point is real and large enough to be worth building for, not that any one vendor has found something the others missed. Free is the headline, read the rest of the page too. A genuinely free entry plan lowers the barrier to trying an AI job management tool to almost nothing, and that matters for a trade where a lot of software still gets adopted by word of mouth on a job site rather than through a sales call. But free tiers in this category tend to work the same way everywhere: enough functionality to get hooked on the unified inbox and the auto-scheduling, then a nudge toward a paid monthly or yearly plan once you want deeper accounting integration, more customer records, or certificate storage at scale. None of that makes it a bad deal. It makes it a normal software business model, and the sensible move is to treat the free tier as a genuine trial rather than a permanent home, and to check what happens to your customer data and price lists if you ever want to move to a different platform later. What Kaizen AI Consulting would tell a trades client before switching. If admin is eating your evenings, do not wait for the perfect tool, start capturing where the hours actually go this week. Time yourself on quoting, invoicing and chasing one overdue payment, because that single number is what tells you whether a free unified inbox and auto-scheduling would move the needle for your business specifically, or whether your real bottleneck is somewhere else entirely, like job scheduling clashes or supplier ordering. Run TradeMore alongside whatever you already use for a fortnight before you commit to anything, rather than ripping out an existing system on day one. Check the accounting integration actually covers the software your bookkeeper uses, and ask what exporting your data looks like before you need to do it in a hurry. AI job management tools are converging fast this year, which is good news for tradespeople, but the free launch price is the easy part. The habit of actually using it every day, and having a plan for what happens after the free tier, is what turns eight lost hours a week into hours back on paid work. Kaizen offers a free 30 minute AI audit for trades and small business owners who want a second opinion on which of these tools genuinely fits their workflow before they commit. Call Kaizen AI Consulting today! Call Kaizen AI Consulting today to discuss how Kaizen AI Consulting can drive your success forward

Checkatrade launches new report into NEETs crisis. Home " Checkatrade launches new report into NEETs crisis. Checkatrade and Leeds Rhinos have co-hosted a Skills Summit at AMT Headingley Stadium, aiming to tackle one of the country's most urgent challenges: the million 16-24 year-olds that are not in education, employment or training (NEET). Coinciding with Youth Employment Week, the Summit will convene national and local leaders, policymakers, industry and young people at the iconic venue to explore real solutions, putting a spotlight on NEETs and youth unemployment in the North and across the UK. Participants will include DWP Ministers and other parliamentarians, the Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin, industry, think tanks, apprentices and further education providers. The day's focus will be on exploring the challenges facing the trade sector, the scale of the NEETs crisis, and the role of industry partnerships in driving change. * Skills Summit in Youth Employment Week will gather Ministers and MPs, the Mayor of West Yorkshire and industry to tackle youth unemployment. * The Summit confronts a national crisis - almost a million young people are NEET, while the UK needs 1.3 million new tradespeople within a decade. * As new data from Checkatrade shows that nearly half (48%) of 16-25-year-olds are now considering a career in the trades, the UK's leading home improvement platform launches a new programme to help thousands of young people get the training, tools and support to start their own trade business. The Summit comes as Checkatrade publishes the first findings from its new Backing Britain's Tradespeople report. The research captures both the scale of the opportunity and the obstacles in its way: nearly half (48%) of young people are now considering a career as a plumber, builder or electrician, yet just 12% of trade businesses took on an apprentice in the last year - laying bare the gap between the young people who want in and the businesses ready to train them. Youth Guarantee Announcement Checkatrade will also reveal details of its new package of support to encourage more young people into trade careers, 'Trade Jumpstart', delivered in line with the Government's Youth Guarantee. Beginning with Leeds College of Building, Checkatrade aims to partner with Construction Technical Excellence Colleges (CTECs) nationwide. Graduating learners will receive support to help launch their trade business, including a year's free Checkatrade Approved membership, with its vetting checks reassuring homeowners the new trades are trustworthy, alongside 12 months' free access to TradeMore Pro, Checkatrade's AI-powered job management platform, plus discounted business banking, workwear and other benefits through partner platforms. In addition, to help businesses hire apprentices, Checkatrade plans to work with Build UK, CITB and others on the Construction Apprentice Network - a nationwide matching service connecting employers with candidates. It will also look to transfer unused Growth & Skills Levy funding to eligible trade employers, encourage other organisations to do the same, and raise awareness of Levy transfer opportunities. Jambu Palaniappan, CEO of Checkatrade, said: "Hosting this Summit with Leeds Rhinos is a source of pride, but it comes at a moment when the stakes couldn't be higher: almost a million young people are not in education, employment or training, while the UK needs 1.3 million new tradespeople within the decade. "Yet our new report shows real cause for hope - nearly half of young people are now considering a trade. The ambition is there. What's missing is the opportunity. That's why today we're launching Trade Jumpstart, our package of support to help young people into the industry and get their business going. Done right, every young person we help could become a future business owner, a future employer, and part of the answer to the skills shortage holding our sector back." Pat McFadden, Work and Pensions Secretary, said: "This Skills Summit is exactly the kind of bold, practical initiative Installeronline need to support more young people into the trade industry, and I'm delighted Checkatrade have signed up to its Youth Guarantee. "Employers play a crucial role in opening doors for the next generation, and Checkatrade is showing what's possible when business truly steps up. "Backed by our £2.5 billion investment in the Youth Guarantee and apprenticeship reform, partnerships like this are how we turn ambition into opportunity." Leeds Rhinos Foundation The event builds on Checkatrade's partnership with Leeds Rhinos and the Leeds Rhino's Foundation. Through the work of the Foundation, the partnership will offer support and workshops to young people across the city, designed to help them kickstart a career in the trades. Jamie Jones-Buchanan, CEO of Leeds Rhinos, said: "At Leeds Rhinos, Installeronline believe sport has a responsibility to do more than entertain. Installeronline has a platform, a sense of place and a duty to help young people to be the best version of their fullest self. This partnership with Checkatrade is about turning good intent into tangible opportunity, connecting young people with the skills, confidence, employers and pathways available through its partners across Leeds. "The trades should be seen for what they are: skilled, respected and essential careers that can give young people pride, purpose and a future. If we can use AMT Headingley to bring education, business, government and community together around that mission, then we maintain our vision of changing lives through the power of sport." National Heat Pump Week runs 12-16 October, with Heat Pump Association UK. Working in installation, manufacturing or distribution? Register your interest and be first to hear when sessions are confirmed. Futures / April 10, 2026 InstallerELECTRIC