Sign up and send your first quote

Karven is built so the first thing you do in the app is send a quote. There's no long setup. You give your business name, pick your trade, answer a few quick questions, add your logo and colour if you like, build a quote and send it.

Step 1: Start free

From the home page, tap Start free and sign up with your email. No card needed.

You give your business name and your mobile (on the sign-up form, or on one short screen if you came in with Google). The mobile prints on your quotes so customers can call you, and it lets you text quotes. You can leave it for later.

You get 21 free days, counted from when you finish setting up your trade (not from the day you made the account). During them you can send as many quotes as you like. After that you can still open, edit and send the quotes you already have; making a new quote needs a plan. Karven only charges you once you add a card.

Every plan feature is open during the free days. A few extra tools (like Compliance and Reports) are add-ons you switch on yourself in Settings → Add-ons, so the app stays simple until you want them.

Step 2: Pick your trade

Karven asks what you do. There are 17 trades: electrical, plumbing and gas, builder and renos, carpentry, fencing, air conditioning, concreting, decking, entry doors, garage doors, handyman, joinery and cabinets, landscaping, painting, plastering, roofing and tiling. Type to search, tap yours, then tap Continue as your trade. If yours isn't there, tap My trade isn't here and type it in.

Your trade sets the common items, the wording and the sample quote you see. You can switch or add a trade later in Settings → Trade. Your quotes and your saved items never change when you do.

Step 3: A few quick questions

• Are you registered for GST? Yes or no. This decides whether your quotes add GST. You can change it any time in Settings → Business details.
• What do you charge per hour? (before GST) What the customer pays for an hour of your time. It fills labour lines as it is, with no profit added on top. After-hours lines take your trade's usual after-hours rate (for plumbing, 1.5 times). Leave it blank if you're not sure.
• How much profit do you add on top? A % on top of what things cost you: a $100 cost at 20% is $120 to the customer. Leave it blank and new quotes charge your cost until you add one; the quote screen reminds you.
• When to remind you to follow up a quote that hasn't been answered (3 days unless you change it).

Your ABN isn't asked here. Add it when you're ready (see "What's next" below).

Step 4: Your logo and colour (optional)

Add your logo and pick a brand colour, or tap Skip for now. The colour goes on the accept button and the highlights of every quote, PDF and email. Then you see a sample quote for your trade in your look, exactly as your customer would see it. Skipped? The sample uses the plain charcoal look, and you can add your logo and colour any time in Settings → Quote look.

Step 5: Build the quote

Tap New quote. The quote editor opens: parts of the job, each with lines (item, qty, your cost). Your profit % goes on top for the customer, and each line shows what the customer pays with your cost under it in green. Type your numbers and the total updates as you go. As you type a line, Karven suggests your own items and your trade's common items; one letter is enough. Start from at the top lets you start from a template, a past quote or your trade's starter.

On any line you can:

• give it its own profit % instead of the quote's. See your cost and your profit.
• make it an optional extra, let the customer pick the quantity, or make it one of a pick one set. See optional extras.

Your saved Warranty and Payment & terms wording is already on every new quote, folded away at the bottom. Tap one to read or change it, or switch it off. You can add more Saved wording (after you accept, about us), site photos, a note for the customer and a private note only you see.

Decking, concreting and fencing also have a Full calculator that prices the job from your measurements. See the Full calculator.

Step 6: Preview and send

Tap Preview & send. You see the page your customer will open, and you choose:

• Send to: the customer's name, email and mobile.
• Send by: email, text or both.
• Customer sees: Full breakdown, Section totals or Total only. Your own copy always keeps every row, cost and profit. See what your customer sees.

If a description still has a blank you haven't filled in, Karven asks you to fill it first so the customer never sees a gap.

Send now, or pick Send tomorrow 8am or Send Monday 8am. The customer gets a link to their quote page with your business name on it, and Karven shows you when they open it. If they don't answer after 3 days, Karven writes a reminder and puts it in Needs you on your Today screen, ready to send or skip. See Needs you.

Already handed it over some other way? Use Mark as sent (no email) instead. See mark as sent.

What's next

• Add your business details. Settings → Business details: name, ABN, phone and email. Your terms are in Settings → Quote defaults. They print on every quote and invoice.
• Add your logo if you skipped it. Settings → Quote look. Takes a minute and makes every quote look like your business.
• Set your usual deposit. Settings → Quote defaults. Leave it blank if you don't take one.
• Connect Stripe so customers can pay by card. Settings → Getting paid. See card payments.
• Save your wording. Write your warranty and payment terms once. See Saved wording.
• Bring your customers over. See importing customers.