Daybook connects jobs, invoices, and GST so operators know what they have made and what they owe — without enterprise overhead. This is a working build brief: what is live, what is committed next, and what is explicitly out of scope.
Emotional promise: “I finally know what money is actually mine.” The product should create calm and control, not more admin anxiety.
"Tradies don't lose money on bad work — they lose it in the gap between jobs, invoices, and tax."
Ideal customer
Positioning clarity
| Xero / MYOB / QBO mindset | Daybook mindset |
|---|---|
| Accounting-first, chart-of-accounts workflow | Operator-first, job-thread workflow |
| Desktop/admin energy | Mobile/on-site energy |
| Bookkeeping system focus | Money control system focus |
| Accountant-primary flow | Owner-operator primary flow with accountant collaboration |
Product identity
Packaging
No Guest / Solo / Team SKUs. Free is the full quote-to-invoice workflow at $0/month and still earns when clients pay via Pay now (Stripe + Akahu platform clip). Paid adds bank connections, automations, and accountant access.
Free
$0 Yardstick account · no monthly fee
Paid
$39 /mo NZD inc. GST
Core features
Route /app
The primary operational surface. It should answer three things at a glance: what is outstanding, what just happened, and what needs attention right now. It is not a list page — it is a command centre.
Does
Does not
Next build
Route /app/invoice/:id
The primary commercial document. Operators invoice for labour and materials; it needs to be fast, professional, and shareable from a phone on site. GST must be automatic, not a configuration exercise. The document is also the entry point for payment — client sees the same link as the PDF.
Does
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Next build
Route /app/quote/:id
Quotes are the start of the money thread. Operators need to quote fast on a call or walk-through, share it cleanly, and convert without re-entry. The acceptance model is different to invoices — client accepts online, not pays.
Does
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Route /app/jobs
Jobs are the operational spine of Daybook. The atomic unit of the business is not a standalone invoice — it is a coherent customer outcome: from first enquiry through billing, payment, and tax clarity under one thread. Even informal work gets a home in the Core Job bucket when no job is named.
Does
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Route /app/expenses
Expenses complete the money picture — without them, "what did I really make on this job" remains guesswork. Receipt capture on a phone, policy-enforced thresholds, and reconciliation matching turn expenses from a quarterly headache into something operators can keep up with as they go.
Does (today)
Does not (yet)
Next build
Secondary features
Route /app/clients
Address book and lookup for documents. Operators repeat-invoice the same clients constantly — entering contact details every time is wasteful. Clients are created inline during document authoring or managed here.
Does
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Route /app/library
Reusable line items cut repeated entry of labour rates, materials, and standard services. An electrician who charges $85/hr for callout labour should not have to type that every invoice. The UX name may become "Line items" or "Catalog" — the route may stay as-is.
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Money layer — Paid
Public document view — Free + Paid (clip)
The payment button closes the collection loop that operators currently manage by chasing bank references and following up on late payments. It is bank-to-bank (not escrow, not card), pre-fills the correct reference and builder's account, and fires a real-time confirmation on arrival. This is not about card processing — it is about making correct bank transfer frictionless.
Will do
Does not
Next build
Settings / setup wizard
Before the money automation layer can run, operators need to link their bank accounts and tell Daybook where to move tax money. This is a one-time setup flow — not always visible in the nav, more like a setup wizard that unlocks the money features. Users choose which accounts serve as GST pocket, tax pocket, and ACC reserve — these can be the same account or different.
Will do
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Background job + Overview match queue
This is the most mechanically ambitious part of the money layer. Each night: pull incomings and outgoings from linked accounts, run a matching engine against existing invoices and expenses, and produce a suggestion queue. The operator then triages it in Overview with fast binary decisions for unmatched transactions.
Will do
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Next build
Paid / My Money vs Tax view
The tightest pain in small-trade cash flow is accidentally spending GST money. Daybook's answer is to move a prudent GST/tax-related amount into a separate user-owned bank pocket every time a payment lands. It does not pay the IRD for you — it just keeps the money out of sight until filing time. Operators can see exactly what is "theirs" versus what is "the government's" without ever opening a spreadsheet.
Will do
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Platform capabilities
Permission model
On Paid subscription, the accountant gets a proper seat inside the client's system — not a PDF dump at year end. They see job-threaded records and GST-ready views, with access limited by permission model. This is a major differentiation: Xero and MYOB charge for accountant seats; Daybook includes accountant on Paid.
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Settings + admin.yardstick.nz
Company trading details, logo, primary colour, BCC for emails, and core branding are not Daybook-specific — they also apply to Logistics and any future Yardstick product. The direction is to hoist these to a shared admin surface (admin.yardstick.nz) that both products read. Daybook-specific workflow settings (onboarding, module toggles) stay in Daybook itself.
Does (today)
Does not (yet)
Next build
Hard boundaries