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Twelve months ago this article would have been one line long. Now there are at least half a dozen tools that let a tradesman send a quote or an invoice from a WhatsApp message, and more arriving.
We build one of them, NorthBot, so read this knowing that. We have tried to be straight about what the others do well, including the ones that are free.
Prices and features below were checked on each provider’s own website in September 2026. This corner of the market changes every few weeks, so check before you buy.
What these tools actually do
The idea is the same across all of them. You message a number like you would message a mate:
Quote for Sarah Whitfield, 14 Beech Road Leeds, full re-roof with concrete tiles, six and a half grand
A minute later a branded PDF comes back in the chat and you forward it to the customer. No app, no login, no laptop.
The differences are in what happens around that: whether it does quotes as well as invoices, whether it handles CIS and VAT properly, whether your customer can pay by card, and what it costs.
The tools
The Foreman
Free, and says so plainly: no card, no trial, no small print. Quotes and invoices as PDFs from a WhatsApp chat, a morning summary of what is due and overdue, and earnings totals if you ask. It drafts a payment reminder for you to copy and send rather than messaging your customer itself.
Good for: a sole trader who wants quotes and invoices to cost nothing. Free with no catch is hard to argue with.
WOPA
Invoices only, no quotes. Its selling point is chasing: once the invoice is out, it emails polite reminders at 7, 14 and 28 days until you say the customer has paid, and you can ask “who hasn’t paid?” any time. It handles VAT, CIS and construction reverse charge fields. Your customer gets the PDF by email rather than WhatsApp, and pays by bank transfer.
Free for 3 invoices a month, then £9.99 a month at the founder price it is running during its beta, otherwise £14.99. It says clearly that it is not yet HMRC recognised for Making Tax Digital.
Good for: trades whose problem is late payment rather than writing the invoice.
Manano
Quotes and invoices by voice note or text in any language, deposits built into the quote, card payments, and receipt photos turned into expense and VAT reports for your accountant. Irish, with a UK section on its site.
Three free documents, then €24 a month, advertised as 60% off its €60 list price and locked for as long as you stay. Card payments carry a fee your customer pays, 3% on UK cards, rather than you.
Good for: anyone who wants the bookkeeping side handled as well as the paperwork.
Qenn
The most ambitious, and priced like it. Quotes from a photo of the job, invoices, payments, late invoices chased with your approval on each nudge, a dedicated WhatsApp number, calendar and QuickBooks, and an AI phone answering service with transcription. Review requests after payment come in on the middle tier.
£49, £99 or £149 a month, with the first month free and no card.
Good for: a small firm that wants the phone answered as well as the paperwork done, and has the budget.
TaskDrop
Free invoicing that makes its money on tax filing. We could not check it: its website would not load when we wrote this, returning a security error. Worth a look if it is back up, but that is all we can honestly say.
TradeFlow AI and SayInvoice
Neither is a WhatsApp bot. TradeFlow AI is a phone app that builds AI quotes and invoices with payment links, at £6.99 a week, £27.99 a month or £299 a year after a 14-day free trial. SayInvoice is a voice-first invoicing app for UK trades. If you would rather tap an app icon than open a chat, look at these.
NorthBot
Ours. Quotes and invoices over WhatsApp by voice note or text, branded PDFs, invoices built from your quotes, CIS reverse charge VAT, card payment links and Google review requests. Twenty trades have their own job descriptions built in, so a re-roof or a consumer unit change comes out written properly rather than as one vague line.
£39.99 a month with a 14-day free trial and no card, and included with our Growth and Pro plans. Automatic payment chasing is being built and is not in yet.
Good for: trades who want the quote and the invoice from the same chat and want it to look like a real business sent it.
Not for: anyone who needs scheduling, timesheets, a team rota or accounting exports. NorthBot does not do any of that, and is not trying to. It handles the paperwork for the job, not the running of a workload.
Side by side
| Quotes | Invoices | CIS reverse charge | Card payments | Chases payment | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Foreman | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | Drafts the reminder | Free |
| WOPA | No | Yes | Yes | No, bank transfer | Yes, automatic | Free for 3/month, then £9.99 to £14.99 |
| Manano | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Yes, customer pays the fee | No | 3 free documents, then €24/month |
| Qenn | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Yes | Yes, you approve each nudge | £49 to £149/month |
| TradeFlow AI | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Yes | Not stated | £27.99/month |
| NorthBot | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Coming soon | £39.99/month |
Checked on each provider’s own site in September 2026. “Not stated” means their site did not say either way, so ask them before you rely on it. TaskDrop is left out because its site would not load.
What to look for before you pick one
- Does it do quotes as well as invoices? Half of these are invoice only. If you also price work, one tool for both means the invoice can be built from the quote instead of typed again.
- Can you get your stuff out? Ask how you get your documents if you stop paying. A folder of PDFs you already forwarded to customers is not the same as a record you can hand an accountant.
- Does it look like you? Your logo, your details, your VAT number. A generic PDF with someone else’s branding does not help you win the next job.
- Is anyone behind it? Check for a company name, a UK address and a way to contact a human. Several of these are one-person side projects, which is fine for a free tool and less fine when it is holding your invoices.
- What does it cost when the trial ends? Free allowances tend to be small. Work out the cost of a normal month for you.
Our honest take
If you send a handful of invoices a year, use one of the free ones. That is a sensible answer and none of the paid tools, ours included, will change your life at that volume.
If you quote and invoice every week, the thing that saves the most time is having quotes and invoices in the same place, so the invoice is built from the quote and you never type the job twice. That, plus the paperwork looking like a proper firm sent it, is what NorthBot is for.
NorthBot is £39.99 a month on its own, with a 14-day free trial and no card to start, and it is included with our Growth and Pro plans alongside your website and SEO.
Want the detail on the two jobs it does? Read how to send a quote on WhatsApp and how to send an invoice on WhatsApp.