Highveld Offices: Repair & Feature WallsOne job, read left to right, the way the dashboard reads it
Demo job, fictional figures
- Quoted
- R 37,065
- Earned by progress
- R 20,211
- Wages paid
- R 8,970
- Labour %
- 44.4%
See which jobs are losing money while there's still time to fix them.
Business Master replaces your Excel costing. Your quotes become the costing, your site managers record each day on their phones, and you see labour % on every job, every day, in colour.
Pilots from November 2026Self sign-up opens February 2027
The spreadsheet tells you at month end. By then the wages are paid.
Most contractors cost their jobs in Excel. The quote lives in one sheet, wages in another, and progress in the site manager's head. The sums get done when the month closes, and that is when a job that slipped in week one finally shows up.
Business Master does the same sums every day, from the people who are on site.
With the spreadsheetNothing to look at until the sums are done
Day 30: the job was over budget
With Business MasterLabour % for the job, coloured every day
Day 10: it turns red, with most of the month left to act
One number, judged every day.
Labour % is the wages you paid divided by the work completed, the income that progress has earned. There is no income without progress, so the two are always read together.
Labour % = wages ÷ work completed × 100
Move the sliders to see how the same job reads. It starts where the demo job above stands.
44.4%
Red: over 35%. This job needs you today.
To bring it back to 25%, the same wages need R 35,880 of work completed.
Wages with no progress show as a red dash, never as 0%: a day that earned nothing is never shown as a good day.
From the quote to the owner's screen, the same day.
Three places, one set of figures. The quote sets what each task is worth, the site says how far each task got, and the dashboard puts the two against the wages.
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The quoteBecomes the costing
Import your Excel quote, or build the job in the Setup Wizard. Every task carries its quoted amount, so progress on a task is income you have earned.
Import an Excel quote -
The siteRecorded on a phone
Site managers mark who was on site and put each painter on his tasks, splitting a day where he moved between them. Then they tap in how far each task got.
Putting painters on tasks, with split days -
The dashboardRead every morning
The office approves the day's timesheet, and that is what writes the wages. Wages and work completed meet as labour %, per job, every day.
Project health: progress and labour % per job
Built for the site manager, standing on site with a phone.
The Field app runs on phones and tablets. It is made for site managers and supervisors, not painters, and every screen says which day it is recording.
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Yesterday's task progress the last work day
First thing, from yesterday's evidence: how far each task got. On a Monday, that means Friday. It never waits for today's timesheet.
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Today's attendance today
Present, half day or absent for each painter, and what he is working on. A painter's day can be split across tasks, and it is sent to the office.
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Today's task progress later today
Later in the day, if he likes, for today's work. It unlocks once today's attendance has been sent.
- Mistakes are expected: open Timesheet history, tap the day, correct it and send it again.
- View All Sites shows every site's state, with a search that still finds “Botha” when you type “Btoha”.
The owner's morning: one screen that says where the money is going.
The dashboard opens on today's date and the jobs that need you. Every figure on it comes from the same wage ledger, so it agrees with every report.
- 25% or less: on target
- up to 30%
- up to 35%
- over 35%
- Labour % to date
- As it stood at the end of each day, drawn over the 25, 30 and 35% bands, so you see the trend and not only today's number.
- Needs you today
- The jobs whose labour % has crossed the line, at the top, before anything else.
- Waiting for approval
- Timesheets the office still has to approve. Approval is what turns attendance into costed wages.
- Best value painters
- Who earns the most progress for the wages paid.
- Money in and money out, every day
- What progress earned against what wages cost, day by day, with days that cost money but logged no progress marked in red.
- Timesheet approval by the office
- Site managers send, the office approves, and only then do the wages count. Nothing is added twice.
Four reports, each answering one question.
What did each day cost, and what did it earn?
Income from progress and wages paid, side by side for every day, with the running labour % on top. A day with wages but no progress is flagged, not hidden.
What did each painter cost against what his work earned?
Each painter's own labour % per week, task by task, so you can see who is carrying a job and who is costing it.
How far along is every job, and which are standing still?
Jobs that need attention, jobs nearly done, work completed each week, and every task with its progress.
What has each job earned against what it cost?
Quoted, completed, labour cost, labour % and profit for every job, with the worst first and the best performing jobs below.
Take it to the bank, the accountant or the site meeting.
The ROI Analysis and the Progress Report export to Excel and to PDF, with the same figures you see on screen.
Start from what you already have.
You don't retype your business into a new system. Bring in what is already in your files.
- Setup WizardClient, painters and project, one step at a time. Each step saves as you go.
- Excel quote importTurn an existing quote workbook into a project, with its units and priced tasks.
- SimplePay painter importBring in every painter from a SimplePay export.
Your figures are yours, and nobody else's.
Your quotes, wages and margins are the most private numbers in your business. Business Master is being built so they stay that way.
- A private copy for each companyAs new companies join, each one gets its own private, separate copy of Business Master and its data, rather than sharing one database with other contractors.
- Security review completedThe app has been through a security review.
- No customer data on this websiteEvery screen shown here uses fictional demo jobs, painters and figures.
In daily use at PaintEmpire, our first customer.
Business Master is not a mock-up. PaintEmpire runs its painting jobs on it every day: site managers record attendance and progress in the Field app, and the office reads labour % on the dashboard.
What you see on this page is the product they use.
A fixed founding price.
The first contractors to join get a fixed founding price. There is no public price list yet, so ask us and we'll tell you what it is for a business your size.
- Pilots with founding customers begin
- Self sign-up opens
Questions contractors ask.
Who is Business Master for?
Painting and construction contractors who quote their jobs, run site teams, and want to know whether each job is making money while it is still running.
What exactly is labour %?
Total wages divided by work completed, times 100. Work completed is the income your progress has earned against the quote. It is shown in colour bands: 25% or less is green, up to 30% yellow, up to 35% orange, and above 35% red.
Do my painters need to use an app?
No. The Field app is for site managers and supervisors. Painters appear in Business Master as attendance, wages and the tasks they worked on.
Can I bring my existing quotes and painters?
Yes. Excel quotes can be imported as projects with their units and priced tasks, and painters can be imported from a SimplePay export. The Setup Wizard walks you through the rest.
What if a site manager gets something wrong?
He opens Timesheet history in the Field app, taps the day, corrects it and sends it again. The office approves timesheets before the wages count.
Which devices does it run on?
The Field app runs on phones and tablets. The owner's dashboard and reports are made for desktops, laptops and large tablets.
Is my data kept separate from other companies?
Yes. Each company that joins gets its own private, separate copy of Business Master and its data. The app has also been through a security review.
What does it cost?
Founding customers get a fixed founding price. We don't publish a price list yet; book a demo or email us and we'll tell you.
When can I start?
Pilots with founding customers run from November 2026. Self sign-up opens in February 2027; join the waiting list and we'll tell you the day it opens.
See it on your own jobs.
Book a demo and we'll walk you through Business Master on demo data. Or join the waiting list, and we'll email you when self sign-up opens in February 2027.
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