It’s 9pm. You’ve been on the tools since 7am, and now you’re at the kitchen table typing up a quote, chasing an unpaid invoice and replying to three enquiries that came in while you were up a ladder. Sound familiar?

That second shift is exactly what a growing number of NZ tradies are deleting from their week with Make.com, an automation platform that connects the apps you already use and does the repetitive admin for you. No coding, no expensive job management software, no hiring an office manager. Here’s how it works and what your peers are actually building with it.

Why are NZ tradies drowning in admin?

Because the admin doesn’t stop when the job does. A recent NZ industry survey found small trade business owners spend an average of 10 to 15 hours a week on admin like quoting, invoicing and scheduling, and most of it happens after hours. That’s more than a full working day, every week, unpaid.

The cost isn’t just your evenings. Slow replies lose work. Research on lead response shows the first business to respond wins the job around 78% of the time, and a big chunk of enquiries arrive at night or on weekends when you can’t answer. If you’re quoting at 9pm and replying at smoko, you’re losing jobs to whoever set up an instant reply. We covered this problem in depth in our guide to AI for tradies.

What is Make.com and how does it work for a trade business?

Make.com is a visual automation tool. You build “scenarios” by dragging blocks onto a canvas: when this happens, do that. When a form comes in from your website, send a text. When a job is marked done, draft the invoice. When an invoice goes unpaid for 7 days, send a polite nudge.

It connects to over 2,000 apps, including the ones NZ trade businesses already run on: Gmail and Outlook, Xero, Google Sheets, Tradify, Facebook leads, and your SMS provider. You’re not replacing your tools. You’re wiring them together so information moves without you retyping it.

The bit that surprises most tradies: you don’t need to be technical. If you can read a flowchart, you can follow a scenario. The logic is visible on screen, not buried in code.

What are NZ tradies actually automating?

Instant replies to new enquiries

A lead fills out your website form or messages your Facebook page at 8pm. Make.com instantly sends them a text and email: “Thanks for getting in touch, we’ll call you before 9am tomorrow.” The lead stops shopping around because someone has already answered. You reply properly in the morning, but you’ve already won the speed race.

Quote follow-ups that never get forgotten

Most tradies send a quote and wait. The work goes to whoever follows up. A simple scenario checks which quotes haven’t been answered after 3 days and sends a friendly nudge, then flags the ones still silent after a week for a phone call. We’ve written a full walkthrough on automating quote follow-ups.

Review requests after every job

Google reviews win local work, but nobody remembers to ask for them. When a job is marked complete, Make.com waits a day, then texts the customer a direct link to your Google review page. Set it up once and your review count climbs on its own. Here’s how to put Google reviews on autopilot.

Invoicing and job admin

Job details from a form or spreadsheet flow straight into a draft Xero invoice. Unpaid invoices trigger polite reminders at 7 and 14 days. New jobs land in your calendar with the address and contact already filled in. None of it needs you at a keyboard.

How do you set up your first Make.com automation?

Don’t try to automate everything at once. Pick the one task that annoys you most and build that. Here’s the path that works:

1. Write down every admin task you did last week and how long each took. The winner is usually obvious.
2. Sign up for Make.com’s free plan (1,000 operations a month, enough to test properly).
3. Connect your two most-used apps, usually email plus your form tool or Xero.
4. Build one scenario: new enquiry triggers an instant text reply. Use a template if you don’t want to start from scratch.
5. Test it by submitting your own form and checking the text arrives.
6. Let it run for two weeks and count the hours you didn’t spend on it.
7. Add your second scenario only after the first one runs reliably.

What does Make.com cost a NZ trade business?

Less than your coffee budget. The free plan gives you 1,000 operations a month, which covers a basic enquiry auto-reply for most sole traders. The Core plan is about NZ$18 a month billed monthly (cheaper on annual) and gives you 10,000 operations, enough to run lead replies, quote follow-ups and review requests together.

Compare that to the alternative. If your time on the tools is worth $90 an hour and automation saves you even 5 hours a week, that’s over $1,800 a month in time back, for less than the cost of a box of screws.

My take: start smaller than you think

I’ll be blunt: most tradies who try automation fail because they aim too big. They watch a YouTube video, try to automate their whole business in a weekend, hit one error and give up. The spreadsheet-to-invoice mega-workflow can wait.

The single best first automation for a trade business is the instant enquiry reply. It’s the easiest to build, it’s impossible to break anything important, and it makes money immediately because speed wins jobs. Build that one, watch it work for a fortnight, and you’ll understand the platform well enough to build the next one yourself. Boring and reliable beats clever and fragile every time.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to know how to code to use Make.com?
No. Make.com is a visual builder where you connect blocks on a screen. If you can follow a wiring diagram or a build plan, you can follow a scenario. Templates cover most common trade business workflows so you rarely start from a blank page.

Does Make.com work with Xero and Tradify?
Yes. Make.com has a native Xero integration for invoices, contacts and payments. Tradify and most NZ job management tools connect through email parsing, webhooks or their own integrations, so your existing setup almost certainly works with it.

How long does it take to set up the first automation?
Plan for an evening, not a weekend. A simple enquiry auto-reply takes most people 30 to 60 minutes the first time, including testing. The second scenario is always faster because the connections are already in place.

What’s the difference between Make.com and Zapier?
They do the same job. Make.com is noticeably cheaper at higher volumes and its visual canvas makes complex workflows easier to follow. Zapier is slightly simpler for the very first automation but the costs climb faster as you add more.

Can automation reply to customers with AI-written messages?
Yes. Make.com connects to AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT, so your auto-replies can be drafted to match each enquiry rather than sending one canned message. Most tradies start with fixed templates and add AI once the basics run smoothly.

Is 10+ hours a week saved realistic?
It depends on how much admin you currently do by hand. If you’re in the typical 10 to 15 hour range, automating enquiries, follow-ups, review requests and invoice reminders genuinely removes most of the repetitive portion. Sole traders with light admin will save less, busy crews often save more.

Want this built for you?

We build done-for-you Make.com automations for NZ trade businesses, including a ready-made Tradie Automation Pack that covers instant lead replies, quote follow-ups and review requests. You keep working on the tools while the admin runs itself.

See how our automation services can hand you back your evenings.