The little woman with the colourful apron has made up her mind: she wants a green living room. Only then, she says, would her lemon-yellow budgerigars feel really good.

Master painter Wildung has to grin, in his job he hears many such unusual colour and design requests. Wildung is one of one million craft businesses in Germany – his mission begins with the wish of the protected lady.

In the past, he would have had to enter this order after hours, prepare a quotation and confirm it. But for some months now he has been using the craftsman software in the cloud of openHandwerk and now he has much more time for his real work: Painting! “Quite wrongly”, says Wildung, his craft is underestimated. He had to do much more than just “masking and brushing”.

An all-rounder – Cloud & App for the trade

With a new software solution, the entire administrative effort in the trade can be handled: From quotation and accounting, order management and history, task management and reminders, document management, employee scheduling, calendar, quotation tracking, performance measurement, GPS tracking and time recording of employees are included as well as the adaptation of the quotations to special customer requirements. Thereby openHandwerk is a “Software as a Service”.

German crafts: Many orders – few skilled workers

The order situation entails many formal processes: Wildung, like almost all craft businesses in Germany, suffers from a shortage of skilled workers, while at the same time its order books are overflowing and intensive office work is associated with it. Therefore, many German craftsmen do their office work after hours.

Crafts – a sought-after market

With its one million businesses, the German craft trade sector generated sales of around 581 million euros in 2017. Around 5.5 million craftsmen work in Germany’s craft enterprises. These are subdivided into small and medium-sized companies, including project developers, general contractors and individual contractors. Handicraft enterprises in Germany are confronted with high bureaucratic expenditure, which is often settled by the boss after work.

Master painter Wildung counts himself among the sole proprietors with his one-man business. His orders include small orders, like the one of the protected woman with the lemon-yellow budgies, but also complete maintenance or entire projects.

Full order books and lots of office work

No matter whether it is a large or small order – the formal effort is always the same and not small: The respective order must be officially accepted with an order confirmation and an offer, assignments and times must be well planned. If Wildung employs a freelancer, the freelancer’s times must be recorded for invoicing, notes must be made for invoicing and the invoices must be sent to the client. Due to the high volume of work in the office, craftsmen are generally prepared to handle administration digitally today.

For the craftsman Wildung, an expensive permanently installed software license was not an option; he did his office work traditionally. As a result, he was able to spend less and less time with his family as he increasingly shifted these tasks to weekends. However, in recent months he has had more free time again: he uses the cloud software and app from openHandwerk, which he can access on the road, from his smartphone, tablet and at home, from his PC. The cloud solution plus the app, which sees itself as Software as a Service, covers all formal processes and is completely paperless.

Simple, cheap and convenient

“With this cloud-based craftsman software, I was able to solve my biggest problems in a cost-effective way,” says Wildung . I now have much more time for my painting jobs, my family and at the same time I was even able to increase my turnover”, enthuses Wildung.

Slipcards adé: the cloud solution is compatible for every type of craft

A large part of the German skilled trades still works with routing slips today – without digitally optimised processes in the office and on the construction site. Wildung had initially used the free offer from openHandwerk to test access for thirty days. He became curious after seeing a fifteen minute online presentation. After the thirty days were over, he didn’t want to be without the app anymore. “The 16.00 euros that I pay monthly for the cloud software is a ridiculous amount compared to how it makes my work easier,” says Wildung happily.

“Because the cloud solutions are so practical, easy to learn and inexpensive, openHandwerk is also winning more and more customers from all sectors of the trade,” says Martin Urbanek, the founder of openHandwerk. “Our solution offers the possibility to optimize all administrative work,” he continues.

More free time. More turnover. Less bureaucracy

This not only reduces personnel costs, but also frees up staff resources. “We solve the biggest problems of the German skilled crafts,” he proudly explains: “Too many orders with too few skilled personnel

Although the openHandwerk craftsman solution is a cheap alternative to the expensive and complicated software licenses in the crafts, it does more. With comparatively low fees on a monthly or annual basis, it provides an amazing range of services.

Up to twenty percent more turnover for the companies

The company Vallovapor GmbH, a service provider in maintenance for the housing industry, used various folders, Excel lists and isolated applications for years. The company wanted to become more agile and modernize its processes and decided on the openHandwerk solution with a result that is quite respectable: Savings of around 30,000 euros per year in the office, while at the same time increasing turnover by 20 percent. “The application in the cloud is – in contrast to other software solutions – easy and fast to learn” Urbanek explains. “Experience shows that our customers master these after one or two weeks in their sleep,” he says. “And if there are any problems, we as a service provider can be contacted at any time,” he continues.

The woman with the colorful apron and lemon-yellow budgies sits contentedly in her freshly painted grass-green room. The master painter Mr. Wildung had time to devote himself to their wishes. He listened and did everything calmly and with patience. One thing particularly impressed her: he even remembered the names of her ten lemon-yellow budgies.