WhatsApp for Tradies: Your AI Admin Assistant

WhatsApp for tradies: the admin already lives in your phone

Walk onto any site in Australia and WhatsApp is doing the heavy lifting. The crew group chat, the client sending through a photo of the meter box, the supplier confirming a delivery, the "running 20 late" message — it's all there. WhatsApp for tradies isn't a new idea; it's already how the industry communicates. The problem is that all that useful information — the jobs discussed, the materials mentioned, the issues spotted — stays trapped as chat. None of it turns into paperwork by itself.

That's the gap offsider fills. Instead of asking you to move off WhatsApp into a business app, it adds a natural-language AI assistant to the chat you already use. You type or speak naturally, and the conversation becomes the admin. (New to the idea? Start with what AI for tradies actually does.)

Text it, voice it, photo it

offsider accepts three kinds of input — and all three turn into real records:

Text messages

Just type what you'd say to a colleague:

"Add a new site — 47 Oak Street Reservoir VIC 3073, residential house, for client John Smith"

"Log an issue at S6 — cracked ceiling in bedroom, needs investigation"

"Create a variation for S3 — extra bathroom exhaust, confirmed with Dave"

No slash commands, no menus, no fixed syntax. Plain language, and offsider works out what to do and which tool to call.

Voice notes

On site with dirty hands? Send a voice note instead. offsider downloads it, transcribes it via speech-to-text, then replies with what it heard so you can catch any slip:

🎤 Heard: "Mark job 5 as complete"

If the transcription fails, no credit is charged and offsider lets you know. Works with everyday Australian English — handy when you're mid-job and can't type.

Photos and documents

Send a photo of a meter box or a PDF plan straight from WhatsApp. offsider saves it as an attachment on the right job, issue, material, note, or variation:

[photo sent with caption "Switchboard at J5"] → offsider attaches it to job J5 automatically

You can ask for the files back any time: "Show me the photos from ISS16" and offsider sends them through. Supported types include images, PDFs, Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, audio, and more.

What offsider tracks

Everything you'd normally wrestle into a spreadsheet or forget to write down:

Sites and jobs — create a site, add jobs to it, set rates, assign them to crew, mark them done
Variations — scope changes captured properly with linked jobs, optional discounts, and a Quote or Tax Invoice PDF generated on demand (20 credits, owner-only)
Materials — request, order, and track materials against a site; attach docket photos
Issues — log problems on site and resolve them when fixed; attach photos as evidence
Notes — free-text notes filed against any site
Clients — a client directory linked to their sites
Appointments — book site visits with optional WhatsApp reminders to yourself or your crew (1 credit when the reminder fires)
Team — add managers and workers; everyone messages from their own phone with no new app to download or training required
Tags — tag any job, site, material, issue, or note; search by tag across everything

The features page has the full rundown.

The quiet advantage is your crew. Every other business tool has an adoption problem — you buy it, but getting the team to use it is a fight because it means new logins, new habits, and a training session nobody wants. WhatsApp has none of that. Your apprentice, your subbies, the new hire on day one — they already know how to use it. When the admin runs through WhatsApp, it actually gets done.

Variation quotes and invoices — by message

When scope changes, the process is: create a variation, add jobs with their rates, then ask offsider to produce the document:

"Generate a quote PDF for variation V1"

offsider confirms the 20-credit charge (charged once per variation — covers the quote, the invoice, and any regeneration), then sends the PDF to your WhatsApp as a document. The PDF pulls your ABN, company name, and bank details from your account Settings — you enter those once in the web dashboard and they flow into every document from then on.

A few things worth knowing:

Only the account owner can generate documents
The PDF lands in your WhatsApp — offsider can't send outbound messages to a client's number directly, so you forward it however you normally would
You can apply a percentage or dollar discount on any variation before generating
Document generation uses react-pdf and GST is calculated automatically

Real examples across trades

Sparky: Photo of the before-state switchboard → "attach this to J5, it's the before shot" → saved. Later: "Generate an invoice for V2" → Tax Invoice PDF arrives in your WhatsApp ready to forward to the client.
Plumber: Voice note on the way to the van: "We need 3 rolls of 2.5mm twin cable for S4, request it." → material logged before you've started the engine.
Builder / chippie: "New variation on the Hunter St job — client added a deck, confirmed with Sarah." Variation created. Add jobs with rates when you're ready, then generate the quote PDF.
Landscaper or painter: "Book an inspection at 14 Oak Ave Friday at 10am for 2 hours, remind me 1 hour before." → appointment set, and offsider sends you a WhatsApp reminder an hour out so you don't miss it.

Whatever you're on the tools for, the chat you already run your day in can run your admin too.

Start free — 200 credits included. offsider is pay-as-you-go — each message costs 1 credit. Check the pricing for credit packs.

FAQ

Do I need to use a different app or number?

No. offsider works in WhatsApp on your existing setup. You message the assistant like any other contact — there's no separate app to download or dashboard to log into for day-to-day use.

Is it just for electricians?

No. offsider works for every trade — plumbers, builders, carpenters, HVAC, landscapers, painters and more. The examples differ by trade, but job tracking, variation management, and materials work the same for all of them.

Can offsider send quotes straight to my clients?

Not to a client's phone directly. The Quote or Tax Invoice PDF is generated and sent to your WhatsApp as a document — you then forward it to the client however you normally would (WhatsApp, email, etc). offsider only ever replies to the person messaging it; it can't send outbound messages to arbitrary numbers.

Does offsider remember everything I've ever said to it?

Your records — sites, jobs, variations, materials, clients — are stored permanently and you can query them at any time. The conversational memory, however, is a short rolling window of recent messages. If you need context from earlier in the day or from a previous conversation, mention it again and offsider picks it up from your stored data.

What can offsider actually do from a message?

Track sites, jobs, variations, materials, issues, notes, appointments, and clients. Send voice notes to log things hands-free on site. Attach photos and documents to any record. Generate Quote and Tax Invoice PDFs for variations (owner-only, 20 credits). Summarise team activity. Search by tag. See the features page for the full list, or start free to try it.