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Made in NZ · For NZ painters

Painting software for NZ painters — quote prep, coats and coverage properly

Toolie quotes painting the way margin is actually won — prep priced separately from paint, coats and coverage as first-class inputs — then schedules the crew, tracks hours and invoices. Built for qualified NZ painters.

No credit card · Cancel anytime · Works offline on site · Flat NZD pricing

New Painter · Decorator quote · Exterior repaint, Hamilton · swipe to see it all →
Toolie painter quote for an exterior repaint of a 1972 weatherboard house at a fictional Hamilton address, listing the Lead Paint Hazardous Work Record and the painting workmanship warranty
Pick the job, see the paperwork. An exterior repaint on a house built in 1972: Toolie presumes lead paint (WorkSafe: built in the 1980s or earlier), lists the Lead Paint Hazardous Work Record and your workmanship warranty, and offers Elevation Measure.

See how Toolie works for painters

From measuring each face of the house to a priced repaint in real tin sizes, the lead-paint paperwork for older homes, and the colour schedule the client signs off — in the order you’d use it.

Every screen here is the real Toolie app running a made-up demo business — the clients and addresses are invented, the screens are real.

  1. 01 Measure the elevationsMeasure Net wall m² per face, from a photo or typed
  2. 02 Quote the repaintQuote Paint in real tins, labour from productivity rates
  3. 03 Lead paint and the paperworkLead paint Presume lead in older homes, keep the record
  4. 04 Colour scheduleColours Surfaces, colours and litres, signed off

01

Measure the elevations

Photograph each face of the house, tap something in the wall you know the size of, trace the wall, windows, doors and trims — or just type the width and eave height.

  • Calibrate on a door, a garage door or a run of boards you’ve counted and measured — nothing is assumed
  • Openings deducted at their real size, gables included, and trims (barges, fascia, facings) traced in lineal metres
  • A warning when traced points are far from the reference, so you recalibrate on something bigger in the same wall
  • The weatherboard lap factor worked out from your board’s cover and butt thickness (or painted girth), not a ×1.3 rule of thumb
  • Photo-measure is marked indicative; the photo stays on the phone and only the measurements are saved
  • Fill the takeoff, or add the measured exterior as a quote part, with a calc sheet kept on the job
Toolie Elevation Measure on a phone: an image of a weatherboard gable end traced with the wall outline, two windows, a door and the barge line, with the result 20.555 m2 net
Trace it on site. The gable end traced over a picture: 28.763 m² gross less 8.207 m² of windows and door = 20.555 m² net, plus 8.38 lm of barge.
Elevation Measure · four faces · swipe to see it all →
Toolie Elevation Measure summary of four elevations, one photo-measured and three typed, with a lapped weatherboard factor of 1.127 and a total of 95.79 m2 net wall and 107.95 m2 painted surface
The whole house. One face from the photo, three typed; a 150 mm cover, 18 mm butt board gives a 1.127 factor — 95.79 m² of net wall becomes 107.95 m² of painted surface.

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02

Quote the repaint

Pick the painting job type — interior or exterior repaint, new-build schedule, roof, deck or fence, epoxy floor, commercial, lead-paint remediation — and the takeoff prices the paint and the hours.

  • Paint litres from area × coats ÷ the product’s spread rate, bought in the product’s real tin sizes (the cheapest mix that covers the litres)
  • Labour hours from Resene’s published productivity rates for the whole paint system
  • Exterior inputs for primer on bare or weathered boards, two-storey work and scaffold, fascia and soffit runs
  • A painter pricebook you can override with your own supplier prices
  • Labour rate, materials markup and GST, with the client’s scope drafted from the job
Auto takeoff · filled from Elevation Measure · swipe to see it all →
Toolie painter auto takeoff filled by Elevation Measure: building perimeter 40.82 m, average wall height 2.35 m, weatherboard surface factor 1.127, fascia and soffit 41 lm, built 1972
Measured, not guessed. 40.82 m of perimeter at 2.35 m average height with the 1.127 board factor, straight from Elevation Measure.
Materials · real tins · swipe to see it all →
Toolie painter materials: Resene Lumbersider exterior topcoat as two 10 litre tins and one 4 litre tin, wash and moss-treat prep, and single-storey access, with 104 labour hours
Bought the way you buy it. The topcoat comes out as 2 × 10 L and 1 × 4 L of Resene Lumbersider, and the labour as 104 hours.
Quote total · labour, materials, GST · swipe to see it all →
Toolie painter quote totals: materials $1,603.09, labour $8,112.00 at 104 hours and $78 an hour, 15% markup $240.46, GST $1,493.33, total $11,448.88
Priced and ready to send. 104 hours at $78, materials $1,603.09 plus markup and GST: $11,448.88.

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03

Lead paint and the paperwork

Enter the year built and Toolie applies WorkSafe’s presumption: a building from the 1980s or earlier has lead-based paint until a test says otherwise.

  • Lead Paint Hazardous Work Record for any job that disturbs paint on a building from the 1980s or earlier, or of unknown age (HSWA 2015 s 36 and the MoH/WorkSafe Guidelines for the Management of Lead-based Paint)
  • Prohibited methods spelled out: dry sanding or scraping, sandblasting, high-pressure water blasting, heat guns and open flame
  • The record captures the lead test result, area disturbed, removal method, containment and signage, waste disposal and clean-up check
  • Your painting workmanship warranty, with the paint system used (in addition to the owner’s Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 rights)
  • Preset hazards for painting: working at height, lead paint, solvent fumes and the hazardous substances inventory with safety data sheets
Lead Paint Hazardous Work Record · swipe to see it all →
Toolie Lead Paint Hazardous Work Record for a fictional Hamilton exterior repaint, with the client, site and scope filled in and lines for the lead test, area, removal method, containment, waste disposal and clearance
Ready to complete on site. Generated from the quote with the client, site and scope filled in, and a line each for the lead test, removal method, containment, waste docket and clearance check.

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04

Colour schedule

Room by room and surface by surface: product, colour, sheen and coats, approved by the client before you order — with the litres worked out from your spread rates.

  • Rooms and surfaces with area, product, colour name and code, sheen, coats and spread rate
  • Litres per product and colour, rounded up to the can sizes your supplier stocks
  • Client approval with name and date, and a warning until the client has signed off
  • A printable colour schedule and CSV export
Colour schedule · exterior repaint · swipe to see it all →
Toolie painter colour schedule with exterior cladding, fascia, window frames and front door rows, and paint quantities: Resene Lumbersider in Resene Merino 31.7 litres as three 10 litre and one 2 litre cans, total paint 38.1 litres
The order, from the schedule. 31.7 L of Lumbersider in Merino becomes 3 × 10 L + 1 × 2 L, and 38.1 L of paint in total across four surfaces.

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Everything in the painter pack

Elevation MeasurePhoto or typed elevations → net wall m², openings, trims and the weatherboard lap factor.
Auto takeoffPaint in real tin sizes and labour hours from published productivity rates.
Lead Paint Hazardous Work RecordPresumed lead for buildings from the 1980s or earlier, with the record to complete.
Workmanship warrantyYour warranty and the paint system used, generated from the quote.
Colour scheduleSurfaces, colours, sheens and litres, signed off by the client.

Price prep separately, because that’s where the margin is

Wash-down, sand, scrape, fill, prime and undercoat are quoted as their own lines, not buried in a per-m² rate. Painting is roughly 76% labour and 24% materials in NZ, so Toolie’s estimate reflects that prep-heavy reality instead of a flat guess.

Track coats and coverage so paint cost is real

Quote interior walls, ceilings and exterior weatherboard by m² and by room, set the number of coats and the coverage rate, and Toolie estimates paint volume and material cost properly — so you stop under-ordering and under-quoting. Pick your paint brand: Resene (the default), Dulux, Wattyl, British Paints, PPG Paints and Aalto cover the main wall, ceiling, trim and exterior products, and Paint Plus, Accent, Porter’s, Zinsser and Wet & Forget cover the products they make. Litres come from each product’s data-sheet spread rate and are bought in its real tin sizes, priced from NZ retail list prices (white base) until your own supplier prices replace them. Where a brand has no matching product, or no published price or spread rate, Toolie keeps the Resene line, flags it and leaves the call to you.

Flag lead paint on homes built in the 1980s or earlier

WorkSafe advises presuming lead-based paint on buildings from the 1980s or earlier. Toolie flags jobs on those homes (and homes of unknown age) as a priced containment line and a documented control, with an SDS and hazardous-substances register for solvents and thinners under HSWA 2015.

Attach a workmanship guarantee and your insurance

Surface your accreditation, public-liability cover and a written workmanship guarantee on the quote header — the trust signals that win residential repaints.

Schedule the crew, capture timesheets, invoice to Xero

Run the crew across multiple properties in a day, capture painter hours per job, handle variations like rot or extra coats without eating the cost, and progress-claim large repaints under the CCA.

One flat price for your whole crew — and a demo before you sign up

Toolie is flat: Solo $49, Duo $89, Crew $129, Pro $249 (NZD ex-GST) — add the whole crew free, not per user. 14-day free trial, no credit card, no lock-in. And you can quote a real job on the demo before you ever create an account.

Related: invoicing · crew scheduling · timesheets · H&S & SDS · software for every trade.

NZ compliance guide

Lead Paint Rules for NZ Painters: Homes Built Pre-1990 — What NZ painters must do on older homes: when to presume lead paint, safe prep methods, asbestos in textured coatings, hazardous substances and SDS records.

Common questions

How do I quote a painting job in NZ?

Toolie quotes prep — wash, sand, fill, prime — separately from paint, takes off walls, ceilings and exterior by m² and room, and sets coats and coverage, so the estimate reflects the roughly 76% labour / 24% materials split instead of a flat guess.

Do I need to test for lead paint before repainting in NZ?

WorkSafe advises presuming lead-based paint on buildings from the 1980s or earlier. Toolie flags jobs on those homes (and homes of unknown age) and adds a priced containment line and a documented control to your quote and scope.

Can the app work out paint quantity for a job?

Yes. Set the surface area, number of coats and coverage rate and Toolie estimates paint volume and material cost per job, so you stop under-ordering and under-quoting.

Can I attach a workmanship guarantee to my quote?

Yes. Toolie puts your guarantee, accreditation and public-liability insurance on the quote header, which helps win residential repaints.

How much does painting software cost in NZ?

Flat NZD ex-GST: Solo $49, Duo $89, Crew $129, Pro $249 — one price for the whole crew, not per user. 14-day free trial, no card.

Does Toolie flag lead paint on older houses?

Yes. Enter the year built: for a building from the 1980s or earlier, or of unknown age, Toolie presumes lead-based paint as WorkSafe advises, lists the Lead Paint Hazardous Work Record on any job that disturbs paint, and spells out the prohibited methods such as dry sanding and heat guns.

Can Toolie measure a house from a photo?

Elevation Measure lets you photograph each face, tap something of known size in the wall, and trace the wall, windows, doors and trims to get net wall area per elevation. It is marked indicative — check-measure before ordering — and you can type any elevation instead.

Quote, comply and get paid — in one place

Start free today. Built around NZS 3604, H1, Healthy Homes & CCA 2002. One flat price for your whole crew.

Try the Elevation Measure free →