- « metalwork contractor + town »
- « architectural metalworker near me »
- « bespoke balustrade + town »
- « steel staircase cost »
- « metal fabrication company + county »
- « made-to-measure steel gate quote »
- Specification
- Bill of quantities
- Pricing schedule
- Item
- Linear metre
- Interim application
- Variation
- Retention
- Final account
- Snag clearance
- Site safety plan
- Handover file
The chain, from the search to the final account.
Six stages, and six places where a job is lost: five because information changes tool, the first because it never arrives at all.
Getting found
Website, trade pages, location pages, Google listing. An enquiry now begins with a search, not with a phone call.
Enquiry in
Form, call, a drawing sent by email. Dated, attributed to its source, and not left sitting at the bottom of an inbox.
Pricing
Bill of quantities, hierarchical quote, parametric formulas, variants. Marius finds what you priced on a comparable item last time.
Workshop
The accepted item becomes a works order: cutting, assembly, hours booked — against the same record as the quote.
Installation
MetalField opens the site to the fitter: schedule, GPS clocking, install sheets, photos. The office sees the day the same evening.
Application & final account
Progress, variations, retention, structured e-invoicing. The application is built on what was actually made and fitted.
What jams, and where.
Competitors come up before you
On "metalworker" followed by your town you are on page two, and your Google listing has not been touched in three years. Private enquiries go elsewhere.
The site shows none of your work
No photos of installed balustrades, no project references, no service area. A customer weighing three quotes picks the one they can verify.
Pricing lives in a spreadsheet
Every estimator has their own. Material prices go stale, uplifts cannot be traced, and nobody knows which file the accepted quote came out of.
The application is assembled by hand
Progress percentages copied across, retention recalculated, VAT checked again. Two days a month that produce nothing.
What we put in place.
Two jobs run together: the visibility that fills the order book, and the tool that stops the order book costing more than it returns.
Website & trade pages
Your work, your references, your service area. One page per speciality — balustrades, staircases, gates, screens — and one per town you actually cover.
Local SEO
A Google Business Profile kept current, reviews, project photos, a declared service area. On "metalworker + town" the map takes a good share of the clicks before the blue links.
Hierarchical quotes & formulas
Items, sub-items, lines. Parametric formulas recompute quantities when a dimension changes, without redoing the pricing.
Applications, variations, final account
Progress per item, variations tracked, retention followed through to release. Structured e-invoicing on the way out.
Frequently asked questions
How do we get found on "metalworker" plus our town?
Three things, in this order: a complete Google Business Profile with recent photos of installed work and reviews; a dedicated page on your site for every town you genuinely cover; and located project case studies proving you work there. Local search in construction is decided on the map first — the rest of SEO consolidates it.
What software should a metalwork contractor use?
Metalwork software has to cover three things a general-purpose ERP does not: pricing one-off items with parametric formulas, tracking workshop hours against the job, and invoicing through interim applications with retention. MetalSales does all three against one record, which is what removes the re-keying between quote and invoice.
Does MetalSales handle interim applications and retention?
Yes. Applications are built on the real progress of each item, variations included. Retention is calculated, tracked and flagged through to release, usually a year after handover. Invoices come out in a structured e-invoicing format.
Do we have to take the website and the software together?
No, they are bought separately and plenty of firms start with one of the two. Taken together the chain closes: the enquiry lands directly in the quoting tool instead of an inbox, and you can see what each euro of acquisition produced in signed quotes.
Does the fitter need a signal on site?
No. MetalField is an installable app that works offline: clocking, install sheets and photos are stored on the phone and sync when the signal comes back. Nothing is lost in a basement.
See your rankings and your quotes on the same day.
Thirty minutes, no slides. Bring a recent quote; we also look at what you rank for against your three closest competitors.