Why VendorPad Twenty years building software. Then we needed a diary for the van.
Nothing we tried understood that a booking has a date, a crew and a balance due. Spreadsheets fell over at one van. HoneyBook is built for American photographers. So we built this.
VendorPad is made by Hotline Labs Ltd in Tonypandy, South Wales. David Cooper, who runs it, has been building software for over twenty years. He and his wife Bex also run Welsh Italian Pizza, a mobile catering business that works weddings, festivals and markets, and they are setting up more street food brands alongside it.
Running the vans came with three questions that never had a quick answer. Who is working the wedding on Saturday, and have they actually said yes? Is that date in August confirmed or still pencilled? And did the festival make money once the diesel, the stock, the pitch fee and the wages came out?
We tried the tools that exist. HoneyBook is good, and American, and built around a client signing a contract. Spreadsheets lasted about a month. The notes app lasted a week. None of them had a place to put a crew. So we built the thing we needed: an event diary with names on each gig and the money attached, that works on the phone you already have in your apron. We run our own vans on it.
Six things that went wrong in our vans, and what we built for each
In the order they hurt. Crew first.
Who's working Saturday?
Three group chats, a paper diary and a text from Tuesday. Nobody has actually said yes.
What it costs: You turn up a person short, or you pay someone for a day you didn't need them. Either way you find out on the morning.
A crew on every booking
Invite your staff, put names on each gig, and see the team calendar with holidays on it. They log in and see their own gigs. They clock in and out on the day and you approve the hours at the end of the week.
Pencilled or booked?
A provisional in August that you treated as confirmed. Then the real booking came in for the same day.
What it costs: Someone gets let down. If it's a wedding, that's a review you'll be reading for years.
Confirmed, provisional, and a clash warning
Every booking has a status and a colour. Put something on a date you already have something on and VendorPad tells you before you save it. Bookings sync to Google Calendar, so your other half can see the Saturday too.
The balance was due last week
You know you're owed money. You're not sure how much, or by whom, and you're too British to ask twice.
What it costs: Cash flow problems in July, when you're busiest, because of money that should have landed in May.
Deposits and balances that chase themselves
Each booking has its deposit and balance with a due date. Reminders go to the customer before the balance is due and again if it goes late. The list shows red, amber and green, so you can see who owes what without opening your banking app.
Did the festival make anything?
Great weekend, big takings. After diesel, stock, the pitch fee and four days of wages, nobody knows.
What it costs: You book the same loss-making event next year because the takings looked good.
Profit per event, staff cost included
Log fuel, stock and pitch fees against the event. Staff cost comes in from the approved timesheets on its own. The profit report shows revenue, costs and what was left, event by event.
Quoting from memory
You quoted £400 last time and forgot the travel. Now you are working for £12 an hour.
What it costs: Either you lose the job because the number was high, or you win it and lose money.
Quotes from saved items and your mileage rate
Save your menu items and packages once. Add the miles and your rate per mile goes on. The quote comes out as a PDF with your business details and the deposit you are asking for on it.
Enquiries all over the place
A website form, a DM, a voicemail from someone's mum. You replied to two of them.
What it costs: The third one was a corporate job in September. You'll never know.
One list of enquiries, with follow-up reminders
Enquiries from your website land in VendorPad on their own, through the WordPress plugin, an embed or a plain form. Everything else you type in. Set a follow-up date and you get reminded. No inbox is being read for you, and we will not pretend otherwise.
Software people who also work a hatch
That combination is the whole reason this exists.
Over twenty years in software
Enterprise systems, SaaS platforms and mobile apps, built for other people before this one.
We run a van
Welsh Italian Pizza trades at weddings, festivals and markets across South Wales. The admin for that is where VendorPad came from.
Made in Wales
Hotline Labs Ltd, Tonypandy. A registered UK company that answers its own email.
Nothing in here we do not use
Every screen exists because we needed it between serves, not because a feature list needed filling.
If you are comparing us with HoneyBook
HoneyBook is a good product. It is American, it bills in dollars, and it is built around the client: proposals, contracts, online signatures and card payments. If you need a contract signed online, it does that and VendorPad does not.
VendorPad is built around the event date and the people working it. Confirmed versus provisional, a clash warning, a crew on each booking, timesheets, certificate expiry dates, and profit per event with staff cost in it. Pounds, UK postcodes and bank transfer by default.
If your business is one person and a contract, HoneyBook may suit you better. If it is a van, a Saturday crew and a festival in August, that is what we built this for.
Four things we will not change
Generic CRMs were not built for event vendors. This was.
Not a client pipeline
Assignments, timesheets, certificates
Pounds, postcodes, bank transfer
From £24.99 a month
Put Saturday in and see who is working it
14 days free, no card needed. Built by people who are out in the van this weekend.