Fergus review for plumbers and electricians: is the job costing worth it?

Plumbers and sparkies have a problem most job apps were not built for: the materials. A day can involve three wholesaler runs, a van full of fittings and a dozen price changes you never hear about. If those costs don’t make it onto the invoice, the job loses money quietly.

Fergus was built around that problem. It was started in New Zealand by a plumber, Dan Pollard, to run his own plumbing business. This review looks at whether it’s worth the extra learning and cost compared with Tradify and ServiceM8. It’s based on Fergus’s Australian pricing and plan pages, checked in October 2026. We haven’t run Fergus on live jobs for this version.

For the side-by-side comparison of all three, see ServiceM8 vs Tradify vs Fergus.

Fergus plans and what they cost

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From the Fergus Australian pricing page, October 2026. The pricing page doesn’t say whether prices include GST, but Fergus’s terms of service say its fees are exclusive of taxes, so expect GST on top. When we checked it also showed a short-term promotional price below the standard one, so look at what the current offer is and when it ends.

To compare Fergus with ServiceM8 and Tradify for your team, including timesheet users, try our job app cost comparer.

There are no setup fees, the trial is 14 days with no card, and Fergus offers a free one-hour onboarding session with a product specialist. If you enter a card during the trial, Fergus says you won’t be charged until the end of the first calendar month after the trial.

The paid extras

This is where Fergus costs more than the headline. These were listed on both plans in October 2026:

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Certificates matter for sparkies and plumbers who issue compliance paperwork. Budget for them. The card fee is a little higher than ServiceM8’s 1.69% plus 30c on its Starter plan, so if you take most payments by card, that adds up over a year.

What Fergus does well

• Price books and supplier pricing. Load supplier price lists and keep them current, automatically on Professional. Fewer jobs priced on last year’s copper.
• Materials onto jobs. Fergus lists materials, purchase orders and supplier document reporting. The idea is that what you buy for a job ends up on that job’s invoice.
• Job phases. Split a job into stages and track labour and materials against each. Good for rough-in and fit-off, or staged renovation work.
• Reporting on profit. Customer invoice, staff, business and financial reporting, with advanced reporting listed for higher needs. If you’ve never known which jobs make money, this is the point.
• Cheaper field logins. Timesheet users cost less than full users, so apprentices who mainly clock on and off don’t cost a full seat.

Try Fergus free for 14 days → Affiliate link. Opens the merchant site in a new tab.

What it doesn’t do so well

It takes longer to set up. Price books, supplier links and job phases are powerful, but someone has to set them up. If nobody in your business will spend a few evenings on it, you won’t get the benefit, and a simpler app may serve you better.

The extras. None are hidden, but a plan “from $53” can end up well over $100 once you add users, certificates and texts. That’s still reasonable for a materials-heavy business. It’s poor value for a handyman doing small labour-only jobs.

Fewer quick-service touches. ServiceM8’s automatic “on the way” texts and arrival tracking are a strength for service calls. If that’s most of your work, read our ServiceM8 review before you decide.

Fergus for plumbers vs electricians

Both trades get the most out of the same core: price books, materials on jobs and job costing. The day-to-day differences are worth thinking about before you trial.

Plumbers usually carry the biggest materials bills. Fittings, valves, hot water units and pipe all change price, and a lot of plumbing work is a mix of quick service calls and longer installs. Job phases suit an install that runs over several visits, and supplier price updates stop old prices going onto quotes.

Electricians also buy heavily from wholesalers, but compliance paperwork is a bigger part of every job. In Victoria, for example, a Certificate of Electrical Safety is needed for electrical installation work. Fergus lists certificates as a paid extra, so price that in from the start. Our Melbourne electrician cost guide explains the certificate rules from the customer’s side.

Builders and renovators will lean on job phases and progress invoicing for staged work. If that’s you, compare Fergus with Tradify Pro, which also has progress invoicing and retentions.

Questions to ask Fergus during the trial

Use the chat or the onboarding session to get straight answers on the things the pricing page doesn’t make clear:

1. Are the listed prices including or excluding GST? The page doesn’t say plainly.
2. What is the price after the current promotion ends, and when does it end?
3. Is my wholesaler supported, and is it a manual import or automatic on my plan?
4. How are full users, timesheet users and contractor users counted if my crew changes month to month?
5. What happens to my data if I cancel? Fergus says you can cancel any time in the billing section, with the last bill at the end of that billing period.

Fergus also says removed users stay active until the end of the billing period and are billed for that period in arrears. Worth knowing before you add and remove apprentices.

Fergus or Tradify?

Both suit small trade crews. The difference is depth.

Pick Fergus if materials are a big share of every invoice, you buy from wholesalers daily, and you want job-by-job profit reporting.

Pick Tradify if you want a lighter system you can learn in an afternoon, with progress invoicing and no job caps. Our Tradify review covers its plans.

Compare: start a Tradify trial → Affiliate link. Opens the merchant site in a new tab.

Outgrowing Fergus with multi-site stock, long projects or maintenance contracts? Our Simpro review looks at the step up.

How to trial Fergus properly

1. Book the onboarding session first. It’s free and it’ll save you hours.
2. Connect your main wholesaler and accounting software. Fergus lists Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB. Check your supplier is supported. Our Xero vs MYOB guide helps if you’re choosing accounting software too.
3. Run two real jobs end to end. One service call and one bigger job with phases. Buy the materials, get them onto the job, invoice it and look at the profit report.
4. Add up the extras. Certificates, texts and logins. Compare the real monthly total with Tradify Pro for the same people.

Next step: pick your two most typical recent jobs and put them through Fergus during the trial. If the job costing shows you something you didn’t know, it’s probably worth the money.