Fergus is built for the trade business with a back office. Korda Pro is built for the one without.
Fergus is one of the most capable platforms in the Australian trades market. It handles the full operational picture - job costing, WIP tracking, supplier invoice matching, compliance documentation, scheduling, and accounting integration. For a trade business that has grown to the point where financial precision and operational control matter at every level, Fergus delivers it.
It is also one of the most demanding platforms in the market. Setting it up properly requires uploading price books, configuring labour rates and templates, and working through a structured onboarding process. The desktop web app is where the power lives - the mobile experience is capable but secondary. The pricing reflects the depth: around $48 to $72 per user per month, depending on the tier, which compounds quickly as a team grows.
That combination - high capability, high setup cost, high ongoing price, and a desktop-first design - makes Fergus an excellent fit for trade businesses that have the infrastructure to justify it. For sole operators and small crews doing residential service work, it tends to be over-engineered for the problem they actually need to solve.
“For a sole trader doing basic residential service work, Fergus is often over-engineered and too expensive.” - a recurring observation in Australian tradie platform reviews
Korda Pro is built for the other end of that description. One person or a small crew. Residential service work. The immediate problem isn't WIP tracking or supplier invoice reconciliation - it's that invoices go out late, follow-ups aren't consistent, and the financial picture is always approximate. Getting the invoice out fast is a start, and it's getting easier everywhere, including inside Xero's own AI tools. What actually closes the gap is what happens after: a follow-up that runs itself, and a cash position that arrives without asking.
How they compare
 Fergus | Korda Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary interface | Desktop web app + mobile, desktop is primary | WhatsApp, mobile-first by design |
| Quoting | Build a quote linked to a costed job record | Voice note in WhatsApp, quote sent, converts to invoice on the nod |
| Invoicing flow | Build a job, track costs and labour, generate an invoice from the job record | Voice note in WhatsApp, review, approve, sent |
| Xero integration | Live sync for invoices, payments and supplier records | Every invoice flows into Xero automatically on approval |
| Daily financial reporting | Dashboard, requires login to desktop or web app | Morning Brief delivered to WhatsApp at 7am, unprompted |
| Invoice follow-up | Manual - you write and send payment reminders | Staged escalation (7 / 14 / 30 day) sent automatically from your business email |
| Weekly summary | Reports available, requires login and navigation | Weekly Pulse delivered to WhatsApp every Friday at 4pm |
| Pricing | Around $48 to $72 per user per month depending on tier | Flat subscription, scales with the business, not the headcount |
| Supplier invoice matching | Automatic import from Reece, Tradelink, MM Electrical, Rexel and others | Not a current feature, built for service and residential work |
| Job costing and WIP | Full WIP tracking, margin visibility per job, hours vs quote | Cash position tracking, collected, outstanding, overdue |
| Compliance and safety | SWMS, site checklists and gas certificates from the app | Not in scope, Korda Pro handles quoting, invoicing and cash flow |
| Setup effort | Significant, price books, labour rates, templates and onboarding required | Dedicated WhatsApp number, connected and running same day |
| Best suited for | Growing teams needing deep job costing, compliance and supplier tracking | Owner-operators focused on fast quoting, invoicing and consistent cash flow |
Note on the two rows marked “not in scope”: supplier invoice matching and compliance documentation are genuine Fergus strengths that fall outside Korda Pro's design entirely. If your business runs significant materials procurement through Reece, Tradelink, or MM Electrical, or requires SWMS and gas certificates tracked through a single platform, Fergus is the right tool for that job. Korda Pro is built for a different set of problems.
The pricing reality for small trade businesses
At $48 to $72 per user per month, Fergus pricing is calibrated for businesses where the depth of the platform earns its cost - detailed job costing, supplier tracking, and compliance workflows as daily requirements, not occasional ones.
For a sole trader or two-person crew doing service work, the maths is harder to justify. You're paying per-user pricing for a platform built around multi-technician operations, supplier integrations, and compliance documentation you may not need at all. The invoicing and cash flow visibility you need is available in a product that costs a fraction of the price and requires no onboarding investment to get running.
Korda Pro's flat subscription covers invoicing, automated follow-ups, Morning Brief, Weekly Pulse, and Xero integration. A sole trader and a three-person crew pay the same rate because the product doesn't change, and neither does the value it delivers.
The part that actually costs you money: the chase, not the send
Sending an invoice fast matters less than it used to, since most platforms, and increasingly Xero's own AI tools, can turn a job into a draft invoice quickly. What Fergus doesn't automate for a small operator, and what a general assistant bolted onto Xero won't either, is the follow-up.
Korda Pro runs a staged sequence the moment an invoice goes out - a reminder at 7 days, a firmer message at 14, a final notice at 30 - all sent from your own business email address, without you writing a word of it.
WhatsApp · Every morning, 7am
Korda Pro
Good morning. Here’s your position for Tuesday, 17 June.
Collected this week: $14,200
Outstanding: $22,800(within terms)
Overdue: $6,400— 2 invoices
Follow-ups sent overnight:
Invoice #1041, Brennan Constructions, $3,800 — 7-day reminder sent
Invoice #1038, Sarah Chen, $2,600 — 14-day follow-up sent
7:00 AM
The Morning Brief - financial visibility without logging in
Fergus has reporting. Job costing data, WIP dashboards, and financial summaries exist, and for a business with someone checking them regularly, they deliver value. The barrier is that checking them requires logging in and navigating to the right screen.
Collected, outstanding, overdue. Which follow-ups fired overnight. Ninety seconds before the first job, no login, no report to generate, and no need to ask an assistant a question to get the answer.
For a trade business where the owner is on the tools from 7am, the gap between information you have to seek and information that arrives is the difference between knowing your position and not knowing it.
Where Fergus genuinely leads
- Full WIP tracking and margin visibility down to individual jobs and staff
- Automatic supplier invoice matching from major trade suppliers
- Compliance documentation - SWMS, safety checklists, and trade certificates built into the workflow
- Deep job costing for businesses tracking labour and materials closely across multiple crews
- Desktop-first tools for an operator or office manager running the numbers day to day
If your business has reached the point where supplier reconciliation and per-job margin tracking are daily requirements, Fergus is built for exactly that complexity.
Who Korda Pro is built for
Korda Pro is built for Australian trade businesses with one to ten people, where the owner is still on the tools and would rather the admin ran itself than log into a system, or query an assistant, to stay on top of it.
The problem Korda Pro solves is specific: quotes sit unsent, invoices go out late, follow-ups are inconsistent, and the financial picture is approximate. Korda Pro fixes those things without asking for a back office to run it. The invoice goes out from the driveway. The follow-up sequence runs on its own schedule. The Morning Brief arrives at 7am with the three numbers that matter - collected, outstanding, overdue.
Weighing up more than two apps? We tested five invoicing apps Australian tradies use, side by side, in our guide to the best invoice app for tradesmen.
Try Korda Pro through WhatsApp
Korda Pro onboards you with a dedicated WhatsApp Business number. Your first invoice can be in your customer's inbox before you've left the job.
14-day free trial →