How to start a roofing business without skipping authorisation
Roofing, height work and related trades are authorised differently depending on where you trade. Check the local authorities that cover the work you will actually do. This page will not invent licences or insurance minimums.
A re-roof dies in the gap between the weather and the progress claim. Close that gap before the week blows out.
Set up the business behind the work
Choose the legal structure available where you trade, register for the taxes that apply, and open a separate business bank account. Ask a qualified local accountant which registrations and records your business needs; do not rely on a generic checklist from another jurisdiction.
Build a simple first-year budget for tools, vehicle, insurance, software, tax, and a cash buffer. Decide who the first customer is and how they will find you — referrals, local search, property managers, builders, or maintenance agreements — then track which channel produces accepted work rather than enquiries alone.
- Register the business and required tax accounts
- Separate business banking and bookkeeping from personal spending
- Budget fixed overhead, job costs, tax, and working capital
- Write a repeatable way to win the first ten suitable customers
- Keep evidence of licences, insurance, quotes, variations, and invoices
Quote the roof you can see
A patch vs a re-roof are different papers. If you cannot get on it, it is an estimate. If you can stand behind a total, it is a quote. Write exclusions: sarking, timber, disposal, after-hours, making good inside.
Price from your hours and your materials, then check margin. Do not publish a rate per square you did not earn.
The week has to move
Weather blows the diary. The whole crew needs to move in one drag, not a chain of calls. The roofing job management page shows that reschedule in the product.
Multi-day jobs need a status the office and the roof can both see. If the only plan is in someone's head, rain will double-book Friday.
Progress claims, then the final
Materials on site, then a stage, then complete. Each claim is an invoice that names what it covers. The final should match the work order, including approved extras.