Van stock app for plumbers, electricians and tradespeople in the UK (2026)
Ofisx Inventory Management (“Inventory Management: Barcode” on Google Play and “Inventory Management - Ofisx” on the App Store) is a stock app for Android, iPhone and the web that keeps separate stock for each warehouse and each vehicle, so a plumbing, electrical or heating firm can see what is on the shelves in the unit and what each engineer is carrying in their van. You book materials in and out by scanning barcodes with the phone camera, a low-stock alert reminds you to reorder before you are back at the merchant, and every member of staff has their own login, so the movement history shows who took what. Material used for a particular customer can be issued to that customer's account and sent to them as a PDF statement. Download and sign-up are free and the basic features are free; advanced features are Premium by subscription. It runs in the cloud and needs internet — for a sole trader who often has no signal in a basement, loft or on site, the sister app Ofisx Offline Inventory works 100% offline on one phone. Below we compare both honestly with the job management software, inventory apps and spreadsheets that UK trades actually use.
Short answer: what fits your firm
- A small plumbing, electrical, heating or maintenance firm with a unit and a few vans, where several people take materials: Ofisx Inventory Management — separate stock for the unit and each vehicle, camera barcode scanning, low-stock alerts, stock counts, movement history, staff logins and a web version for the office. Needs internet.
- You work alone and often have no signal in basements, lofts or on site: Ofisx Offline Inventory (App Store) — 100% offline, data on the phone, backup to Google Drive or iCloud; free up to 100 items and 300 transactions, Pro £3.99 a month, £12.99 a year or £22.99 once on the UK App Store — a subscription is not required.
- Stock in each van should come off automatically when a part is used on a job: Commusoft — storeroom and per-van stock, parts deducted from the van and added to the job invoice; prices on request, 12-month contract.
- Quotes, scheduling, job cards and invoicing come first, and materials just need to go on the job: Tradify (UK: £34–£44 per user a month), Fergus (UK: from £39 a month, materials and supplier integrations) or ServiceM8 (UK: free for 1 user and 30 jobs a month, paid from £25 a month + VAT).
- Tools, equipment and materials with photos, linked to jobs: Sortly — “Jobs”, and offline mode in the mobile apps; prices in US dollars, Free plan up to 100 items.
- A few lines and one van: a spreadsheet will do to start — no scanning, no low-stock alert and no reliable record of who took what.
Van stock and materials apps for tradespeople compared
| Option | Stock in the unit and in each van | Material per job / customer | Phone / no signal | Price (UK, checked 14 Oct 2026) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ofisx Inventory Management (online) | Yes — separate stock for each warehouse and vehicle, low-stock alerts, stock counts, movement history | No job module; issue material to the customer's account (with payments and a PDF statement) or note the job on the movement | Android, iPhone and web; cloud-based — needs internet (mobile data or Wi‑Fi) | Free download and sign-up, basic features free; advanced features Premium by subscription (UK App Store in-app purchases from £6.99 a month to £59.99 a year) | Plumber, electrician, heating engineer or maintenance firm with a unit, a few vans and staff |
| Ofisx Offline Inventory | One stock list on the phone: stock in, stock out, low-stock warning, stock count; the store listing does not describe separate stock per vehicle | No — no job module | Yes, 100% offline — no internet and no account, data on the phone; Android and iPhone | Free up to 100 items and 300 transactions; Pro £3.99 a month, £12.99 a year or £22.99 once (UK App Store) — a subscription is not required | Sole trader with one van who often has no signal in basements, plant rooms or on site |
| Commusoft | Yes — virtual locations for the main storeroom and each vehicle, min/max levels, automatic purchase orders | Yes — a part used on site is deducted from the van stock and added to the job invoice | Mobile app for engineers with job details, forms and parts history, also offline according to the vendor | No prices published; standard plans on a 12-month contract; multi-location stock is in the Customer Journey plan | Heating, gas and field service firm with several engineers that wants stock, jobs and invoicing in one system |
| Tradify | Not listed — the UK pricing page does not mention stock levels or van stock | Materials on quotes and invoices; supplier price lists imported by CSV; purchase orders from quotes on Plus | Mobile and desktop job management; offline use not listed on the pricing page | Lite £34, Pro £37, Plus £44 per user a month; Custom on request; 14-day free trial | Small trade business that mainly wants quotes, scheduling, job cards and invoicing |
| Fergus | Not listed — the pricing page lists “Materials” and “Moving Items”, not van stock levels | Yes — materials, price books, job cards and purchase orders on the job | Mobile app for job management; offline use not listed on the pricing page | Essentials from £39 a month, Professional from £45 a month (on 14 Oct 2026 shown at 90% off until December); timesheet users from £12 a month; 14-day free trial, no lock-in | Plumbing, electrical and building firm that wants job costing with supplier prices |
| ServiceM8 | Not listed — the UK pricing page does not mention stock levels | Materials and labour on quotes and invoices, job costing, supplier invoice importing, automated supplier price-list import | iOS and Android apps; offline access with sync when back in range | Free £0 (1 user, 30 jobs a month); Starter £25, Growing £59, Premium £119, Premium Plus £269 a month, unlimited users; prices exclude VAT; 14-day free trial | Small trade or service business that wants jobs, quotes and payments on the phone, priced by jobs rather than users |
| Sortly | Folders and locations for materials, tools and equipment; a van can be set up as its own folder | Yes — “Jobs” link items to jobs and projects (Free 2, Advanced 5, Ultra 10, Premium 15 active jobs) | iOS, Android and web; offline mode in the mobile apps only, syncing when back online | Free $0 (100 items, 1 user); Advanced $49, Ultra $149, Premium $299 USD a month, or $24 / $74 / $149 a month billed yearly; Enterprise on request | Firm that wants to track tools, power tools and materials with photos and assign them to jobs |
| inFlow Inventory | Multi-location stock; Lite has 1 location with no sublocations, Core 5 locations, higher plans unlimited | Through sales and purchase orders; no job module listed | Web and apps; the inFlow Stockroom scanning app is an add-on from £29 a month | Lite £89, Core £259, Pro £419, Max £589 a month (GBP prices on its pricing page); extra team members £19 a month each | Growing firm with a proper stores operation, purchasing and several locations |
| Spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets) or a notebook in the van | By hand — a column or tab for the unit and each van | By hand — a note against the job | Awkward on a phone; offline depends on the app | Google Sheets and a notebook are free; Excel with Microsoft 365 | Starting out with a few lines and one van |
The options in detail
Ofisx Inventory Management (online)
Add materials — pipe, fittings, cable, accessories, sealant, fixings — with price, VAT, a photo and several barcodes, or import them from Excel. Stock is kept separately for the unit and for each van, so you can see what is on the racking and what is driving around. Book deliveries from the merchant, issues and returns by scanning with the phone camera; when a line drops below its minimum you get a notification.
Each engineer has their own login, and the owner sees the same stock on a phone or in the browser in the office. The movement history shows who issued what and when, and the sales-per-employee report shows how much each person issued. There are also customer accounts with payments and due-date reminders, PDF customer statements, quotes, expenses, receipts and invoices as PDF (or printed on 58/80 mm thermal printers) and profit, VAT and cash reports. Excel import and export.
To be clear about job costing: Ofisx has no job or work-order module. If you want to know how much material went to a particular job, set the customer up as a customer and issue the material to their account — or write the job number or site address in the movement note. You cannot schedule jobs, produce job sheets or certificates here.
Ofisx Offline Inventory
The app works without a connection: add materials (or import them from Excel), scan barcodes with the camera, record stock in and out and count what is in the van or the garage — even where the phone has no signal.
Data stays on the phone; manual backup to Google Drive or iCloud is free, and Pro removes the limits and adds automatic daily backup. The trade-off: one device, no staff logins and no web version — once other people take materials too, choose the online app. More in our offline inventory apps comparison.
Commusoft
UK field service software for job scheduling, job costing, quoting, digital forms and certificates, with stock control built in. According to its stock page, parts are tracked from purchase order through the storeroom or van to the job, with an auditable history, stock valuation reports and usage by engineer or job type.
This is the closest fit if you want van stock to come off automatically per job. It is a bigger system: prices are on request, standard plans run on a 12-month contract, and multi-location stock control is a reason Commusoft itself gives for moving up to the Customer Journey plan.
Tradify
Popular job management software for UK tradespeople: scheduling, quoting and invoicing, job notes, Xero/Sage/QuickBooks sync, and on Plus service reminders (for example boiler services), purchase orders sent to suppliers, kit bundles and staff activity history.
Materials appear on the job through quotes, price lists and purchase orders, but the pricing page does not describe stock held in a unit or in vans — if that matters, ask Tradify or pair it with a stock app.
Fergus
Job management software built for trades, with quoting and estimating, price books, job cards, GPS tracking, timesheets, purchase orders and reporting. Supplier integrations are manual on Essentials and automatic on Professional; contractor users cost £2 a day.
Good if your aim is to cost every job with materials at supplier prices. Stock levels in a unit or a van are not described on the pricing page.
ServiceM8
Job management app for trades with scheduling, quoting and invoicing, card payments in the app, forms and certificates, and offline access in the app. Plans are priced by the number of jobs per month, with unlimited users from Starter.
Strong for running jobs from the van; for counting what is actually on the van shelves, check with ServiceM8 or use it alongside a stock app.
Sortly
US inventory app with photos, folders, barcode and QR scanning and low-stock alerts, with pages for construction and electrical users. “Jobs” record what went to a job and what came back; items, users and active jobs depend on the plan (Advanced 500 items and 2 users, Ultra 2,000 items and 5 users).
Billed in US dollars. Compared with other options in our Sortly alternatives page.
inFlow Inventory
Full inventory and order management software with sales and purchase orders, multi-location stock and many integrations. Lite includes 2 team members and 1 location; Core includes 5 members and 5 locations, so tracking a unit plus several vans as locations means Core or above.
Powerful, but expensive for a small trade firm, and built around orders rather than jobs.
Spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets) or a notebook in the van
Plenty of firms start with a sheet: a row per item, a column for the unit and each van. It works while one person keeps it up to date. Once three engineers are taking fittings and nobody knows in the evening what is left in the van, you miss scanning, a low-stock alert and a record of who took what. The same sheet can later be imported into an app — see our barcode stock take app comparison.
How to choose an app for stock in the unit and in the vans
- Where is the stock: unit, van or site? — For a plumber or electrician much of the stock is not in the unit at all but in the van: fittings, valves, cable, back boxes, sealant. Check that the app keeps stock separately for the unit and each vehicle and lets you move material between them. Ofisx Inventory Management keeps stock per warehouse and vehicle, Commusoft per storeroom and van, and in Sortly you can set up a van as a folder.
- How much went on the job? — If you want material costed to every job automatically, you need job software where parts come off the job — such as Commusoft — or Sortly with “Jobs”. If it is enough to know how much material you issued to a given customer, in Ofisx you issue it to their customer account and send a PDF statement; the job number can go in the note.
- Who takes material — and do they record it? — Stock only adds up if every pick is recorded. In practice that happens when it takes a few seconds on the phone: scan, quantity, done. Look for separate staff logins with permissions and a history that shows who issued what and when.
- No signal in basements, lofts and plant rooms — Signal often drops in basements, plant rooms, underground car parks and new concrete buildings, and cloud apps then cannot save a movement. If you work alone, a fully offline app such as Ofisx Offline Inventory is the safe option; Sortly has an offline mode in its apps, and ServiceM8 and Commusoft say their engineer apps work offline. If several people need to see the stock, you need a connection at least to sync.
- Minimum levels and the trip to the merchant — The biggest saving is not driving back to the merchant because the van is out of a fitting. Set a minimum level for consumables and switch on low-stock alerts, so you reorder before you run out.
- Per user or per business? — Job software is often priced per user (Tradify £34–£44 per user a month) or by jobs per month (ServiceM8). Count how many engineers need to book material and compare with a stock app whose subscription does not depend on the number of staff.
What the Ofisx apps do not do
- Ofisx has no job or work-order module: material is assigned to a warehouse, a vehicle and a customer account, not to a job. Per-job costing is done through the customer account or the movement note — material is not deducted automatically when a job is closed.
- It has no job scheduling, job sheets, certificates or engineer dispatch.
- It is not MTD-compatible VAT software: it shows VAT in reports but does not submit VAT returns and has no link to HMRC. Use your bookkeeping software for Making Tax Digital.
- It has no integration with merchants or wholesalers — supplier price lists and orders are not pulled in automatically; you can import products from Excel.
- Ofisx Inventory Management needs internet. Ofisx Offline Inventory works without a connection, but on one phone, with no staff logins and no web version.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best app to track materials in vans?
It depends on what you need. If you want to see what is in the unit and in each van, who took it and what to reorder, Ofisx Inventory Management keeps stock per warehouse and vehicle, scans barcodes with the phone camera, sends low-stock alerts and gives each engineer a login, on Android, iPhone and the web (it needs internet). If van stock should come off automatically when a part is used on a job, look at job software with stock control such as Commusoft. If you work alone without signal, Ofisx Offline Inventory.
Is there a van stock app for plumbers in the UK?
Yes. In Ofisx Inventory Management each van is its own stock location: you move material into it from the unit, issue it at the customer's and can see at any time what is left. Engineers record movements on their own phones and you see the same figures in the browser. Commusoft also tracks stock per van, inside a larger field service system with prices on request.
What inventory app do tradesmen use?
Usually one of three: job management software that puts materials on quotes and invoices (Tradify, Fergus, ServiceM8, Commusoft), an inventory app (Ofisx, Sortly, inFlow), or a spreadsheet. Job software is strongest on scheduling and invoicing; an inventory app is strongest on knowing what is actually on the shelves and in the vans. Many small firms use one of each.
Do Tradify, Fergus or ServiceM8 track van stock?
On their UK pricing pages, checked 14 October 2026, all three list materials on quotes, invoices or job cards, and supplier price lists or purchase orders, but none of them lists stock levels held in a unit or in vans. Ask the vendor if this matters to you, or use a stock app alongside.
Does a stock app work without signal in a basement or loft?
Ofisx Offline Inventory works 100% offline and without an account on Android and iPhone — free up to 100 items and 300 transactions, Pro £3.99 a month, £12.99 a year or £22.99 once on the UK App Store, a subscription is not required. It runs on one phone, so it suits a sole trader. Ofisx Inventory Management (the team version) needs internet.
How much does a van stock or job management app cost for a small trade firm?
Checked 14 October 2026: Tradify £34–£44 per user a month; Fergus from £39 a month (shown at 90% off until December); ServiceM8 free for 1 user and 30 jobs a month, then from £25 a month + VAT; Commusoft on request with a 12-month contract; Sortly free up to 100 items, then from $49 a month; inFlow from £89 a month. Ofisx Inventory Management is free to download with free basic features; Premium in-app purchases on the UK App Store range from £6.99 a month to £59.99 a year.
Can I see how much material went to each customer's job?
In Ofisx, set the customer up and issue material to their account; you can record payments, set a due date with a reminder and send them a PDF statement. There is no job module, so material is not costed to jobs automatically — for that, look at Commusoft, Fergus or Sortly with “Jobs”.