Trame Review UK 2026: Quoting, CIS and Invoicing Tested on a Builder’s Job
This Trame review is based on a hands-on test, not the sales page. We built a full quote for a load-bearing knock-through in a 1930s Stockport semi, issued it, marked it accepted, and followed it through to the deposit and final invoices, then tested the CIS deduction and the domestic reverse charge. Trame is a solid, honest UK quoting and invoicing tool with one flat price and proper construction tax features. Its AI assistant could not build our quote, though, and the CIS deduction needs one setting checked on every invoice before you trust the figure.
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What Is Trame?
Trame is UK job management software for trades: enquiries, quotes, jobs, invoices, expenses and reports in one place. It runs in the browser on a phone or computer (there is no separate app to download), and it is built around the way UK trades actually bill: CIS deductions, the domestic reverse charge, deposits, and payment by card or Pay by Bank through Stripe. Invoices and expenses sync to FreeAgent, and you can export expenses in Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent format.
Trame Pricing (checked 24 October 2026)
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free trial | £0 for 30 days | Everything, no card needed |
| Monthly | £29/month | Every feature, unlimited users, no commission on payments taken through Trame |
| Yearly | £290/year | The same, two months free (about £24.17 a month) |
There is one plan and no per-user fees, which is unusual. If you have a labourer or an office helper who needs access, the price does not change. If you take payments online, Stripe’s own processing fees will normally still apply; Trame says it adds no commission on top. The AI assistant is included but has a monthly usage limit.
What We Tested
The same builder’s quote
Knock-through, steel beam, labour for a builder and a labourer, materials at cost plus 10%, engineer and building control fees passed on at cost, 25% deposit.
The AI assistant
Gave the assistant the same one-paragraph job description we used in our Sleepless Tradesman test, then a simpler direct instruction.
Quote to invoice
Issued the quote, marked it accepted, and checked the deposit and final invoices it created.
CIS and reverse charge
Switched on CIS and VAT registration in settings to test the deduction and the reverse charge wording on the final invoice, then switched them back off.
How the Quote Builder Held Up
Trame uses a traditional line-by-line quote editor, not a chat. You group lines into sections (we used Labour, Materials and Professional fees), and each line has a quantity, a proper construction unit (day, m, m², m³, sum, tonne, kg and more), a rate and a VAT rate of 0%, 5% or 20%. The Tab key moves cleanly between fields, so once you get going it is quick to fill in.
The standout feature is per-line markup. We entered each material at cost and added a 10% markup, and Trame showed the customer price on the line and an internal-only margin bar along the bottom: cost £1,065, revenue £1,171.50, profit £106.50. The customer view only shows the marked-up prices. Our final quote came to £3,851.50 with no VAT, exactly matching the figure we got in Sleepless Tradesman, and every section total was correct.
One click added a 25% deposit (£962.88 “due on acceptance”), and a notes box took our exclusions (engineer’s calc, Party Wall, floor levelling by others). Trame also warned us, in a red bar at the top, that we had no business address set and that it would not appear on the quote, which is the kind of nudge that stops you sending something half-finished.
How the AI Assistant Held Up
Not well, in our test. Trame’s assistant is labelled Beta, and it is not a quote builder. Given our full job description it replied “I couldn’t verify those details. Please try rephrasing your question.” Given a direct instruction (“add line items: builder labour 5 days at £250 a day, labourer 5 days at £160”) it asked us to confirm the quantity we had already given, then returned links to help articles instead of adding the lines. It is more useful for finding things in your account (“who owes me money?”) than for writing quotes. If AI estimating is what you want, Trame is not the tool; if you know your prices and want a fast, tidy form, that does not matter.
How Quote to Invoice Held Up
This is where Trame is strongest. Issuing the quote locks it (changes go through a “Revise” step, so there is a version history) and gives you a share link or WhatsApp button, with email when the customer has an address. The customer can accept online. When we marked it accepted, Trame automatically created the 25% deposit invoice (£962.88). “Create invoice” then built the final invoice from the quote with the deposit already deducted, leaving a balance of £2,888.62, with the issue and due dates filled in. No retyping at any stage.
Does Trame Handle CIS and the Reverse Charge Properly?
Mostly, with one setting to watch. With “I work as a CIS subcontractor” switched on in settings, the final invoice shows a CIS deduction switch and a choice of 20%, 30% or gross payment rate. When we first turned it on, Trame deducted £770.30, which is 20% of the whole invoice, including the materials and the engineer’s and council fees. HMRC’s rules say the deduction applies to labour, not the cost of materials. Every section carries a small “CIS” tag, and once we clicked the Materials and Professional fees tags to “No CIS”, the deduction dropped to the correct £410.00 (20% of the £2,050 labour). Trame’s own homepage says the deduction “comes off the labour, not your materials”, so a section named Materials being included by default is a gap worth knowing about. Check the tags before you send any CIS invoice, and sense-check the figure with our CIS tax calculator.
The domestic reverse charge worked as expected. With VAT registration on and the switch ticked, the invoice charged no VAT and added “No VAT charged. Customer accounts for £250.00 VAT to HMRC” on a £1,250 labour line at 20%. Not sure whether a job is reverse charge? Our VAT reverse charge checker walks you through it.
What we found wrong
- The AI assistant could not build or edit a quote. It failed on our job description and on a simple “add these lines” request.
- CIS applied to every section by default. Materials and passed-on fees were included in the deduction until we tagged them “No CIS”.
- Deposit invoice due in 30 days. The quote said the deposit was due on acceptance, but the auto-created deposit invoice used the default 30-day payment terms. You can change the due date by hand.
- Stray empty sections. Pressing Enter in a rate field added a new empty section; we had to delete four of them.
- A small reporting mismatch. The Reports pipeline showed “Accepted 0” next to “Won in period £3,852” for the same accepted quote.
Is Trame Making Tax Digital Compatible?
Not yet. Trame lists Making Tax Digital as “coming soon” on its pricing page and in the app, and it does not claim otherwise. For now, the Reports page gives you a cash flow chart, what you are owed and an export of invoices, payments and expenses as CSV files for your accountant, and the FreeAgent sync means FreeAgent (which does handle Making Tax Digital) can do the filing. If you are in Making Tax Digital now, see our Making Tax Digital guide for sole traders and Xero vs FreeAgent comparison.
Who Is Trame Best Suited To?
Trame vs Sleepless Tradesman
We put the same job through both apps and got the same £3,851.50 total, by opposite routes. Sleepless Tradesman wrote the whole quote from one paragraph in about 70 seconds and raised building control, the engineer and Party Wall unprompted, but you can only edit it by chatting to the AI and its Starter plan costs £29.99 for 100 AI messages a month. Trame made us type every line, but it gave us full control, an internal margin view, automatic deposit invoices and proper CIS handling for the same £29 a month with unlimited users. If the estimating is your bottleneck, try Sleepless Tradesman. If the paperwork after the price is your bottleneck, try Trame. For the wider picture, see our best quoting software for UK tradespeople.
Trame FAQs
How much does Trame cost?
£29 a month or £290 a year, with a 30-day free trial and no card needed. There is one plan with every feature and no per-user fees.
Does Trame do CIS deductions?
Yes. Switch on CIS in settings and you can apply a 20%, 30% or gross deduction on an invoice. Check that materials sections are tagged “No CIS”, because every section was included by default in our test.
Does Trame work with Xero or QuickBooks?
Not directly yet. Trame syncs invoices, expenses and payments to FreeAgent, and exports expenses as CSV files in Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent format. Trame says a Xero connection is coming soon.
Every feature, no card needed. Quote one real job, accept it and see the deposit invoice build itself before you decide.
Verdict: Is Trame Worth It?
Trame is a well-made, UK-first quoting and invoicing tool. The line-by-line quote builder is quick once you learn the Tab key, per-line markup with an internal margin bar is genuinely useful, and going from accepted quote to deposit invoice to final invoice with the deposit deducted took a couple of clicks. CIS and the reverse charge are built in rather than bolted on. It loses a point because the beta AI assistant could not build a quote, the CIS deduction includes materials until you untag them, and Making Tax Digital and Xero sync are still to come. For £29 a month with unlimited users, it is one of the best-value options we have tested for UK builders and subcontractors.
This review is based on our own hands-on test on 24 October 2026 during Trame’s free trial, using a test job and a made-up customer with no contact details; nothing was sent to anyone. Trame’s founder contacted us about the product, but did not see or approve this review before publication. We don’t currently earn commission from Trame. See how we test and check.