From the customer’s first enquiry to the last fitter’s invoice.
A kitchen installation is one of the most complex projects a trade business manages. Multiple suppliers. Multiple tradespeople. A customer who has spent months choosing everything. IBIOS holds it all together in a single job record — from the design appointment to the final payment.
Built by a trade showroom, not a software company guessing at what you need. Early access by waiting list. Founding prices for waiting-list members.
What makes kitchen installation different from other trade work
A kitchen installation is structurally different from a service visit or a simple supply job. Appliances from one supplier. Cabinets from another. Worktops fabricated off-site. An independent plumber for connections. An electrician for integrated appliances. A fitting team for the units. And a customer who has spent months choosing everything and expects the project to run to the agreed schedule.
Most kitchen businesses manage this with a combination of spreadsheets: a job tracker, a supplier order tracker, an invoice tracker, and a contacts list. This works until a second or third person needs to use the information, or until a job goes wrong and you cannot reconstruct what happened and when.
The quote process alone is slow for a full kitchen when it is done manually: taking the supplier’s CAD-generated PDF, re-entering every cabinet and appliance line, applying the margin, writing the covering document, sending it to the customer. By that point, the customer has had time to speak to someone else.
IBIOS reads the supplier PDF into quote lines in about 60 seconds, links the supplier orders to the job, tracks the installation schedule, and records the deposit and balance against the job, without a parallel spreadsheet for any of it.
Six capabilities built for kitchen businesses
Built by a trade showroom that sells and installs kitchens and bathrooms. Every feature exists because a real installation business needed it.
Quote from PDF — CAD-generated supplier documents
Upload the supplier quote PDF produced by your kitchen design software. Quote Studio reads it into quote lines in about 60 seconds, then matches them to your own products, ready for you to check.
Installation scheduling
Survey date, install start, expected completion. Fitter, plumber, and electrician each assigned with their own dates. Delivery timeline visible on the same job record.
Multi-supplier coordination
Cabinets, appliances, and worktops often come from different suppliers. IBIOS raises purchase orders to each from the same job record, with delivery dates tracked against the installation schedule.
AI Receptionist for enquiries and appointments (coming soon)
Coming soon: will answer showroom calls when you can’t, book design appointments directly into your calendar during the call, and take messages for complex enquiries for the right person.
Deposits and balances recorded
Record the deposit and the balance against the job, with the payment provider and transaction reference. Payment details are visible to managers and owners only. Milestone invoicing and accounting sync are coming soon.
Job record linking everything
Customer details, quote, design notes, supplier orders, delivery dates, installation schedule, payments, and call history — all linked from one job record. One place for everything.
Built by a trade showroom, not a software company
IBIOS was built as the internal system for Isabella Bathrooms in Doagh, Co. Antrim — a showroom that sells and installs bathrooms and associated products. The problems it solves are the same problems a kitchen showroom faces: supplier PDF quoting, multi-supplier coordination, installation scheduling, and deposit and balance payments. IBIOS was not designed for trade businesses from the outside. It was built from inside one.
The complete kitchen project lifecycle
From first call to final sign-off — managed in one system.
Enquiry captured
Customer calls or visits. Their details and requirements are logged on the customer record and a design appointment is booked. Coming soon: the AI Receptionist will do this during the call.
Survey and measurements
Kitchen dimensions, layout notes, and survey date recorded on the job record.
Supplier PDF processed
CAD-generated supplier quote uploaded to Quote Studio, which reads it into quote lines in about 60 seconds, then matches them to your own products.
Quote approved, deposit paid
Customer approves via a unique link and pays the deposit by card in one tap.
Supplier orders raised
Purchase orders for cabinets, appliances, and worktops linked to the job. Delivery dates tracked against the installation schedule.
Installation scheduled
Fitter, plumber, and electrician assigned with their dates. Everyone works from the same job record.
Payments recorded
Deposit and balance recorded against the job. Stage invoices for progress payments are coming soon.
Full project history retained
Every order, payment, note, and call log linked from the customer record for as long as you need it.
Buying guide
Choosing software for a kitchen fitting business: from design to the last cupboard door
Written by the IBIOS team. IBIOS was built inside a working bathroom showroom in Northern Ireland, where it runs the business day to day. Last updated 18 October 2026.
How do you choose software for a kitchen fitting business?
A kitchen is a sequence, not a sale: survey, design, quote, deposit, orders that arrive in several drops, a strip-out, first fix, templating, worktops, second fix, snagging. Choose software by how well it keeps that sequence visible to everyone who touches the job.
- Surveys and design visits. Home surveys, showroom design appointments and phone consultations in one diary, so no designer is booked twice.
- A quote built from the design. Your design package and your suppliers produce the parts list. The quote should start from those documents, not a retyped list.
- Staged payments. Deposit on order, possibly a stage payment on delivery, balance on completion. Each one recorded against the job with its reference.
- Several supplier orders per job. Carcasses, doors, appliances, sinks and worktops often come from different suppliers on different dates. You need to see all of them on one job.
- Trades in the right order. Fitters, electricians, plumbers and gas engineers scheduled so that nobody arrives before the work they depend on.
- Who sees the money. Fitters need the job, the address and the plan. They do not need your cost prices or the customer’s payments.
Where do most kitchen jobs go wrong?
Usually in the gap between the order and the fit. A short delivery of doors, a worktop that cannot be templated until the units are in, an appliance on back order: each pushes the fit, and if the fitter and the customer find out on the day, you lose a day and some goodwill.
IBIOS keeps every supplier order on the job and lets your warehouse book goods in against those orders, so sales and fitting can see what has actually arrived. Automatic late-delivery alerts and delivery planning are coming soon, not live yet.
Should the software do the kitchen design too?
Probably not. Specialist kitchen design packages are very good at drawings, elevations and visuals, and most fitters already have one they like. The useful question is what happens after the design: does the parts list become a quote and supplier orders without being typed out again?
IBIOS does not draw kitchens. It reads the supplier or design-package PDF into quote lines and matches them to your own products for you to check.
Which rules apply to a kitchen job?
Connecting a gas hob or cooker is gas work and needs a Gas Safe registered engineer, in Great Britain and in Northern Ireland. In England and Wales some kitchen electrical work, such as a new circuit, is notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations; Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own building rules, and Part P does not apply there.
If you sell a kitchen in the customer’s home, the Consumer Contracts Regulations generally give them a cancellation period, across the UK including Northern Ireland. Goods made to the customer’s specification can be an exception. Get your terms checked and keep the signed or accepted quote with the job.
Design package, job-management suite, spreadsheet or IBIOS?
How the usual options tend to work out for a business that designs, supplies and fits kitchens.
| Option | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen design package | Drawings, visuals and a parts list the customer can understand. | It stops at the design. Deposits, supplier orders and fitting dates live somewhere else. |
| Field-service / job-management suite | Fitting teams who mainly need job sheets, scheduling and invoicing on a phone. | Often light on supplier orders, goods-in and stock; check how they handle a job with five suppliers. |
| Spreadsheet and shared calendar | A one-person fitting business. | Nobody else can see which drop has arrived; it relies on one person remembering. |
| IBIOS | Kitchen businesses that quote from supplier documents, take staged payments and order from several suppliers per job. | Early access by waiting list. Delivery planning and the AI receptionist are coming soon, not live yet. |
What you need in place before you switch
- Your appointment types (design visit, survey, phone consultation) and how long each takes.
- Your staged payment terms, written the same way on every quote.
- Supplier price lists and your own product catalogue as files.
- A list of your fitters and the other trades you use, and what each may see.
- Your standard fitting sequence, so the schedule can follow it.
What it costs
The real cost in kitchen fitting is a lost fitting day: a fitter paid to wait for doors, or a customer without a kitchen for a week longer than promised. Judge software by how many of those it would have prevented last year.
Founding prices for waiting-list members are explained on the pricing page. Each product works on its own, so you can start with quoting or bookings.
Last reviewed October 2026.
What people get wrong
- Booking the fit before every supplier order is confirmed.
- Retyping the design package’s parts list into a quote by hand.
- Taking stage payments without recording which stage each one was for.
- Forgetting that worktop templating can only happen once the units are in.
- Giving subcontracted fitters the same view as the office.
- Assuming a design package is a job-management system.
Related reading
- Quoting software buying guide
- Supplier orders
- Installation scheduling example
- Managing subcontractors in the UK
- Survey checklist template
Kitchen fitting business software FAQs
Does IBIOS design kitchens?
No. Keep your design package; IBIOS takes the resulting supplier or parts-list PDF and turns it into quote lines for you to check.
Can I see every supplier order for one kitchen job?
Yes. Every supplier order sits on the job, and goods-in is recorded against those orders.
Can IBIOS take a deposit and a balance on the same job?
Yes. Customers can pay by link, and each payment is recorded against the job with the provider and transaction reference.
Can I schedule fitters and other trades?
Yes. Workforce scheduling is live; timesheets and mileage are coming soon.
Can customers sign the quote electronically?
Yes. Customers can accept a quote online, and you can turn it into a contract they sign online. You send the signing link from your own email, as IBIOS emailing it for you is coming soon.
How do I get IBIOS?
Join the waiting list. IBIOS is in early access and there is no free trial.
See it with one of your own kitchens
Send us a recent job: the design PDF, the supplier quotes and the fitting plan. We will show you how it would run in IBIOS and be straight about the parts that are still coming soon.
IBIOS Limited · company no. NI743167 · 10 Ballyclare Road, Doagh, Ballyclare BT39 0PE · Production is hosted in the UK.
From the first enquiry to the last fitter’s invoice.
Early access by waiting list. See IBIOS running a kitchen project from enquiry to completion.