One problem kept coming up. So I built around it.

I build software, not houses.

So I’m not going to pretend Variation Vault came from years on the tools. It didn’t.

It came from listening to people who are.

I spoke with bathroom fitters, electricians, kitchen installers and small builders about the parts of their work that caused unnecessary hassle.

One thing kept coming up.

Extras.

The little jobs that appear once the main job has already started.

“While you’re here, can you just do this as well?”

Or you open something up and find work that genuinely wasn’t part of the original quote.

Everyone understands what needs doing. A price gets mentioned. The customer says yes. You get on with the job.

Then the invoice arrives.

And suddenly the extra gets questioned.

Maybe the conversation is buried in WhatsApp. Maybe the photos are somewhere in your camera roll. Maybe you both remember what was agreed slightly differently.

Now you’re trying to piece the whole thing back together after the work has already been done.

That was the part that interested me.

Not because there isn’t software for trades. There is plenty of it.

There are good systems for quoting, scheduling, invoicing, managing teams and running the rest of the business.

But this was a much smaller problem.

And I didn’t think fixing it needed another system to run your whole company.

So I built Variation Vault.

When an extra comes up, you add what needs doing, the price, VAT if it applies, and any photos that help explain it.

Variation Vault gives the customer a simple link.

They can see exactly what’s being added and what it costs, then approve or decline it from their own phone.

No app for them to install. No account for them to create.

Their decision is saved with the job, along with the details they were shown.

So if the extra is questioned later, you’re not trying to remember a conversation from three weeks ago.

You can pull up what was actually agreed.

That’s the product.

It doesn’t schedule your jobs.

It doesn’t create your invoices.

It isn’t trying to replace the software, spreadsheet, diary or notebook you already use.

It handles the extra.

One job, done properly.

That’s the whole point.

Where we’re at

Variation Vault is still early.

It’s independent, built in Ireland, and I’m still the person building it.

I actually think that matters.

There isn’t a huge support department between you and the person making decisions about the product.

If something is confusing, something gets in your way, or you think there’s a better way it could work, you can email me directly.

I read the messages.

And if the same problem keeps coming up for people using Variation Vault, that’s exactly the sort of thing I want to know about.

I’m not trying to build every feature somebody could possibly ask for.

I’m trying to make this one part of the job properly useful.

— Cozmin Fatul, founder