Trade software for the electrical contractor: what matters for the Rapport, the quote and the costing

Anyone searching for «trade software Switzerland» first gets a long list of programs built for construction in general — for the plumbing or painting firm just as much as for the electrician. That is rarely an accident of the search engine; it is how the product is aimed: most vendors cover what every trade business needs and leave out what only the electrical contractor needs — the structure by NPK (the CRB's standard catalogue of construction positions), the inspection period of an installation, the difference between a Regie Rapport and a defect report. Four points where this shows in practice.

The Rapport is more than a photo app

A Rapport — the signed record of work done on site — has to do two things at once: document the work and, with the customer's signature on site, form the basis for a later payment. A general trade app that collects photos and free text does the first but not the second: it does not distinguish between a Regie Rapport, which is the basis for an invoice by time and materials (Regie: work outside the quote, billed at rate), and an ordinary work Rapport, which is not.

The difference is not a formality. Whether extra work is paid for later depends on the agreed form of price — fixed price, approximate estimate or Regie — and a signed Rapport proves the work, not automatically the order. What follows from this for a variation is set out in the article «Quote variations: why ‹more work› is not a variation on a fixed price». Software that does not know this distinction produces documents that prove nothing in a dispute.

The quote has to answer in the structure of the tender

An NPK costing tool built for construction in general calculates in its own positions. For the electrical trade that is not enough, because the tender itself arrives structured by NPK or SIA 451, and a quote that answers in a different order makes more work for the client or planner than it saves them.

Two things are worth checking closely here, because «NPK» on a vendor's site can mean several things:

• Is the full CRB catalogue imported, under a licence of its own — or is only the structure of a specific tender taken over, so that the quote answers in the same order? That is not the same function, even if both are called «NPK support».
• Costing positions with a material factor of their own — from a Steiger catalogue, for example — are a third, different thing again: a catalogue uploaded once and then available in every quote.

elektro.box makes exactly this distinction on its own Integrations page: the structure of the tender is taken over; a full CRB catalogue import is not. That is the honest state of things, and it is why a look at a vendor's integrations page is worth more than a marketing sentence with the word «NPK» in it. What the catalogue itself governs — chapter group 500, the standard times and the firm's own price basis from which a target revenue is derived — is set out in the article «NPK costing for the electrical contractor».

Regie and variations need an unbroken chain

Trade software that keeps the Rapport and the quote in two separate programs forces you to type the Regie hours in a second time when they become a variation or a final invoice. That is exactly where the errors arise that surface later in a dispute — an hour that was on the Rapport and is missing from the invoice. Anyone searching for «Rapport app electrician» or «quote software electrical» is usually not looking for two tools but for one, in which the Rapport flows straight into the quote or the variation, with no second round of data entry in between.

It has to connect, not replace

Accounting is the part of the business nobody wants to keep twice — the chart of accounts is in place, the VAT return runs, the fiduciary (the external bookkeeping firm) knows the figures. Trade software that demands a second accounting system of its own is therefore rarely the right question. The right question is whether it connects cleanly to what is already there: passing quotes and invoices across, reading the payment status back. elektro.box does this today for bexio; which further connections are available and which are planned is shown — without promised dates that are not fixed — on the same Integrations page.

Checklist

• Does the Rapport distinguish between a Regie Rapport and an ordinary work Rapport, with a signature on site?
• Does the quote take over the structure of an NPK or SIA 451 tender, or does it only calculate in its own positions?
• Is it stated clearly whether a CRB catalogue import with a licence of its own is included, or only the structure of a specific tender?
• Does a Regie hour flow straight from the Rapport into the variation and the invoice, without a second round of data entry?
• Does the software replace the existing accounting, or connect cleanly to it?

A complete overview of what is built and running today is on the Features page; how pricing is structured is on the Pricing page.

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Information about our own product taken from the elektro.box documentation on Integrations and Features, as of 1 September 2026. This article describes no third-party products and makes no statement about what other vendors can or cannot do.