Which software for your joinery business?

For quotes and invoices, count €25 excl. VAT per month with Tolteck (€19 paid yearly), €49 to €129 excl. VAT with Obat (€39 to €109 paid yearly), €39 or €79 excl. VAT with Batappli and €36.08 to €122.25 excl. VAT for Sage Batigest Connect. Joinery specialists show €75 excl. VAT per month for ProDevis START and €19 to €49 per month at Anodos (€14 to €36 paid yearly, excl. or incl. VAT not stated). The Aléker CAD costs a €3,590 excl. VAT licence plus €79 to €169 excl. VAT per month, and MaxCut is free in its Community version (prices checked on 1 November 2026). A custom extension costs €2,500 to €7,000 paid once, a complete tool €5,000 to €25,000, then €100 to €300 per month for maintenance.

It depends on where your quotes start. If you resell windows, shutters and doors, software that prices from manufacturers’ price lists saves you copying catalogues: ProDevis START announces “more than 2,000 price lists from 650 manufacturers”, HerculePro “1,800+ catalogues”, Sage Batigest Connect 700 manufacturers with its e-tarif module. If you price from site measurements with your own work items, construction quoting software is enough (Obat announces 30,000 work items, Tolteck a work item library, Batappli AI-assisted quotes). If you start from a 3D drawing, CAD that calculates the cost breakdown, such as Aléker in its Pro version, prices from the drawing.

For cutting, yes: MaxCut has a free Community version, and CutList Optimizer a free plan limited in the number of calculations. For quotes, Costructor offers a free Starter plan, and several paid publishers can be tried for free (30 days with no card at Anodos, one month at Tolteck, 15 days at INFast). SketchUp shows no free version on its pricing page. To start, the free template on this page (quote with measurements, cutting list and simple cutting plan, as PDF and Excel, in French) gets a workshop by, without scheduling or e-invoicing.

For an estimate, yes: the “Plan de coupe” sheet of this page’s Excel template calculates, piece by piece, how many fit on a panel given the saw kerf and grain direction, how many panels to buy and which offcuts are big enough to reuse. For real nesting that mixes pieces on the same panel, an optimiser does better: CutList Optimizer (free with a calculation limit, then €15 or €25 per month) or MaxCut (free, Business at USD 20 excl. tax per month). The Menuiserie de l’Auxois adopted OptiCoupe for its panel and batten cutting plans, with less waste and handling according to Prévention BTP. Boole & Partners does not show its prices, and a British reseller sells OptiCut for €545 to €3,445 (excl. or incl. VAT not stated).

To draw furniture and produce cutting lists, there is plenty of joinery design and manufacturing software: SketchUp (Go USD 10.75, Pro USD 33.25 and Studio USD 71.58 per month, billed yearly, excl. tax), Aléker (€3,590 excl. VAT licence plus €79 to €169 excl. VAT per month, Biesse and Homag exports in the Pro CN version), PolyBoard by Boole & Partners (€2,445 to €4,695 at a British reseller, excl. or incl. VAT not stated, no price from the publisher) or Cabinet Vision, on quote, for shopfitters, kitchen fitters and wardrobe makers. They design and produce cutting lists; the quote, the fitting schedule and the invoice are usually done in a second program. Before choosing, check that the cutting list exports, to Excel or CSV, to your quoting software.

The VAT certificate, simplified or not, no longer exists. To apply 10% (article 279-0 bis of the French tax code) or 5.5% for energy renovation works (article 278-0 bis A), the customer certifies the conditions with a statement on the quote or the invoice, for which the BOFiP publishes models (BOI-LETTRE-000280). Otherwise, the standard 20% rate applies. The technical criteria that open the 5.5% rate to a window are to be checked with your supplier or your accountant; the quote template on this page includes the statement, ready to sign.

Yes. According to the DGCCRF, a contract signed off premises for the sale and fitting of made-to-measure windows, shutters or doors does not fall under the exception for goods “made to the consumer’s specifications”: the customer has 14 days to withdraw. The period runs from receipt of the goods, but the customer can withdraw from signature, and you cannot receive any payment within 7 days. Your quote signed at the customer’s home must therefore provide for it, and the deposit wait until those 7 days are over.

Three warranties start at the handover of the works: the completion warranty (1 year, for the snags noted in the handover report and defects appearing during the year), the two-year warranty (for detachable equipment) and the ten-year warranty (for what compromises the soundness of the structure or makes it unfit for use; Service-Public lists door and window frames among the non-detachable elements). The dated and signed handover report sets this starting point: it is page 2 of the free template, with the snags and their clearance.

Not through the “par geste” (single-measure) route in mainland France: window replacement is no longer listed there. It remains one of the four “building envelope” items of MaPrimeRénov’ whole-house renovation, where each item chosen must cover at least 25% of the home’s surfaces. In both routes, the grant requires an RGE-certified tradesperson (Service-Public, page checked on 1 September 2026).

Wood dust is classified as carcinogenic (IARC group 1), whatever the wood. The INRS (French occupational safety institute) lists the limit value of 1 mg/m³ over 8 hours (article R4412-149 of the French Labour Code), checked every year by an accredited body, extraction at source, cleaning by vacuum, enhanced individual health monitoring of exposed employees and a yearly check of the ventilation. Machines stay compliant with the rules of their date of first use, and their risks appear in the risk assessment document. A management tool can remind you of these checks when they are due.

Elcia shows ProDevis START at €75 excl. VAT per month, cancellable at any time: it prices from manufacturers’ price lists and places orders, but does not issue invoices. The price of the full version of ProDevis is not shown. Other amounts circulate online, from €55 to €175 depending on the website; only the price on the publisher’s page, checked here on 1 November 2026, counts.

If your software exports your customers, jobs, work items and quotes to Excel or CSV, I import them into the new tool; it is planned in the quote. The cutting lists of your CAD software can take the same route. Check this export option before signing with a publisher.