An apprentice seat is £19 a month ex VAT, flat — it's the same £19 whether he's your only apprentice or your fourth, and it doesn't change the price of anybody else's seat.
It's for your own staff who are learning the trade. That's what makes it different from a subcontractor seat: an apprentice is on your books, so Mucka talks to him like anyone else on the crew — he pairs WhatsApp, he gets Mucka on his phone to ask, and he's in your team list.
What he gets
- His own jobs. The ones you put him on, and nothing else.
- Accept or decline, and mark a job done.
- Report a door that wouldn't open, with a photo at the door.
- His own diary — just his work, not the whole team's.
- The notepad, for photos and notes off site.
- Mucka on his phone. This is the one that earns the £19. He can ask what a gas rate should be from the loft instead of ringing you.
- His own hours, if you've turned on hours logging in Timesheets.
- His own inbox — messages you send him, notes you assign him.
What he can never get
These four are fixed by us. They're not a setting you've left switched off, and there's no way to turn them on:
- Certificates. He isn't Gas Safe registered, so he can't raise a CP12 or any other certificate against your business's name.
- Taking a card payment. Money collected in your name isn't his to collect.
- Your price list.
- What a job cost or made.
Why it's fixed rather than a setting
That's the whole reason the seat is £19 rather than £39.
An Engineer seat can be given every one of those four — and some of them arrive on their own. Install the gas certificates skill and your engineers can raise a certificate from that moment, without you ticking anything. Install invoicing and they can take a card at the door.
An apprentice seat doesn't work that way. Whatever you switch on later, it stays narrow. So you're not buying a seat with fewer features ticked; you're buying one that can't grow until you move him.
You'll see this on Settings → Team → Roles: the Apprentice row shows you exactly what he can reach, with the ticks greyed out, and a note saying why.
When he qualifies
Move him onto an Engineer seat. Open him in Settings → Team, change his role, and he gets everything an engineer on your account has — including whatever you've granted them beyond the defaults.
His price goes from £19 to your normal per-seat rate on the next invoice, pro-rated from the day you change it.
Adding one
Settings → Team → Invite, then pick Apprentice in the role box. The invite works exactly like any other — he gets an email, sets a password, and is walked through pairing WhatsApp so his jobs reach him.
If you don't see Apprentice in that list, the seat isn't switched on for your account yet. Give us a shout.
What it doesn't change
- Subcontractors are still free. An apprentice is on your own books and uses the product properly, which is why he isn't.
- Your other seats don't move. Adding an apprentice never pushes you up a band or reprices anyone else, because he isn't on the per-seat ladder at all.
- He appears as his own line on your invoice, so you can see what the apprentices are costing you separately from the rest of the team.