What are Trade Schedules? Are TradeBox's products really trade-specific? Why would this be important to subbies and tradies 🤔? How does a new trade schedule get created? Aitchison Reid Building and Construction Lawyers, a law practice, owns and crafts the contract product templates and guidance material for TradeBox. The templates and material are part of the intellectual property (IP) owned by the law practice. The law practice has licensed TradeBox to supply to subbies and tradies, subscription based access to the templates and guidance. To create a new Trade Schedule, the following general process is used: A tradie/subbie “Bob” owns a trade business and wants to become a TradeBox customer, so Bob gets in touch with TradeBox; If a trade schedule for Bob’s trade doesn’t exist, Bob asks TradeBox to create a new trade schedule for Bob's trade. If Bob's work covers more than one trade, and trade schedules for them don't exist, Bob may be asking TradeBox to create more than one new trade schedules; TradeBox and the construction law practice consider legal feasibility (law practice) and commercial feasibility (for TradeBox), as to whether or not to agree to create a new trade schedule; If TradeBox and the law practice agree to create a new trade schedule, and if Bob becomes a TradeBox customer first, then Bob is sent an IP waiver to agree and sign for the law practice; If the IP waiver is agreed and signed by Bob on behalf of himself and his trade business: a nominal amount is paid to Bob’s trade business as consideration for agreeing and signing the waiver; and the law practice carries out a consultation with Bob (by phone meeting) to learn as much as possible about what Bob's particular trade needs and requires, so that these matters may be considered and covered in the crafting of the new trade schedule; The law practice completes the creation and crafting of the new trade schedule; TradeBox develops and launches the new trade schedule on its technology platform, so that it is available to Bob and all other TradeBox customers to add to their TradeBox Focus or Ultimate product subscriptions; TradeBox adds the new trade schedule to Bob’s trade business's TradeBox product subscription and supplies the updated product to Bob; The timeframe from the consultation process (from step 5) until the supply of the new trade schedule and updated product to Bob (to step 9) can take 4 to 6 working weeks; Bob is not charged fees by the law practice or by TradeBox for the consultation process, so the only cost for Bob to bear for the consultation process is his use of his own time and his agreeing and signing of the IP waiver.

“Extension of Time - Should this always be in writing?” A TradeBox customer using our Domestic Trade Contract package for their business asked us this question in July 2022: We wanted to get an answer back to our customer, to help them out. So we requested guidance from TradeBox’s expert building and construction lawyer, Fionna, at Aitchison Reid, to share below (remember, TradeBox isn’t a law practice, and the guidance below isn’t legal advice): “Yes. Section 42 [of Schedule 1B] of the QBCC Act states that you may only claim an extension of time if: You make the claim within 10 business days of you becoming aware of the cause and extent of the delay or you reasonably ought to have become aware of the cause and extent of the delay; The extension of time claim is in writing; and You provide the written claim to the owner within 5 business days of the owner approving the claim. There is a maximum of 20 penalty units and a $2,875 fine for not complying with the above or not providing a copy of the signed extension of time to the owner within 5 days of the owner approving the claim.” This guidance was written by law practice Aitchison Reid Building and Construction Lawyers (Aitchison Reid) for TradeBox Australia (TradeBox), so that TradeBox can share the guidance with tradies and subbies. Use of this guidance is subject to our terms and conditions of use stated here: https://www.tradebox.com.au/terms-and-conditions-our-ar-content Aitchison Reid, like TradeBox, is based in Queensland. This guidance has been drafted in reference to building and construction trade businesses in Queensland only. TradeBox is not a law practice. This guidance is not legal advice and is for guidance purposes only. Seek advice on matters of interest arising from the commentary and information in this guidance. Aitchison Reid’s content for this guidance was released to TradeBox in August 2022. Individual liability limited by a scheme approved under professional standards legislation. The shortlink for this FAQ is: https://your.tradebox.com.au/eot

A TradeBox customer using our Domestic Trade Contract package for their business asked us this question in July 2022: "Variations - Should always be in writing and signed?" TradeBox requested guidance from its expert building and construction lawyer, Fionna, at Aitchison Reid, to share below (remember, TradeBox isn’t a law practice, and the guidance below isn’t legal advice): "Yes. Section 40 [of Schedule 1B] of the QBCC Act states that after you agree a variation verbally you must [send] a written variation document to the homeowner within 5 business days. Section 41 [of Schedule 1B] sets out the requirements for a variation document. The TradeBox variation documents included with your contract documents fulfils the QBCC criteria if completed properly. Please note that there is a maximum of 20 penalty units and a $2,875 fine for not putting your variations in writing or not complying with the formal requirements for a variation document." This guidance was written by law practice Aitchison Reid Building and Construction Lawyers (Aitchison Reid) for TradeBox Australia (TradeBox), so that TradeBox can share the guidance with tradies and subbies. Use of this guidance is subject to our terms and conditions of use stated here: https://www.tradebox.com.au/terms-and-conditions-our-ar-content Aitchison Reid, like TradeBox, is based in Queensland. This guidance has been drafted in reference to building and construction trade businesses in Queensland only. TradeBox is not a law practice. This guidance is not legal advice and is for guidance purposes only. Seek advice on matters of interest arising from the commentary and information in this guidance. Aitchison Reid’s content for this guidance was released to TradeBox in August 2022. Individual liability limited by a scheme approved under professional standards legislation. The shortlink for this FAQ is: https://your.tradebox.com.au/zgc

A TradeBox customer using our Domestic Trade Contract package for their business asked us this question in July 2022: "How long before the job should the contracts be sent?" TradeBox requested guidance from its expert building and construction lawyer, Fionna, at Aitchison Reid, to share below (remember, TradeBox isn’t a law practice, and the guidance below isn’t legal advice): "You will want to send the contract to the owner in time to have them sign the contract, you to sign the contract and return it in 5 business days and then they pay the deposit within the time period given on the project details document. Given this you probably want to send it at least 2 weeks before the work is to be carried out." This guidance was written by law practice Aitchison Reid Building and Construction Lawyers (Aitchison Reid) for TradeBox Australia (TradeBox), so that TradeBox can share the guidance with tradies and subbies. Use of this guidance is subject to our terms and conditions of use stated here: https://www.tradebox.com.au/terms-and-conditions-our-ar-content Aitchison Reid, like TradeBox, is based in Queensland. This guidance has been drafted in reference to building and construction trade businesses in Queensland only. TradeBox is not a law practice. This guidance is not legal advice and is for guidance purposes only. Seek advice on matters of interest arising from the commentary and information in this guidance. Aitchison Reid’s content for this guidance was released to TradeBox in August 2022. Individual liability limited by a scheme approved under professional standards legislation. The shortlink for this FAQ is: https://your.tradebox.com.au/v5b

A plumbing tradie asked us a question recently. He’d watched our guidance video on whether a domestic building contract is enough for tradies carrying out work in Queensland. The tradie’s question was: “Great info! After talking to QBCC I’m under the impression you also have to be careful when doing projects with other trades or where the homeowner does some of the work or supplies PC items etc. the $3300 limit is for the total value of work completed, not just what you invoice for. Is that correct?” TradeBox requested guidance from its expert building and construction lawyer, Fionna, at Aitchison Reid, to share below (remember, TradeBox isn’t a law practice, and the guidance below isn’t legal advice): “Thank you [TradeBox] for your request to provide feedback on the comment on Facebook That is a great question [tradie]. The amount of $3,300 is used at least on two occasions in the QBCC Act. In particular, the amount relates to when people need a QBCC licence to carry out building work and when contractors need to use a domestic building contract. The meaning and how the value of $3,300 is calculated is not necessarily the same, so to respond to [tradie’s] question, we are just going to focus on the need to have a domestic building contract because that is what the [featured] video is about. Schedule 1B of the QBCC Act states that if the contract price is more than $3,300 you need to use a regulated domestic building contract (section 5, Schedule 1B, QBCC Act). Section 2 (Schedule 1B of the QBCC Act) states that a contract price for a domestic building contract is: “the total amount payable under the contract to carry out domestic building work and includes— (a) an amount the building contractor is entitled to receive and keep under the contract; and (b) an amount the building contractor is entitled to receive under the contract for payment to another person.” So if you have a subcontractor or a consultant (such as a certifier or a designer) carrying out work for you and you charge the homeowner for that work, then their work is included in the contract price. The value of the contract price also needs to include GST. If the contract includes prime cost items or provisional sums, then a reasonable value of the variable amounts should be included in the contract price. However, if the homeowner is supplying an item such a as plumbing fittings, the value of the fittings is not included in your contract price, because that amount will not be payable to you once you carry out the work. I hope the above information gives you some clarity.“ This guidance was written by law practice Aitchison Reid Building and Construction Lawyers (Aitchison Reid) for TradeBox Australia (TradeBox), so that TradeBox can share the guidance with tradies and subbies. Use of this guidance is subject to our terms and conditions of use stated here: https://www.tradebox.com.au/terms-and-conditions-our-ar-content Aitchison Reid, like TradeBox, is based in Queensland. This guidance has been drafted in reference to building and construction trade businesses in Queensland only. TradeBox is not a law practice. This guidance is not legal advice and is for guidance purposes only. Seek advice on matters of interest arising from the commentary and information in this guidance. Aitchison Reid’s content for this guidance was released to TradeBox in November 2022. Individual liability limited by a scheme approved under professional standards legislation.

TradeBox is all about making trade terms, trade contract and subcontract products and information easy, accessible and affordable for trade contractors and subcontractors in the building and construction industry. We provide you with a 12-month licence to use our TradeBox products that you have selected (your TradeBox terms). Our TradeBox products are crafted, drafted and updated by a building and construction law practice. We hired the law practice to do create our products for us, so that we can provide our products to our customers. The law practice hasn't sat in an ivory tower creating terms and conditions that look formal and legal. Instead, they've consulted with the trades so that they can craft terms and conditions for tradies that work for and fit with tradies' businesses. We asked the law practice to create product guidance materials too, so that we can provide them to our customers. As a TradeBox customer, when you buy a product subscription from us you choose the type of terms and conditions and the schedules that best suit the needs of your trade contracting business.

No, we don't provide legal advice. TradeBox: (a) Does not represent or advise clients or customers in any matter; (b) Does not provide advice, legal or otherwise; and (c) Is not a law practice. TradeBox's services and products do not include: (a) The provision of legal advice, legal services, legal opinion or legal representation whatsoever on behalf of us or our personnel; (b) Our staff, contractors, other personnel or organisation turning their minds to your individual legal or business needs; (c) Us considering the information provided by you; (d) Us determining or advising you as to which standard form terms and conditions, templates, schedules and terms and conditions products you should select as your TradeBox services or products. Whether you're a TradeBox customer or not, it is your responsibility to obtain your own legal advice for your particular circumstances. If you need assistance with finding a legal practitioner or law practice for a building and construction law matter affecting you or your business, feel free to email us at community@tradebox.com.au so we can send you some contact options which may help.

Our offline PDF documents have a built-in security feature to protect the intellectual property in our TradeBox products. The security feature activates after a customer's subscription anniversary date, and displays a warning that the offline PDF document is superceded. What this means is the offline PDF document is no longer able to be used to enter into a valid contract from a specified date, but doesn't affect the validity of contracts entered into prior to the specified date. The specified date is a date which is after the subscription anniversary date. For customers who want to continue subscribing to their TradeBox products after each anniversary, we have a process in place to confirm, before customers' subscription anniversary dates, whether they want to continue with their subscriptions. If they do want to continue, we deliver freshly updated products to our customers for them to use with the security feature set to activate after the next year's anniversary date.

Our Microsoft Word documents, provided when included as part of your TradeBox docs, are provided in .docx format for use on computing devices running the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system. We do not provide Microsoft Word documents in any other formats, and do not provide any assurance that they work on any other operating systems. See Schedule C of our terms and conditions of use for further information.

So that we can bring TradeBox Australia's products to market at low cost, we don't warrant or guarantee our products will work on all devices, all operating systems and all software applications. Though we don't warrant or guarantee it, we expect our products to work on most modern computer, mobile and tablet devices, on the latest Android, IOS, Windows and Mac operating systems, on the latest Chrome, Edge and Firefox browsers and on most PDF reader applications including Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (Adobe Reader). As issues and limitations become known to us, we will tell you about it here in our FAQ and we may also publish it in Schedule C of our current "Terms and Conditions of Use for TradeBox Australia's Terms and Conditions Products" (Terms of Use). When discussing "your TradeBox terms" below, we use it as defined in the Terms of Use. Known Issues and Limitations First observed by us on 4 Sep 2020, the PDF version of your TradeBox terms cannot be opened for direct viewing in the default PDF viewing application deployed by Apple on an iphone XS. We have observed an iphone XS operating the Adobe Acrobat Reader DC application [version 20.08.00 (20200818.142433)] successfully opened for viewing, PDF versions of “your TradeBox terms” documents; Based on our observation, we believe, but do not confirm (in accordance with clause 1.4(j)): That the PDF version of your TradeBox terms may not open for viewing in the default PDF viewing application deployed by Apple on all Apple IOS devices; That the PDF version of your TradeBox terms may open for viewing in an Adobe Acrobat Reader DC application, when that Adobe application is installed on Apple IOS devices. First observed by us on 17 Sep 2020, the PDF version of your TradeBox terms cannot be opened for direct viewing in the default PDF viewing application deployed by Apple on a modern Apple Mac computer: We have observed a modern Mac computer operating an Adobe Acrobat Reader application successfully opened for viewing, PDF versions of "your TradeBox terms" documents; Based on our observation, we believe, but do not confirm (in accordance with clause 1.4(j)): That the PDF version of your TradeBox terms may not open for viewing in the default PDF viewing application deployed by Apple on all Apple Mac devices; That the PDF version of your TradeBox terms may open for viewing in an Adobe Acrobat Reader application, when that Adobe application is installed on Apple Mac devices.

Our offline products are designed for use in Microsoft Word and Adobe Reader, on Windows 10 and above. So that we can bring TradeBox Australia's products to market at low cost, we don't warrant or guarantee our products will work on all devices, all operating systems and all software applications. Though we don't warrant or guarantee it, we expect our products to work on most modern computer, mobile and tablet devices, on the latest Android, IOS, Windows and Mac operating systems, on the latest Chrome, Edge and Firefox browsers and on most PDF reader applications including Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (Adobe Reader). When viewing our products' offline PDF documents on Apple devices: Apple devices (iphones, ipads, Macs and other Apple computers) have a built-in PDF viewing application on them, where PDF documents are opened by default; Our products' offline PDFs: have security settings in them which stop them being viewed in Apple devices’ built-in PDF viewing application; can be viewed in the Adobe Reader application on Apple devices; and See some known issues and limitations on FAQ.