Tradie Materials Live NZ

TML NZ helps Kiwi tradies compare live prices of materials by location, track stock, build quotes, get alerts on changes, and generate invoices—All in one streamlined workflow!

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📘 Tradie Materials Live NZ (TML NZ)

Tradie Materials Live NZ is a web-based platform designed to save New Zealand tradies time, reduce costs, and simplify the quoting and procurement process.

Tradies often waste time flipping between multiple websites, calling stores for availability, or physically checking stock across suppliers. TML NZ solves this by offering a streamlined tool to:

  • Select their trade role
  • Automatically discover nearby stores
  • View live prices and stock availability (future feature)
  • Build quotes based on real-time data
  • Get alerts when prices change before procurement
  • Seamlessly generate professional invoices

💡 What Inspired the Project

This project was inspired by watching my dad — a trailer builder and hire-pool tradie — struggle to source materials efficiently.

He’d spend valuable time checking 3 to 5 different supplier websites, manually comparing prices, and verifying stock, only to repeat the process when prices changed before invoicing. This inefficiency and unpredictability motivated me to create TML NZ, a smarter procurement tool tailored to the NZ trades industry.

🛠️ How I Built the Project

  • Built entirely using Bolt for rapid prototyping and development.
  • Modified some frontend styling manually to conserve Bolt credits and improve UI control.
  • The app uses mock data for prices and stock due to time constraints and limited access to store APIs.
  • Web scraping scripts were partially generated with Bolt for official supplier sites — one of the biggest technical hurdles.

⚙️ Challenges I Faced

  • Data acquisition: Many suppliers didn’t offer public APIs. Getting Bolt to generate scraping scripts that worked consistently across official store sites was a major challenge.
  • Time limitations: Real-time data integration was not feasible within the timeframe, so mock data was used to demonstrate functionality.
  • Styling constraints: Customising the frontend within Bolt's limits required manual adjustments without overspending on credits.

✅ Accomplishments I'm Proud Of

  • Built a working prototype that solves a real problem in the NZ trades community.
  • Validated the core user journey: role selection → supplier discovery → quote builder → invoice flow.
  • Successfully simulated real-world pricing and stock data in the app UI.

🚀 What's Next for TML NZ

  • Integrate real live prices from supplier APIs and scrapers.
  • Build a fully functional quote builder and invoice generator based on live data.
  • Add procurement functionality: allow tradies to directly order materials from within the app.
  • Implement user authentication and quote history tracking for logged-in tradies.

🌐 Deployment

The project is live and hosted on Netlify.

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