Built so tradesmen can run their business, not chase paperwork
Hi, I'm Axel
After 10+ years running businesses — e-commerce, coffee machines, digital marketing — I kept seeing the same problem everywhere: tradesmen are brilliant at their craft but drowning in admin.
I've renovated my own properties, helped mates on site, and spent enough time around the trades to understand the business from the ground up. The paperwork side is brutal — scribbling quotes on the back of receipts, chasing invoices through WhatsApp, losing leads because nobody called back, paying accountants hundreds just to file CIS returns.
The tools that exist are either built for office workers or priced like enterprise software. So I built something better — A.X.E.L — designed for how tradesmen actually work, not how software companies think they should.
Our mission
Admin shouldn't be the hardest part of running a trade business. We built A.X.E.L to put quoting, invoicing, CIS, and Self Assessment in one place — affordable, simple, and built for how tradesmen actually work.
After years around the trades — renovating properties, working alongside contractors, running our own businesses — we kept seeing the same problem. Brilliant tradesmen buried under admin: scribbling quotes on receipts, chasing invoices through WhatsApp, paying accountants hundreds for basic CIS returns. The tools that existed were either built for offices or priced like enterprise software.
A.X.E.L handles the full lifecycle of a trade business. Leads come in, quotes go out, jobs get tracked, invoices get paid, CIS deductions are calculated automatically, and Self Assessment returns are filed directly with HMRC. Subcontractor verification, labour/materials splitting, expense tracking, team management — everything a contractor needs without touching a spreadsheet.
MTD for Income Tax becomes mandatory from April 2026. We're building quarterly reporting, automated bank feeds, and deeper HMRC integration so tradesmen can stay compliant without thinking about it. The goal is simple: A.X.E.L handles the admin, you handle the work.
Our values
Practical
Trade businesses are hands-on. The software should be too. Every feature in A.X.E.L solves a real problem we've seen on site — no bloat, no features that exist just to tick a box.
Affordable
Starting a trade business is expensive enough. A.X.E.L starts free and paid plans begin at £19/month — less than a single hour of an accountant's time. No lock-in, no hidden fees.
Trustworthy
Your financials, your client data, your tax filings — they matter. We use bank-grade encryption, direct HMRC integration, and you can export everything, anytime. Your data is yours.
How is A.X.E.L different?
All-in-one for trades
Most tools make you choose: job management OR accounting OR CIS. A.X.E.L does all three. Quotes, invoices, expenses, CIS returns, and Self Assessment — one login, one platform.
Built for CIS from day one
Automatic 20%/30%/0% deduction calculations, labour vs materials splitting, subcontractor verification with HMRC, monthly CIS return reports with CSV export. No add-on fees, no workarounds.
Self Assessment, sorted
Pull in your self-employment income, employment records, property income, and expenses — then file your SA return directly with HMRC. No accountant middleman, no paper forms.
Talk to the people who built it
No support tickets disappearing into the void. No chatbot maze. You talk directly to the team that writes the code. Problems get solved, not escalated.
Try A.X.E.L Free
No card required. Sign up, explore the dashboard, see if it fits how you work. If you need a website too, we do that as well.