By Noa Benitez, founder of BenIT, an AI consultancy in Toulouse.
Your quotes go out with the right work order, the right service, the right client. Yet when it's time to collect payment, something is always missing. The problem isn't your sales rep or your crew on site. It comes from the one place nobody looks at after installation: the settings.
We see the same Batigest mistakes again and again among building trades, from plumbing to heating, with direct consequences on invoicing. The Batigest mistakes we keep finding among building tradespeople follow a repeating pattern, and each one costs money without the owner ever noticing.
Before fixing anything, it helps to understand why this software dominates the industry and why its default settings don't match any particular trade. why Batigest remains the most widely used despite its configuration pitfalls
The symptoms of a Batigest setup that's drifting on your quotes
Three visible signs on a quote point to a configuration problem rather than a data-entry mistake.
The first: your sale prices look right at a glance, but your actual margin at the end of the month always comes in three to five percent below what you estimated on paper. The second: you have to manually fix invoices before sending them, whether it's the TVA (VAT), the legal notices, or the numbering. The third: two quotes for the same job come out with different totals depending on who entered them.
All three symptoms point to the configuration, not your team. And until the configuration is fixed, the same discrepancies will keep showing up on every new quote.
Mistake 1: TVA rates are set incorrectly or never checked
For a plumbing and heating contractor, TVA isn't just one flat rate. You juggle 20 percent for new builds, 10 percent for renovation work on existing buildings, and sometimes 5.5 percent for energy-efficiency improvements. Batigest doesn't know your trade: it applies whatever rates someone entered on installation day, often without any distinction.
The result, as we've seen on site: a full bathroom renovation quote billed at 20 percent when the job actually qualified for 10. The client pays less than expected, and you absorb the difference without ever seeing it.
TVA rates by type of plumbing job
| Type of work | 2026 rate | Batigest default rate |
|---|---|---|
| New build | 20% | 20% |
| Renovation on existing buildings | 10% | 20% |
| Energy-efficiency improvement | 5.5% | 20% |
| Maintenance and repair | 20% | 20% |
The table shows the gap. The right-hand column is what Batigest applies when nobody has created a specific rate. The 10 percent and 5.5 percent rates don't exist by default. If you haven't added them, every renovation quote goes out with an inflated rate, which skews your sale price and can cause problems in the event of a tax audit.
The fix is in the Tables menu, then TVA Rates. You need to create each rate and link it to the right item families. Once that's done, the correct rate is selected automatically based on the line entered.
Mistake 2: item families don't match your actual services
Item families in Batigest group together what you sell: labor, supplies, travel, project work, maintenance. They determine the TVA rate applied, the accounting code used, and the margin calculated.
How much an unfixed configuration is costing you
Thirty minutes to run the numbers on your real figures, with a fresh, outside look at your Batigest setup.
Book the free auditFor most plumbers we work with, the families are still exactly as they were on installation day. They carry generic names like "Standard item" or "Service", with no connection to your actual work.
Five minimum families for a plumbing and heating contractor:
- Labor
- Supplies and materials
- Travel
- Renovation work
- Maintenance contracts
If these families are missing, there are two consequences. First, you can't apply the right TVA rate to the right line. Second, your bookkeeping ends up with poorly sorted entries, which makes your accountant's job harder and delays your dashboards.
When item families aren't set up right, every quote needs manual rework. The time spent doesn't show up anywhere, but it's very much part of your costs. the hidden cost of a badly issued quote
Mistake 3: margin coefficients are missing or copied from a previous installer
The Batigest coefficient is the multiplier applied to the purchase price to get the sale price. It determines your margin on every line of a quote. A coefficient of 1.5 on a boiler bought for €2,000 sells it for €3,000 excluding tax.
What we see: coefficients are either missing or copied from a previous setup that doesn't match your pricing policy. One plumber inherited the coefficients from the previous owner without adjusting them. The result: his labor had been billed below its actual cost for two years.
An inherited coefficient skews all your sale prices without your noticing, because the quote looks consistent on screen. The gap only shows up when you compare the actual purchase cost with the final price.
What a coefficient set too low costs you on a typical job
Margin gap per line = Purchase price × (Correct coefficient − Applied coefficient) ;; Monthly total = Gap × Number of lines affected per month
Boiler bought for €2,000, correct coefficient 1.5, applied coefficient 1.3: a gap of €400 excluding tax per job. Over five jobs a month, that's €2,000 in lost margin, €24,000 a year.
Run the calculation with your own numbers.
The math speaks for itself. A gap of 0.2 on a coefficient, multiplied by the number of lines you invoice, represents amounts that show up nowhere in your books. You can check this in each item's record, under the Sale tab.
Mistake 4: your quote template is missing required legal notices
A plumbing quote without full legal notices isn't just a formatting issue. It's a risk if a dispute arises. If a client challenges the price, a missing notice can weaken your position.
The most commonly missing notices on Batigest plumbing quotes:
- RCS or SIREN number
- Ten-year builder's insurance (assurance décennale), with the insurer's contact details
- Quote validity date
- Late payment penalties
- Payment terms
- Right-of-withdrawal notice, where it applies
A specific question about your situation
A thirty-minute conversation to pinpoint what's costing you money, with no obligation to hand anything over.
Message on WhatsAppThese items aren't in the default template. They need to be added manually in the quote settings, under the Header and footer section. Once saved, they appear on every new quote automatically.
What the regulation says
Starting September 1, 2026, electronic invoices will need to include the VAT-liable status, the intra-community TVA number, and the delivery address. These items need to appear on your quotes as well as your invoices. If your Batigest template doesn't include them, now's the time to add them.
Mistake 5: invoice numbering doesn't meet what September 2026 requires
The e-invoicing reform imposes strict formats starting September 1, 2026. Every invoice received will need to comply with the official electronic formats, and your Batigest setup has to keep up.
A plumber with €85,000 in revenue, 40 percent of it B2B, issues between eight and twelve invoices a month. Over a year, that's around a hundred documents that need to be compliant, with continuous numbering, no gaps, no restarting the sequence.
Non-compliant numbering also risks having the invoice rejected by the client, which delays payment and forces you to follow up manually. how configuration mistakes make payment delays worse
2026 e-invoicing requirements vs. Batigest's default setup
| 2026 requirement | What Batigest does by default | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous numbering | Enabled | Check it doesn't reset when the year changes |
| Structured format (XML/UBL) | Not enabled | Requires Batigest Connect |
| Full legal notices | Incomplete | Add to the template |
| 10-year retention | Configurable | Enable archiving |
Sage's complete Batigest Connect guide for 2026 breaks down the steps to get compliant. The check takes less than an hour if you follow the order.
Mistake 6: deposits and progress billing are never set up
Progress billing ("situations de travaux") lets you invoice a job in several stages: a deposit on signing, a mid-project progress bill, and a final balance on completion. Batigest supports this natively, but the feature stays switched off for one plumber in three.
Without this setup, you invoice everything at once, at the end of the job. Your cash flow takes hits, and the client has no interim visibility into what they owe. Worse, you front the cost of supplies without any partial payment coming in.
You turn it on in the Invoicing module settings, under the Progress Billing section. Once it's set up, every quote can include a deposit percentage, and progress bills are generated automatically based on reported progress.
Let's look at your situation together
An AI collaborator can review your Batigest quotes before they go out and flag inconsistent rates, margins, or missing notices.
Block out thirty minutesHow to check your Batigest setup in an hour without breaking anything
Being afraid to break something that works is a legitimate concern. You're right not to want to touch software that lets you invoice. But checking isn't the same as changing. Here are the seven points to review, in order, with zero risk.
- TVA rates: Tables menu, check that the 10 percent and 5.5 percent rates exist.
- Item families: Tables menu, check that each family matches an actual service.
- Margin coefficients: open five representative items, compare the coefficient against your pricing policy.
- Quote template: open the quote settings, review the legal notices one by one.
- Numbering: Invoicing menu, check the sequence and make sure there's no gap.
- Progress billing: Invoicing menu, check whether the feature is enabled.
- Backup: before making any changes, make a copy of the database.
Each point takes less than ten minutes. Together, they give you an exact picture of where you stand, without disturbing anything.
If you'd rather not handle this yourself, the BenIT method starts from your existing configuration and doesn't require switching tools. questions about taking over an existing tool without migrating
What we see on site: two to four Batigest plumbing configuration mistakes per install, among plumbing businesses with five to twenty employees. None of them were aware of the full picture. Most suspected one or two, without having taken the time to check.
If the gaps you find go beyond what you're willing to tolerate, here's what a focused engagement can offer. what a configuration engagement costs compared to ongoing lost margin