The furnace starts making a noise on a cold night in January. You need someone, you want a fair price, and you do not want your phone ringing for a week. Zulma is a new app for moments like that, and for everything else a home needs. You start a project, Zulma helps you find the right local business, you compare the quotes side by side, and when the work is done, every photo, quote and receipt is already filed with your home. Zulma is on the web at app.zulma.ca, and it is free for up to 3 homes.

Start with a project

A project is a page for one job, like fixing the furnace or finally clearing out the garage. Give it a name the way you would say it out loud, then describe what is going on in your own words. If it is easier to talk than type, record a voice note. Add a few photos, pick the kind of work, and say how much it matters and when you want it done.

You can keep a list of what the job involves, and note a budget, the number you are prepared to spend. Businesses never see that number, so nobody prices the work up to it.

You can start a project before you have an account. Zulma asks you to sign up only when you save or send it, and everything you entered comes with you.

Get quotes your way

When the project is ready, there are three ways to get it in front of the right people, and you can use more than one.

Local businesses that do that kind of work can see your project, and up to three of them may send you a quote. Soon, Zu, your helper in Zulma, will also pick up to three businesses near you and send it to them for you.

You can also send it to someone you already know. Add the email or phone number of the plumber a neighbour recommended, and send them your project.

Or share the link. Post it in your neighbourhood Facebook group, text it to a friend, or put it anywhere you like. Zulma never posts it for you.

Your project stays open until you close it, whether that is next week or next spring.

Your number stays yours

A business sees what it needs to give you a price: what the job is, the town, when you want it done, and your description. It does not see your name, your street or how to reach you. Opening a quote shares nothing. A business gets your details only when you reply to it, tap Share my contact, or accept its quote.

Compare, then choose

Quotes arrive on the project. Turn on Compare and they line up side by side, one column each, showing what every business included: the total with HST, what it covers, when it can start and finish, the deposit, and how long the price holds. They are never sorted by price, so the cheapest does not win just by being first.

Got a quote some other way, on paper or over the phone? Add it to the project and it lines up with the rest. When you choose, the project records who is doing the job and what it will cost.

Everything lands in your home's record

Every project gets its own folder in Documents, named after it. Its photos go there, and so does every invoice and receipt that comes in for the job, filed for you. Months later, when you need to know which company serviced the furnace or what you paid, it is one tap away.

Documents keeps everything else in one list too: warranties, manuals, inspection reports, insurance and permits, each sorted by kind. When a warranty is about to run out or your insurance is due to renew, Zulma reminds you a month ahead, and again on the day.

My Home holds the rest of what a house asks you to remember: its rooms, its systems and how old they are, and the work done over the years and who did it.

What your home needs this season

Each season, Zulma asks a short set of checks worked out from what your home has. A house with a furnace and a sump pump is asked different things from a condo. Answer what you can, and your answers stay on your record for next time.

The right business for any job

Atlas is Zulma's directory of local businesses across Ontario, from plumbers and electricians to movers, home inspectors and support for older people living at home. Start from the job, like "a tap that drips", and Atlas shows who does it near you. Every quote request you send from Atlas is a project, so it lands in the same place as everything else.

Your privacy

Only you and a co-owner can see your documents, unless you choose to share one. A project's link never shows up in search engines. And on the web, Zulma reads a photo of a receipt or a quote for you only if you turn that on in your settings.

Try it before you sign up

Open app.zulma.ca and look around before you make an account.

Availability

Zulma is available now at app.zulma.ca, and it is free for up to 3 homes. Atlas lists local businesses in 39 towns across Ontario.