The business ran out of one man's head
Redcliffe & Offer Steel used to run on Nathan Offer's memory. Jobs lived on clipboards and phone photos - no clear read on what was on, what was held up, or what needed doing next. Quoting was pen and paper, written up as an email, then filed away in folders.
Nathan did most of it himself, and none of the tools talked to each other. To get one job out the door he was stitching several programs together and re-keying the same information in each one.
"Trying to have four or five different things to get the same outcome - different programs, and bits and pieces here and bits and pieces there."
The whole shop in one place
During onboarding, Factory loaded Nathan's own materials and lengths into a product catalogue. The quote that used to be pen and paper is now a click - and he can see exactly what he is charging as he builds it. When a job finishes he can check its costs and know whether it made money, instead of piecing it together at month-end.
Factory syncs with the accounting he already runs, so the quotes and invoices carry straight through.
"I can just literally click the product catalogue and then you'll have my lengths and everything."
Quoting on smaller jobs, roughly halved
A couple of hours to quote a small job came down to about half that, once Nathan's materials and lengths were loaded into the catalogue. Bigger jobs still get the same careful cross-check - by choice.
"Being able to fast a quote and know exactly what I'm charging people, and being able to sort through the cost of things at the end, see if I'm making money on them or not."
One shop that covers the whole job
Metal fabrication specialists since 1991, Redcliffe & Offer Steel work from a shop on the Redcliffe Peninsula, about 35 km north of Brisbane. Their edge with residential builders is range: they do the structural steel, then come back through and do the gates, fencing and screens, the stainless handrails and stringers, the steel-framed staircases - and fabricated components for high-voltage power infrastructure.
It is the kind of shop Factory was built for. Factory was made by a family that ran their own fabrication shop for almost 50 years - so a job that runs from a $2,000 handrail to a $500,000 build is a job it already understands.
"We can do everything really, anything like that."
Not another empty program to set up
Nathan had paid for a generic off-the-shelf program before - the kind where you pay your money and then you have the program, and the rest is up to you. He did not want a heavy ERP or a costly set-up either.
What made Factory different was the onboarding. Instead of handing him an empty tool to configure, Factory took his own processes and material list and loaded them in - so the shop's way of working was there, ready to quote, from day one.
"The biggest thing that helped me out was just being able to send you my processes, and you guys loading them in."
Day to day
Quote a job in a click from the product catalogue, with his own lengths and materials already loaded in.
Cross-check a new quote against a similar past one so nothing gets missed - a forgotten galvanising line is just a click away.
Cost a job at the end to see whether it made money, per job instead of at month-end.
Track what is on, what is held up and what is next across the floor - instead of clipboards and photos.
Sync quotes and invoices through to his accounting - QuickBooks Online, Xero or MYOB.
