A 60-person New Zealand trades company was running jobs through spreadsheets and WhatsApp, with no real-time visibility, missed jobs and frustrated staff and clients. Avtrix built a custom job-management platform — web and mobile — integrated with Xero. The business now has 100% real-time job visibility across every team and location, managers save 12 hours a week each on admin, and revenue is up 23% from better job tracking and billing.
The Client and the Challenge
The client delivers trade services across multiple regions with field crews, regional managers and a central office. Jobs came in by phone and email, were logged in a spreadsheet, and were dispatched and updated through WhatsApp groups. Photos, variations and completion notes lived on individual phones.
The consequences were predictable: jobs missed or double-booked, variations never invoiced, managers spending a large part of each week chasing status, and clients calling to ask what was happening. Off-the-shelf job-management apps had been trialled and abandoned — they didn’t fit the client’s quoting rules, multi-region structure or compliance paperwork.
What We Built
Avtrix designed and built a purpose-fit custom job-management platform around how the business actually runs, rather than asking the business to change to suit a product.
- Web platform for the office and managers: job intake, quoting with the client’s own pricing rules, scheduling across regions, live job status and a dashboard of jobs at risk.
- Mobile app for crews: today’s jobs, site details, photos, safety checklists, variations and completion sign-off — working offline on remote sites and syncing when back in coverage.
- Xero integration: completed jobs and approved variations flow straight to invoicing, so nothing is forgotten and billing happens the day the work finishes.
- Client visibility: automated updates to customers at booking, on the way, and on completion.
React Node.js PostgreSQL AWS React Native Xero integration
How We Delivered It
Discovery
Rode along with crews and sat with dispatch for a week to map the real process, not the one on paper.
Scope & fixed price
A written scope for release one — intake, scheduling, mobile job cards and Xero — at a fixed price, with later phases priced separately.
Build in stages
A working slice (intake and scheduling) was in daily use within six weeks; the mobile app and Xero integration followed, with weekly demos throughout.
Rollout & support
Region-by-region rollout with on-site training, then NZ-based support and a roadmap of improvements driven by crew feedback.
Results Delivered
100% real-time job visibility
Every job, in every region, visible to the office and managers as it moves — no more status calls.
12 hours a week saved per manager
Chasing, re-keying and reconciling replaced by exception-based management.
23% revenue increase
From variations that are now captured and invoiced, faster billing, and capacity to take on more work with the same crews.
Owned, not rented
The client owns the platform and its data; there is no per-seat licence and no vendor able to change the rules.
What This Means for Your Business
Most trades, construction and field-service businesses hit this wall somewhere between 20 and 80 staff: the spreadsheet-and-messaging approach stops scaling, and off-the-shelf tools don’t quite fit. The choice is covered in off-the-shelf vs custom software. When the process is core to how you compete, a purpose-built system delivered in stages, at a fixed price, integrated with the tools you keep, is usually the better five-year investment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Client details are anonymised for confidentiality. Figures are as reported by the client after go-live. Delivered by Avtrix Software Solutions Limited, Taupō — serving businesses across New Zealand.