Our work / Clarke Lane Engineering
A job board that became how the business runs.
It began with a quoting app. Then Clarke Lane moved from Sage to Xero, and the sales orders had nowhere to go. Today the office, the workshop and the driver all work from one system, from the first enquiry to the signature on delivery.
- Who
- Sheet metal fabrication, Southampton
- Used by
- Directors, office, shop floor and drivers
- Works with
- Xero, Microsoft 365, their quoting app
- Runs on
- Browser, tablet, workshop TV and phone
The problem
Nothing covered the part between the quote and the invoice.
Jack had already built them a quoting app, and it stopped at the quote. Xero has no sales order processing, so orders, call-offs and the stage each job had reached lived in people’s heads and on paper.
So we started there: a won quote becomes a sales order and a job in one click. It took five days to get from the first mock-up to a full practice order, drawing to draft invoice.
| Order | Customer | Due | Laser | Fold | Weld | Coat | Dispatch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SO-1042 | Oakfield Panels | Tue 10 | |||||
| SO-1043 | Riverside Joinery | Wed 11 | |||||
| SO-1047 | Hilltop Signs | Thu 12 | |||||
| SO-1051 | Marsh Lane Fabrics | Mon 16 |
In the workshop
A whiteboard by the machines that updates itself.
| Customer | Job | Laser | Fold | Weld | Coat | Due | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oakfield Panels | 1042 | Tue 10 | |||||
| Riverside Joinery | 1043 | OUT | Wed 11 | At the powder coater | |||
| Hilltop Signs | 1047 | Thu 12 | Delivery 2 of 3 | ||||
| Marsh Lane Fabrics | 1051 | Mon 16 |
A TV for the whole floor
It shows every open job with a column per process, ticks for done and stars for still to do. It updates itself and never shows prices.
A tablet at each station
Pick a station and see only the work waiting for it, soonest first, with the drawing to hand. One tap to tick it off, one to undo.
Work sent out
Powder coating and plating happen elsewhere, so the board tracks what went where and when it’s due back, and flags anything overdue.
On the road
Signed for on the phone.
- The driver opens the job, marks it delivered and gets a signature on screen.
- Part deliveries and call-offs, each with its own numbered delivery note.
- A map of what’s going where, to fit a second drop into the same run.
- The van’s position on the office map, shared from the driver’s phone.
In the office
From a new enquiry to money in Xero.
Enquiries that don’t slip
AI reads the enquiries mailbox, sorts new work from messages about existing orders, and turns customers’ emails into things to act on.
A head start on quoting
One button reads the drawings attached to an enquiry and lays out what’s being asked, ready for a person to price.
Three things today
Each morning the board picks the three things most worth doing, and says why: a purchase order to pick up, a customer to answer, a quote to chase.
Customers worth a call
It shows who has gone quiet and who’s due to reorder, with everything about a customer on one page, and nobody has to keep a CRM up to date.
Better metal prices
Ask several suppliers at once, compare their prices side by side, order from the best, and keep every price for next time.
Paperwork and Xero
Acknowledgements, pro formas and purchase orders come from the order. Delivered work reaches Xero as a draft invoice for the accountant to approve.
What changed
Nobody has to ask where a job is.
Everyone sees what’s due and where each job is, nothing is typed twice, and invoices can go out as soon as work is delivered.
The details that mattered
- Quoting stayed in the calculator we’d already built with the managing director.
- The shop floor never sees prices, and business totals stay with the directors.
- Once it was in use, the ideas kept coming, so it grew with them. Most of the above wasn’t in the first version.
Running a workshop on paper and memory?
We’d like to see how your orders move through the building.