Custom back-office software for a Longford fireplace showroom that had been invoicing in carbon-copy books

When Longford Fireplaces & Stone Solutions came to us, business was good, but, as in a lot of construction and building-trade businesses, the paperwork behind it ran on paper and memory. Quotes were typed up in Word and invoices handwritten in carbon-copy books, so checking what had been billed meant finding the right book. With no single customer list, finding out whether a job had been paid meant asking around the showroom. The business has no dedicated administrator, so all of it landed on the same people serving customers at the counter.

The owner wanted quotes, orders and invoices joined up with the accounts, in a system the whole team could pick up without learning accounting software. We built a private custom back-office system around the way the showroom already works, where every job carries its own trail from the first enquiry to paid and complete.

Quotes customers sign online

Word quotes went out one at a time with a separate PDF of bank details, so we made quoting part of the job record instead. Quotes are built line by line and emailed with a link to view and accept them. Where there's a choice of colour or finish, the customer picks it and the total follows. They sign on screen, and the showroom keeps a record of exactly what was agreed.

Drawings, invoices and payments tied to the job

Drawing approvals used to be chased by email, so the drawing office now has its own login and sends drawings for approval through a single link, without seeing any of the money. From an accepted quote, staff raise a deposit, balancing or full invoice without working anything out by hand, and walk-in counter sales have a quicker route of their own. Payments are logged as cash, card or bank transfer, so each job shows what's still owed and nobody has to ask around.

Accounts fed from the same records

Nobody behind the counter should have to learn accounting software to keep the books right, so invoices, quotes and credit notes flow from the system into the accounts. The accountant works from the same records as the showroom, with read-only access to the figures and reports, and VAT is handled on every document.

Written in the showroom's own words

With no office staff to learn a complicated system, the words on screen matter. Review sessions with the owner swapped accountants' jargon for the words the team already used, and each role has a plain-English guide as a PDF manual and in a help panel. The showroom laptop sits on the counter where customers can see it, so the dashboard shows the day's jobs and keeps the money out of sight. Takings and balances live in reports that only the owner and the accountant can open.

Every job at Longford Fireplaces now runs through one system. Staff raise quotes, orders and invoices at the counter and email receipts from the desk, and nothing that reaches the accounts has to be typed twice.

If the people serving your customers also do the paperwork, the system has to use their words rather than an accountant's. Keeping a signed quote exactly as it was signed, and raising the invoices from it, means everyone can see what was agreed. Think about where the screen sits, because a dashboard customers can see is no place for the day's takings.

Read more about our custom software service, or see more custom software case studies and other construction and engineering projects.