Carl and Mandy Brand run Northlakes Locksmiths on the Central Coast, NSW. With four mobile work vans and a variety of clients—from residential and real estate to commercial and builders—they’re always on the move, handling jobs across the area. Keeping track of all the jobs, schedules, and invoices from the road had become a challenge, so they reached out to TradiePad for help.
The Challenge
Manual Systems and setup struggles
For years, Carl preferred to keep things simple with pen and paper. He’d jot down job details, then send them to Mandy between jobs. While it worked, it wasn’t perfect—sometimes job details slipped through the cracks, or they’d lose track of an invoice. Their first attempt at moving to a digital system didn’t go as planned. They’d hired a third party to set up ServiceM8, but it just wasn’t done right. The setup didn’t work for their business, and to make things worse, they weren’t shown how to use it properly. This left Carl struggling to book jobs while out on the road, and Mandy buried in admin work. She was spending up to 15 hours a week chasing down job info and entering supplier invoices by hand—time they could have spent growing the business or just relaxing!
You know what you're doing, you know what I mean? Setting up something, I could set it up but I could be doing it waayyy the wrong way! I think it's better to pay you, you know what you're doing and I'd never get that time back for myself setting it up.
The Solution
A Tailored Solution and software training
TradiePad stepped in to provide a fresh implementation of ServiceM8, tailored specifically for Northlakes Locksmiths. After reviewing their previous ServiceM8 setup, we customised the setup for Carl and Mandy’s business, making it easy for them to keep track of every job, every time.
With the updated ServiceM8 setup:
- Carl and his team could see job schedules, access job details, and record time on the go, all from their mobile devices.
- It was now a breeze for Mandy to follow up on invoices and make sure jobs didn’t slip through the cracks, thanks to automation features that handled reminders, follow-ups, and job status updates.
- Integration with MYOB meant their invoices and payments were automatically synced with their accounting, making end-of-month reporting a whole lot easier.
For myself and Carl it’s better because we’re not losing invoices by not invoicing or not getting it from the boys to invoice, it’s just there.
ServiceM8’s simple, intuitive mobile app became the perfect fit for Carl, who spends most of his time in the field, and for his team, who needed quick access to job details and a way to easily log hours and notes.
It's about billable hours for us. Now as a business we can look and say well this is all our travel time, this is how many billable hours we’ve got, so it’s good to know so we can try and work out a better run then.
I reckon it’s cut back half the amount of paper I ‘ve kept at home. More than half! I was filling up an archive box every month, and I’ve got a quarter of an archive box filled so far for the time we’ve been doing it. So I’m saving some trees and saving some time!
The Result
Better cashflow and more free time
Since implementing the new setup, Northlakes Locksmiths has seen a world of difference:
- Saved Time: 95% of their work is now handled directly through ServiceM8, with only a small bit in MYOB, cutting down hours on admin work.
- Improved Cash Flow: Now that they can invoice right after a job, they’re getting paid faster.
- More Free Time: What used to take hours on admin each week now only takes about 10 minutes each evening. Carl and Mandy are finally able to leave work at work, enjoying more time with family and weekends off.
It’s made a hell of a lot of difference, we’ve got our weekends back! Even if we don’t do Friday nights and we wait till Sunday afternoon or whatever, it doesn't matter and it's only a little bit of time not sitting there with the kids going Oh when can we go and do something? Oh when we’re finished with this.
I couldn’t fault anyone that I spoke to! Even like the quickness of getting a response back. TradiePad was like a one stop shop for everything. I didn't have to go anywhere else, it was all done!
If you’re ready to simplify your business, cut down on admin time, and finally get some balance back, get in touch with TradiePad!
We’ll help set up a solution that fits your business perfectly, so you can focus on what matters most.
