Riverland Plumbing & Gas Case Study – Ascora Software
The Project: Riverland Plumbing & Gas
Riverland Plumbing & Gas, is a growing trades business located in Loxton, South Australia. Run by James and Sarah Kloeden, Riverland Plumbing & Gas is known around town for its plumbing and gas fit-out services delivered to both residential and commercial properties. Employing five full-time Tradies, three apprentices and two office staff, Sarah and James were looking for a better system to streamline their business management processes — one that could give them a clear picture of what’s actually going on across their business.
No clear picture
Prior to reaching out to us, Riverland Plumbing & Gas were already using a full suite of digital products across their business like, Geo for time and material management, Deputy for timesheet management, DropBox for plans, orders and licensing and Xero for accounting.
Despite finding each tool useful, Sarah and James found that because each system worked separately, they couldn’t get a clear overview of their business.
On top of this, they were still processing some areas of their business manually like:
- Staff scheduling which was handled through text messages and phone calls.
- New build project management which was largely managed on whiteboards and paper.
- Safety document management which was printed in hard copy and filed.
In all, business data and processes were handled across multiple, unrelated physical and digital systems that caused delays to both communication and job management. Keen to make some changes to their business by digitally transforming and streamlining, Sarah and James got in touch with us to see if we could help them find a solution that would not only transform their manual processes but combine their digital ones too.
A score with Ascora
To get the ball rolling we sat down with Sarah and James to uncover exactly what they wanted in a tech solution.
Top priorities for the two were to track new build projects; they wanted a clear overview of job progress and profitability. “I wanted to know who did what, at what stage of the build,” says Sarah. “It was important for me to know what aspect of the jobs we’d need to return for, and what extras we would need to charge for without having to make one hundred and one phone calls.”
The pair were also keen to streamline the applications used across the business and get the remaining manual elements updated and managed digitally so they could spend less time on administrative tasks.
After our initial scoping sessions, we identified and recommended Ascora Management Software as the best-fitted solution for Riverland Plumbing’s needs.
Ascora is a cloud-hosted software platform designed for Tradies. Its main features offer a single platform to manage customers, equipment and asset tracking, job scheduling and details, inventory and invoicing. On top of this, Ascora integrates with third-party accounting and supplier brands like Xero and Bunnings Warehouse.
Happy with the proposed system and implementation plan suggested, we got to work helping Riverland update and digitise their trade business’s workflows and processes to the Ascora platform.
An awesome service and a straightforward solution
Although Riverland are still getting used to the Ascora system and all its available functionality, Sarah explains her, and James have been really happy and impressed with the Ascora system and the TradiePad service. “I can’t recommend you guys enough. Like, I just never would have done it by myself, I’ve been super, super happy and impressed,” says Sarah. “Ascora is a lot easier. It’s very simple. It’s simple on the app, and it’s also quite simple on the computer as well.”
To date, Riverland have made good headway utilising the scheduling and SMS features in Ascora. “I’m finally settled in nicely to the scheduling feature which I am absolutely loving,” says Sarah. “I’ve turned on the SMS featuring now which is great. I didn’t think I would need it but it’s just so handy, it’s great.”
Sarah admits there is still plenty of features left to explore on the Ascora platform and looks forward to making use of our TradiePad toolbox sessions and additional training to get further acquainted and up to speed with the system.
If you are interested to find out more about Sarah and Jame’s progress and what their company is up to now, you can follow Riverland Plumbing & Gas on Facebook.
Love the sound of Ascora and wondering if it would suit your business too? Contact TradiePad and book a call to learn more about this software program and how it could benefit your business.
