Fence Bros: Simple software solutions for our friends with new businesses
"Thank you for creating a system that makes our lives easier. We are thrilled with the value that we get from it, the backup service, and everything that it has to offer."
- Shirley Bosman,
Fence Bros HR (Head of Reliability) & Director
The Business: An introduction
If you’re looking to fulfil your landscaping dreams, Fence Brothers has you covered with their outdoor services. Whether your yard needs fencing, pergolas, retaining walls, or any range of outdoor maintenance, this is who you want on your team. Getting the job done right, on time, and on a budget is their motto, and they have an impressive archive of customers reaping the benefits of a job well done.
But you can’t provide this high level of service, without business operations running smoothly in the background. So we talked to the authorities on the matter, Greg Hills and Shirley Bosman from within Fence Bros about how they do it, and how iTrade’s job management software has helped them on their way.
The Heart and Soul: Meet Greg and Shirley
Growing a business, providing top-quality craftsmanship, and reinforcing positive team morale is no easy feat. After purchasing the company in 2019, Shirley, a self-proclaimed customer service fanatic with an established career spent mostly in hospitality, tells us that their secret is all about
“maintaining great relationships with customers and potential customers. Communication is absolutely essential.”
Alongside Greg, CFO or as they like to refer to him, Chief Fencing Officer, who has a wealth of experience and knowledge after 30 years in the building trade, maintains the business's high standards across the board.
The Problem: A new business has needs.
We wanted to know about Greg and Shirley’s introduction to iTrade, and how it has fit in with their top-quality work ethic.
“We had just purchased the company and needed a good, solid system which would provide all the facilities that we required. We had a look at various systems and programs and found that iTrade was perfect for our needs. Almost 2 years later, we are still happy with the system.”
Why, as business owners starting out with a new company, choose iTrade over the various other job management systems out there? Well, according to Greg and Shirley:
“The integration with Xero is great. Makes the accounting side of the business much easier and all the information is readily available. We really like the feature that our customers can accept/decline our quotes and it populates into the system. So good and time-saving.”
“We also really liked the Apps that allow us to track our staff which also helps with timesheets.”
We know that it’s not always easy to integrate a new system and learn new software at the same time. And as mentioned by Shirley during our conversation, they were not born with technology, and it has taken some self-directed learning. Thankfully the system is quick and easy to use, and before they knew it, they were invoicing up a storm!
“There are still more of the features that we haven't as yet used and we do try to find the time to learn more. It gets better and better. Can't fault it and can't recommend it enough.”
The Outcome: Simple solutions that lead to sustained growth.
With an effective job management system in place for invoicing, quoting (including templates), and job management, we were thrilled to hear that iTrade has helped the team at Fence Bros to grow and invest the quality time they have gained back into other aspects of the business.
"By having a quick and easy system, we are able to dedicate more time to sales and marketing as well as being onsite. More time to fit quoting appointments in which is great. Nothing falls through the cracks as all information is documented and stored in iTrade which is fantastic.”
This is what we strive for. Saving time, offering simple solutions. When asked how much time they thought they saved, the response from the team was an estimate of 2 hours per day!
“We have more time now to do other important parts of our business.”
“We even have our weekends back now as we get faster and better at using the system.”
Favourite Features:
We asked Shirley and Greg what features of the iTrade software they found most beneficial. Here is a quick summary of their answers.
The integration with Xero is great.
[iTrade software] makes the accounting side of the business much easier and all the information is readily available.
We really like the feature that our customers can accept/decline our quotes and it populates into the system. So good and time-saving.
Really like the Apps too. We can see the staff arriving and leaving and everything in between. Works really well and helps with timesheets too.
Final thoughts?
Much like the team at Fence Bros, at iTrade, we look to provide extensive and seamless customer service support. We have created a job management system for tradies to make business life simpler. Greg and Shirley are a perfect example of how that helps a growing trades business in numerous ways. Going from slow, complicated manual systems of organisation, to an integrated, automated system has seen great benefits for them and their team.
“Before iTrade, we had a manual system with excel spreadsheets and all data entries were manual.”
Sound familiar? Too many businesses in the trades are losing track of important information or spending too much time on data entry, which hinders their focus on other key aspects of their work.
iTrade's system is made to be simple, but there is always customer support available if you have questions.
“Dom is amazing. Every time we have any questions, and Dom answers at any time, he’s almost immediate in his responses."
Thinking of signing up with iTrade?
We’d like to leave it up to Greg and Shirley to share their thoughts through this glowing endorsement following their use of the iTrade software. If you’re thinking about joining our 30 day risk-free trial, we hope this will help:
“Try it first but I am sure that you will like it. This system will be the answer to your business needs, it will save you heaps of time and the processes are very simple to use. They have a great support system, so help is available almost anytime. Great for your quoting and invoicing. Integrates with your accounting systems which makes it so much easier to operate. Your staff will have an App on their phones so they can be tracked and you know when they have arrived and left the jobs. Creates more time for you to be off-site and useful elsewhere.”
Thank you to Shirley and Greg for sharing their story with us.
Are you interested in trialing our software for yourself and your business?
We offer a FREE trial to all new customers.
Simply follow the link to sign up and find out more.
Customer: Bays Property Solutions T/A Fence Brothers
fencebros.co.nz
0800 336 232