Full Operations Platform — NZ Crane Hire Company
Turning a NZ crane hire company's operations into one connected system — Lead → Quote → Job → Fleet → H&S → Invoice → Xero. The flagship example of AI-Powered Business Operations.
The Challenge
A New Zealand crane hire business managing quotes, jobs, clients, suppliers, compliance, and field operators — all on spreadsheets and manual processes. With 30–50 proposals per week and strict Health and Safety obligations, the manual overhead had reached the point where it was creating operational risk, not just inefficiency.
The problem we were asked to solve
Quotes were built manually from a separate rate-card spreadsheet — every proposal taking 20+ minutes to assemble, with no version history and no audit trail. Every accepted quote was re-typed into Xero as an invoice. Supplier purchase orders were handled by email and re-entered as Xero Bills. Health and Safety compliance — personnel licences, certifications, incident records — was tracked manually across spreadsheets with no alerting when expiry dates approached. There was no single record linking a job to all its documents, costs, and communications.
Our Approach
How we tackled it
Two weeks of discovery and process mapping — tracing every step of the workflow from first enquiry through to invoiced job, documenting every spreadsheet, email handoff, and compliance obligation in the process.
Designed the core data model around a single job record with full referential integrity — every quote version, PO, client, site, H&S document, and transaction linking back to one record. Structure signed off with the team before a line of code was written.
Built the quote builder first — the highest daily pain point. Rate card integration, GST calculation, PDF export, and full variation history from day one of the feature being live.
Delivered the Xero integration end-to-end before moving to other modules — accepted quotes auto-generate draft invoices; supplier POs auto-push as Bills. Both flows tested against the real Xero environment before sign-off.
Built the H&S compliance module with expiry-date alerting, incident recording, and a compliance dashboard — covering all personnel licences and certifications across the team.
Ran a parallel operation period before full cutover — the team used both the platform and their existing spreadsheets simultaneously, validating every workflow in real conditions.
The Solution
What we built
A custom operations platform covering six interconnected modules: a shared lead pipeline (kanban), a quote builder with rate card integration and PDF export, full job lifecycle management from quote to close, client and supplier management, a two-way Xero integration for invoices and bills, and a Health and Safety compliance module with licence tracking, expiry alerts, incident recording, and a compliance dashboard. All documents are stored in Supabase Storage — attached directly to jobs and personnel records. Access is restricted via VPN. Email notifications via Resend alert the team to licence expiries, job updates, and required actions. A full audit log records every change across every module.
Visual lead pipeline — kanban board, owner-assigned, searchable across all active enquiries
Quote builder with rate card integration, GST calculation, variation history, and PDF export
One-click conversion: accepted quote → Job record + draft Xero Invoice
Supplier PO management — raise, PDF, email to supplier, auto-push to Xero as a Bill
Job lifecycle tracking: Quoted → Accepted → In Progress → Invoiced → Closed
H&S compliance module — personnel records, licence tracking, expiry alerts, incident recording, compliance dashboard
Supabase Storage document management — lift studies, site plans, certifications attached to records
Email notifications via Resend for expiry alerts and job updates
VPN-restricted access — system is not publicly reachable
Role-based access: Admin, Sales, and Viewer permissions
Full audit log — every create, update, and delete recorded with user and timestamp
Technology
Results
What changed
Quote build time reduced by approximately 75% — from 20+ minutes of manual assembly to under 5 minutes with automatic rate card lookups. At 30–50 proposals per week, that is more than 10 hours of quoting time reclaimed per week. Xero double-entry eliminated: accepted quotes auto-generate draft invoices and supplier POs auto-push as Bills. H&S compliance moved from reactive spreadsheet management to a proactive dashboard with automatic expiry alerts. Full commercial and compliance audit trail links every record from the first enquiry through to the closed job and final invoice. Phase 2 — scheduling, SMS dispatch, staff and asset management, AI dashboards, and a client portal — is scoped and ready to build on the same foundation.
Capabilities applied
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