Sunly NB West
How a growing solar contractor moved from manual timesheets and after-the-fact job costing to a live operating system that ties labour, inventory, invoicing, and margins together in real time.
Hours from the field, live on the job
Before automation, hours were written down by hand and submitted in a rush before each pay run. Labour costs against a job were invisible until someone sat down and added them up.
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Text hours + job from the fieldEmployees send an SMS with the hours they worked and which job they were on.
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Live job cost updates instantlyLabour cost reflects on the job the moment the text lands — no batching, no bookkeeper delay.
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Automated reminder textsIf an employee hasn't submitted their hours, the system texts them a reminder — no one on the office side has to chase.
Before, timesheets were all manual. The guys would write in their hours and submit them before payroll every two weeks, which usually meant I was chasing people down. It also meant I never had a real-time picture of labour costs on each job unless I manually added everything up.
From hindsight to live decisions on every job
With labour, inventory, and milestone data all aggregating to the job in real time, Ross can see which jobs are profitable and which ones quietly bleed margin — in time to do something about it. Pricing and quoting decisions now sit on real data, not gut feel.
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Email inspection report → auto jobInspection reports arrive by email. The system scans the attachment, pulls every milestone, and creates the job in Sunly's system automatically — no manual setup.
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In-progress marginPer-job margin visible while the work is still happening, not months later.
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Efficiency signalClear picture of which job types are efficient and which ones struggle.
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Data-backed pricingPricing and quoting decisions grounded in real cost performance.
Job costing was similar — labour and materials were tracked separately. I'd have to go through our as-builts, figure out what was used, upload it, and then piece everything together just to understand the true cost of a project.
It's given me clear insight into which jobs we're efficient at and which ones we struggle with. That's allowed me to adjust pricing where needed, or even walk away from quoting certain jobs.
Closing the gap between work done and cash in
Invoicing used to wait on a part-time bookkeeper. Now the deposit invoice goes out the moment a salesman texts, and milestone progress is captured from the field by text — all tied back to the job costs already flowing into the system.
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Deposit invoicing via SMSSalesman texts at close; the deposit invoice hits the customer immediately.
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SMS milestone → invoiceEmployee texts "milestone 2 complete" and the customer is invoiced on the spot from data already in the system. The milestone is marked complete on the job.
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Revenue tied to costsEvery revenue event linked back to live job costs for complete project financials.
It'll speed everything up. We'll be able to get invoices into customers' hands right at the time of sale instead of waiting days for our bookkeeper, who's only in a couple of days a week.
It also ties everything together, so not only will I have revenue tracked right away, but it'll be directly linked to job costs in the system, giving a much clearer financial picture of each project.
Stock that tracks itself from a photo
Owners can't be on every job, and inventory tracking is the first thing to slip when the team is busy. Instead of asking the crew to log stock manually, a photo is all it takes — OCR matches what's in the image to Sunly's existing inventory system and pins it to the right job.
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OCR Image CaptureCrew snaps a photo; items are identified automatically from the image.
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System MatchingIdentified items matched to Sunly's existing inventory records — no duplicate data entry.
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Auto Job TaggingEvery item consumed is tied to the correct job automatically.
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Costs Flow to JobsMaterial costs flow straight into live job costing alongside labour.
I'm not involved in the day-to-day construction, so I rely on the team to track inventory. Naturally, that can fall behind when things get busy.
With live inventory, I'll know exactly when to reorder, which should cut down on one-off orders and extra shipping costs. It also means we'll have what we need on hand, reducing delays or rescheduling due to shortages.
Working with Tradeswork Logic
The experience with Tradeswork Logic has been great. I knew there was room to improve our processes, but what Mark has built went beyond what I thought was possible, and with less effort on my end than expected.
He does a great job of understanding how you actually operate day-to-day, then stepping back and identifying where things can be automated to save time and money.
Want this kind of visibility in your business?
Every build starts with understanding how your team actually operates day-to-day. Let's find where you're losing time and margin.
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