// Trades & construction

For trades businesses already running on ServiceM8, AroFlo, simPRO, or Buildxact.

The platforms ship with integrations. Real businesses run into the edges. This is work for the bits in between.

ServiceM8 AroFlo simPRO Buildxact Xero

// You’ve probably hit one of these

// 01

Your bookkeeper is re-keying job data into Xero because the integration covers the easy 80% and breaks on the bits that matter — retention, progress claims, tax codes that don’t quite map.

// 02

Job profitability lives in someone’s head, or in a spreadsheet that’s three weeks out of date. By the time you know a job lost money, the next one’s already started.

// 03

The platform vendor is shipping AI features. Some are useful. Most don’t fit how your office actually runs.

// Why I get this audience

I did the job before I built software for it.

Fifteen years as a project manager in commercial electronic security, working with tier 1 and 2 builders across Victoria. I ran the jobs, costed them, managed WIP, chased retention, lodged progress claims. I was the person on the other end of the spreadsheet.

I now run Vital Accounts — a 10-person Australian Xero bookkeeping firm specialising in trades and construction. So I also see what’s breaking in your stack from the books side, every day. Implement One is where I build the software that fixes what I see breaking.

// The kind of work, not case studies

Three worked examples. Yours probably looks slightly different.

// Example A

Job profitability you can actually see

Goal

The owner wants to know which jobs are actually profitable, weekly, not at year-end.

Stack

AroFlo + Xero.

First answer

First answer: Dashed.It’s a Xero-powered dashboard product I also run — productised job profitability for trades, off-the-shelf. Most owners get what they need from it without a custom build. dashedsystems.com.

When custom makes sense

When your workflow has specifics Dashed doesn’t cover — non-Xero data sources, unusual job structures, integrations with your CRM or field tools — then I’d build something tailored to your stack.

Yours probably looks slightly different. The pattern is the same: understand what you actually need, then build the smallest thing that gets you there.

// Example B

Stop re-keying enquiries into ServiceM8

Goal

The office manager spends an hour a day turning email enquiries into ServiceM8 quotes.

Stack

Gmail (or Outlook) + ServiceM8.

Likely answer

An AI agent that reads inbound enquiries, drafts a ServiceM8 quote, and routes it to the office manager for review and send. The human still approves — the typing goes away.

Yours probably looks slightly different. The pattern is the same: understand what you actually need, then build the smallest thing that gets you there.

// Example C

Faster month-end without the WIP spreadsheet

Goal

The bookkeeper spends two days at month-end reconciling a WIP spreadsheet against simPRO and Xero.

Stack

simPRO + Xero + spreadsheet.

Likely answer

A small custom tool that reads simPRO, tracks WIP positions properly, and exports cleanly to Xero. The spreadsheet retires.

Yours probably looks slightly different. The pattern is the same: understand what you actually need, then build the smallest thing that gets you there.

// Next step

If one of these sounds like your week, start with a discovery call.

Tell me what’s broken