No more end-of-project surprises: How Carus gained control of margins
Business name: Carus
Location: New Zealand
"One of the main benefits is that we can keep track of the job - actual versus budget - in real time. Before, we could only really see the profitability once the project was finished."
300+ projects
Currently active across
New Zealand
100% visibility
Across labour, materials and equipment on every job
10 regional teams
Operating across North and South Island regions
About Carus
Integrations: Xero
The challenge
Before Nexvia, Carus managed job costing through spreadsheets alongside Xero. For every project, costs and budgets had to be manually typed in, combined and tracked – and with hundreds of projects running in a single month, that process had become overwhelming.
The deeper problem was what the spreadsheets couldn’t show. There was no way to see how a job was performing while it was still underway.
"Before, we could only see what the profitability was once the project was finished. By then, if there was a problem, it was too late."
By the time the numbers came together, there was nothing left to do about them.
What changed with Nexvia
When Carus moved to Nexvia, the shift was more than operational – it was a change in when decisions could be made. Actual costs running against budget became visible in real time, while projects were still live and there was still room to act.
Carus’ Management Accountant, Wendy Zhao, now works inside Nexvia every day. Each week the finance team runs a WIP report and sends it to every project manager in the business. The report shows exactly how each job is tracking – what has been billed, what costs have hit and whether spend is inside or outside budget. Jobs that are drifting get flagged before they become a write-off.
"We run a work-in-progress report every week and send it to the project managers so they can see a summary of how their jobs are tracking. If there's an issue, they can let us know - whether there's a budget change coming or whether the job will perform differently than expected. We can know in advance instead of at the end."
When a project flags as overrun, Wendy can drill straight into it – breaking down labour, materials and equipment costs to find where the blowout is happening. That means the conversation with the project manager is specific, not just a warning that something looks wrong.
Purchase orders have been equally important to the workflow. Project managers now raise a PO at the start of every job. That single step gives the finance team advance visibility of committed costs – so a bill arriving at month end is never a surprise, even if the invoice hasn’t landed yet. It also solves a chronic time drain: because every bill is matched back to a PO number, costs get allocated to the right project first time, without the finance team having to chase down vague references on invoices.
Bills are approved by project managers directly in Nexvia, then exported to Xero in a bulk run at month end – keeping project financials and accounting records in step without double handling.
The outcome
For a business running 300-plus active projects across the length of New Zealand, the ability to see all of it in one place has changed how the work gets done.
The weekly WIP report has become the operational heartbeat of the finance team. It replaces what used to be a slow, fragmented process of pulling data from multiple sources and combining it manually. Now it is a single export, shared across the business in minutes.
"Now we can see how the job is going in the middle of the project and fix the issue if there is a problem - which is quite helpful instead of finding out a couple of months later when we do a project review and it is too late."
The purchase order process has also sharpened how project managers plan. Rather than making ad hoc cost decisions mid-job, they now commit costs upfront – which has changed behaviour as much as it has changed reporting.
Nexvia has also given the management team a strategic view that spreadsheets never could. By looking across historical project data, Carus can now compare profitability by region, by project type, by client and by estimator. If one region consistently shows tighter margins, the team can investigate whether it is a pricing issue, a cost structure issue or something specific to that geography – and adjust before the next job starts.
“We can run all the past projects and see what the average profitability is - why a project overran, why another performed really well. We can categorise them and see what's the best way to price a job. We can compare who ran the project, the type of client, whether it's a long-term contract. We do comparisons between regions as well - we can see why profitability in one region is lower, whether the costs in that area are higher than others. So when an estimator is pricing a job in that area, they can price it differently."
The visibility extends beyond the finance team. Project managers can pull up every job ever done for a specific client – history, costs, performance – without jumping between folders or chasing anyone for information.
When software questions do come up, having a local support team has helped. The team can raise a ticket or pick up the phone and get a response quickly.
Even the onboarding of new team members has become simpler. Wendy can walk a new project manager through the system in 15 minutes. The interface is straightforward enough that the team keeps discovering capabilities they haven’t yet fully used – the system has grown with the business rather than being outgrown by it.
Why it matters
For Carus, Nexvia isn’t a reporting tool. It’s the difference between finding out too late and knowing in time to act.
Hundreds of projects, a business that spans the country and no room for end-of-project surprises. The old way – spreadsheets, manual matching, post-project reviews – could not keep pace.
Now the team doesn’t find out how a job performed when it ends. They know how it is performing while they can still do something about it.
Highlights
Replaced spreadsheet-based job costing with a single platform providing real-time visibility of actual vs budget across 300+ live projects.
Enabled finance and project teams to identify cost overruns mid-project, not months after completion.
Eliminated manual data entry and reconciliation by linking project financials directly with Xero.
Improved cost control by allowing teams to drill into labour, materials and equipment to pinpoint margin issues early.
Enabled smarter estimating by analysing historical project performance across regions, clients and job types.
Gave project managers instant access to full job history, removing reliance on finance for reporting and insights.
get started
Contact us now for more information about our software and to arrange a free demo.
