"Without Nexvia, we'd be flying blind, running on gut feel." How Dimension Shopfitters got real-time cost control.
Business name: Dimension Shopfitters
Location: New Zealand
"If you don't know what your costs are, you don't know what you're talking about. An accurate and timely cost management tool is particularly important in shopfitting - because shopfitting is chaotic at the best of times."
65+ staff
Working across
New Zealand
150-250 jobs
Being managed by the team each year
3 divisions
Joinery factory, site and project management team
About Dimension Shopfitters
Established: 2004
The challenge
Before Nexvia, Dimension was running on a different project management system. The data was all there – locked inside a grid of columns and Boolean logic that almost no one in the business could decipher. Getting anything meaningful out meant spreadsheets and pivot tables. In shopfitting, there’s simply no time for that.
"Lead times are non-existent. You're late before you start and it's always your fault regardless of the circumstances, so you need to be able to react very quickly."
The core problem was access to cost data. Project managers, estimators and QSs couldn’t easily see where a job stood without going through Michael first.
"We didn't know what things cost. It was too hard to use to get good data out quickly and efficiently...The numbers were all there, but what did they mean? You had to do so much work to figure anything out that it was pointless."
Finding a replacement wasn’t straightforward. The business runs two distinct operations – a joinery factory and a site-based shopfitting team – and almost nothing on the market could handle both. Factory software could manage cabinetry and CNC programming, but fell apart the moment site trades needed to be coordinated. Site-based systems couldn’t cope with a production floor.
"There was nothing that coped with shopfitting and having a large joinery factory. They either managed a factory but couldn't cope with site work, or vice versa - or they were just as horrible to look at as what we were trying to leave behind."
Why Nexvia
Dimension needed a system that could span the full operation – estimating, project management, purchase orders, factory production and accounts – but was easy enough for the whole team to use.
The obvious names in construction software didn’t fit. Procore looked good on the surface, but couldn’t cope with a large joinery factory alongside site-based shopfitting work.
"Everyone looks at Procore and all that sort of stuff, but because we have a large factory - 19-odd production guys, a logistics department, a warehouse - something like Procore just can't handle that. And then you throw shopfitting into the mix, where nothing is linear and there's no production management plan. The guys just make it happen - I call it spinning plates."
They looked at four or five alternatives. The pattern was consistent – every system forced a trade-off. It could handle the factory, or it could handle site work, but not both. The few that could were just as difficult to use as what they were trying to replace.
"There was always that missing piece… but after a demo and proper evaluation, Nexvia came out on top. It was the only system that could handle both sides of the business in one place."
Nexvia gave Dimension a single platform that actually matched how their operation runs – without adding complexity, duplication, workarounds or gaps.
What changed with Nexvia
The shift was immediate. Where getting to cost data previously meant spreadsheets and chasing people, the team can now see where every project stands at a glance. Purchase orders flow through the system, bills match against them and job costs are visible in real time.
In shopfitting, clients negotiate constantly – on price, on scope, on timing. Michael is often the person those conversations come back to, and walking into them without knowing your numbers is a significant liability.
"A lot of what I do is people asking: 'Hey Mike, how did we go on this? Where can we look to make some savings for the client?' You have to have those figures right in front of you, and it's not just about what things cost, it's about where the costs are. You've got to have that whole integrated package. It's invaluable."
Estimators, project managers, QSs and the accounts team all work in Nexvia every day. Michael trains new starters himself – he runs through it once, maybe twice, and they get it.
"The ease of use means people use the system properly. They're more likely to raise a purchase order rather than just buying materials or engaging a contractor directly. You're more likely to do things properly if the system is easy and nice to use."
Michael also uses Nexvia to keep variations moving – checking they’ve been raised, that clients have signed them off, and that the accounts team knows what can and can’t yet be invoiced.
"I keep an eye on variations - making sure they're being raised and that clients are signing them off. There's no point raising a variation if nothing happens with it. I can talk to our accounts team and say we can't invoice this yet because it hasn't been finalised. I can almost translate between departments so the expectations of each are met."
The same visibility carries through to financial controls. With multiple people approving costs across the same project, duplicate invoices can slip through – a supplier sends the same bill twice and two people sign off without realising.
"It's also very easy in any system to have parallel approvals where someone inadvertently pays a duplicate invoice. We have two people with authority over a project, and occasionally a supplier sends a duplicate bill. If both people sign off without talking to each other, we'd end up paying twice. That's the sort of thing I might catch every now and again. It's not a detailed line-by-line audit - in Nexvia it's all there and really easy to see."
The impact starts before a project even begins. Estimation and project delivery now happen inside the same system – and the handover between the two has sped up considerably. The business also worked with Nexvia to integrate an OCR document management system for accounts payable, automating invoice processing through a third-party tool. Accounts payable went from three people to one.
"We've found smarter ways of working. The handover from estimation through to project delivery has sped up massively."
Why it matters
Shopfitting doesn’t give you the luxury of finding out how a job went after it’s finished. Margins are thin, clients negotiate hard and the pace is relentless. Operating without real-time cost visibility isn’t a minor inconvenience, it’s a fundamental risk.
"Sometimes it feels like a hunch, but operating a business this size on a hunch is never a good idea. We want to know as much as possible."
For Dimension, Nexvia is the system that made cost visibility accessible to everyone – giving them control across every project, department and the factory floor.
"I'd recommend it to pretty much any contracting business - anyone who wants to understand and control their costs, and benefit from something that's easy to use with a short learning curve."
Ask Michael where they would be without it and he doesn’t hesitate:
“Without Nexvia, we'd be back to spreadsheets, flying blind, running with gut feel. You'd know where you were once a year, how much money's left in the bank at year end. It'd be a hair-raising ride and no one would have a pleasant journey - it's just painful. I'd probably shed a tear.”
Highlights
Replaced spreadsheet-heavy reporting with a single platform delivering real-time cost visibility across factory and site operations.
Gives project managers, estimators and accounts instant access to live job costs – removing bottlenecks and reliance on one person for insights.
Connects estimating, delivery, purchase orders and invoicing so every cost is tracked and validated before it impacts margins.
Processes 150–250 projects a year with clear visibility into variations, approvals and financial position at every stage.
Streamlined accounts payable with OCR automation, reducing team size from three to one while improving control and accuracy.
Eliminated “gut feel” decision-making by putting accurate, real-time cost data in front of teams – enabling faster, more confident calls on job viability.
get started
Contact us now for more information about our software and to arrange a free demo.
