What a stone workshop needs beyond Excel
Slabs, offcuts, cutting sheets and deliveries: why generic invoicing tools fall short for fabricators, and what to track.
A stone workshop does not sell items from a shelf. Every job is cut to measure from slabs that are each unique in size, vein and finish. Generic invoicing software, and most spreadsheets, were not built for that.
The first gap is stock. Knowing you have ‘about twelve slabs of Carrara’ is not enough. You need each slab with its size, thickness, location and status, and you need to reserve the right slabs for a job so they are not cut for another one.
The second gap is offcuts. Every job leaves reusable pieces. If they are not recorded with their size, they end up forgotten in a corner while a new slab is cut for a small vanity top. Searching offcuts by size before cutting means fewer new slabs are opened for small pieces.
From the quote to the shop floor
The third gap is the link between the quote and the shop floor. A quote priced by area, edges and cut-outs should turn into a cutting sheet that tells the team which pieces to cut from which slab, then, once cut, the slabs used leave stock and the offcuts come back as new labelled pieces; the delivery note and the invoice follow from the same order.
QR labels hold it together. A label on each slab and offcut lets anyone in the yard scan it and see what it is and whether it is reserved.
This chain is what sahmrev Workshop does today, for stone and five other trades: aluminium and PVC joinery, wood joinery, glass, ironwork, and copper and brass. It includes everything in sahmrev Commerce and adds the workshop work.