The Challenge
A luxury showroom specializing in designer plumbing fixtures, premium lighting, and architectural hardware operates four locations across Austin, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City. They serve interior designers, architects, and affluent homeowners on high-value residential and commercial projects.
Their back-office systems weren't keeping pace with the business. The on-premise file server was aging and unreliable—QuickBooks kept crashing, disrupting operations across all locations. Payment collection was entirely manual: staff processed payments over the phone, tracked invoices in spreadsheets, and reconciled everything by hand.
For a business built on white-glove customer experience, the operational friction was becoming visible to the people who mattered most—their vendors and customers.
Our Approach
We started with infrastructure. Before solving the payment problem, we needed stable systems to build on.
After diagnosing the server performance issues, we provided recommendations to address the immediate reliability problems. Once the foundation was solid, we turned to the payment workflow.
The Solution
We built an integrated payment and visibility platform connecting their core systems:
Custom Payment Portal
- Branded payment webpage for customers and vendors
- Dual payment processing: QuickBooks Online Payments for standard transactions, Stax for merchant services
- Secure, self-service payment collection—no more phone calls or manual entry
QuickBase Integration
- Connected QuickBooks financials to QuickBase (their operational hub)
- Built automated pipelines triggered by QuickBooks events
- Created real-time reporting dashboards replacing manual Excel audits
Operational Visibility
- Payment status tracking across all locations
- Automated reconciliation between payment processors and QuickBooks
- Exception reporting for outstanding invoices and failed payments
The Results
The transformation was less about hours saved and more about experience improved.
For Customers and Vendors:
- Self-service payments anytime, from anywhere
- Immediate confirmation and receipts
- No more calling the office or mailing checks
For Operations:
- Real-time visibility into cash flow across all locations
- Automated reporting replaced manual Excel reconciliation
- QuickBooks stability restored with infrastructure improvements
For the Business:
- Smoother relationships with the vendors and trade partners they depend on
- Customer experience that matches their luxury brand positioning
- Operational efficiency as a byproduct of getting the fundamentals right
In a business where relationships matter more than margins, making payments effortless for everyone involved was the win that mattered most.