Weidner Electrical, run by Tristan and Heidi Weidner, is a family-owned electrical contracting business based in Cornwall. Since 2007, they’ve been delivering a wide range of services, from new builds and rewires to reactive maintenance for domestic and commercial customers. But like many growing businesses, managing their increasing workload and staying organised became a challenge—until they discovered Fergus.
With a small but dedicated team, Weidner Electrical was managing multiple ongoing jobs while covering most of Cornwall and beyond. Reactive maintenance, in particular, created a constant demand for accurate record-keeping. "We do a lot of reactive maintenance," Tristan explains. "There's just a lot of regular customers calling up and going, ‘Can you come out and fix this?’"
Initially, Tristan relied on a mix of calendars, Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets to track hours, materials, and invoices. “A lot of it was just up in my head,” he admits. "I’d use Excel for quotes, track hours on my calendar, and make Word documents for invoices. It was really hard to track—job numbers didn’t even exist!"
The time-consuming nature of their system often led to inefficiencies, particularly when dealing with VAT returns. “When VAT return time came around, we’d be up till midnight for several nights, trying to get all the invoices on,” says Tristan.
Initially, Weidner Electrical explored job management through Xero but found it lacking. Then they tried Tradify, which worked well for a time. “When we started using Tradify, it was good for what we needed,” says Tristan. “But when we discovered Fergus, we realised its limitations. For a growing business, Fergus was a much better fit for us.”
From the moment they switched to Fergus, Tristan and Heidi noticed the difference. The system’s ability to organise jobs and handle the complexity of their work was a game-changer. “It’s just really easy to allocate to different jobs and even different phases of the same job,” says Tristan.
One standout feature for Weidner Electrical was the PDF reader. “It cuts down on so much work,” Tristan explains. “We used to struggle to get CSV files from suppliers, but Fergus’s PDF reader eliminates the need. It reads all the line items, making it easy to see exactly what’s been allowed for on the invoice. That transparency is brilliant.”
This has led to more accurate invoicing and faster turnarounds. “Previously, we’d dread having to put all the invoices on. Now, we can set aside an hour and get it done. VAT returns that used to take three weeks now take just a couple of days.”
Fergus also proved invaluable for materials tracking, particularly for their reactive maintenance jobs. “It’s great to be able to charge only for what we’ve used,” says Tristan. “We can see every single line item and adjust before sending the bill, making our invoices much more accurate.”
The personal support from Fergus has also made a difference. “The support is really good,” says Tristan. “It’s nice to speak to a person and get help. Tom’s an absolute star.”
With Fergus, Weidner Electrical has moved from a chaotic, manual system to an organised, professional operation. The team now saves time, invoices faster, and stays more up to date. As Tristan puts it: “Fergus has made such a big difference—it’s saved us so much time and stress.”
For Weidner Electrical, Fergus isn’t just a job management system; it’s the backbone of their growing business.